Vulnerability for 500
The conversation is poetry. While some students in class are giggling with excitement, I am internally rolling my eyes at the thought. Don't get me wrong- I was a beatnik in high school; I had my fair share of diaries and journals, but they all sit collecting dust somewhere amongst a cabinet full of memorabilia junk at my mom's house. The truth is that poetry and I were toxic lovers. When I was at my most vulnerable, the paper would call to me, begging me to be the canvas upon which I laid out the worst of the worst. At the time I would call it poetry, but now all I call it is *sighs* cringe. And, I am sorry to the true tortured poets reading this, drag me to death! Call me uneducated and cold, I know, I know. But my willful days of writing poetry are over....That is, so I thought.
When Professor Overman warned us that we would be sharing our poems in front of everyone, I could not believe it. Writing poetry is one thing, but reading it out loud in front of people who I barely know..different story. Plus we had just turned in a 5 page essay deciphering a poem of our choice. When will this unit end? There are several differences to writing about poetry versus writing a poem. For starters, writing poetry has less restriction than a formal essay. Poetry is a journey in which we as individuals make the rules, should we choose to follow any. We have agency and freedom in writing poetry. Writing about poetry requires some sort of cohesive structure in which we defend an argument. Stray away from the prompt and you stray away from an A (hey, that rhymes). But there are also similarities amongst the two. Both pieces of work require mental dedication and careful thought. Even the most quick and emotion-driven poems have some sort of revision or consideration. We as poets are cautious with our words. Plus, in both circumstances, we are being judged and critiqued, exposing our abilities to write well. There is always the fear of "how will this be graded?" "what will they think?" "will they like my poem?". It's an ever jarring experience because regardless of the journeys we embark on, writing is so personal.
Writing about poetry informed my own writing because it made me consider what I look for or value in poetry; I had to think about my own connections with poetry, and the best ways to convey that within my poetry essay. From this experience of reading poetry aloud, I learned that it takes a lot of bravery to share poetry to others, especially if there is not an already established sense of community or solidarity amongst the students. Students need to be able to trust their teacher and have the reassurance from their peers to be able to share their poems. While I do think this was an interesting activity, I wonder how I would implement something like this into my own teaching practices. I’m not sure that I would have every single student share their poems, at least without building and creating that sense of community. But, what is college if not a thrust into the wind of courage. Allegedly.
Adela,
ReplyDeleteI totally understand everything you were going through with this unit. Although, I never wrote poetry in high school, so, I can't understand that part.
Before this class, I really only knew of the poetry by Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein. That other stuff that's all deep and with all that hidden meaning has always seemed, to me, like doing a crossword puzzle or Sudoku. If those two activities are fun to you, then, that's not what I meant to convey. I hate both of those activities. Might as well paint my house or change the oil in my car, both of which I'd be equally as excited about to do.
But like you said, I liked the freedom of writing our poems. I also like, as I wrote in my own blog post, the guard rails that were put up to keep us focused. And, like you, I initially felt I would not want to have students write and read their poetry aloud in class. However, after we did it and after seeing that Edutopia video on how performance poetry really engaged those high school kids, similar to how it engaged our own class, I've had second thoughts, as I think it could really engage students and get them excited about writing and even performing in front of a class. Those are pretty terrific skills one could pass on, if we can do it.
-Michael
Hey Adela! I loved that you were so open and honest about hating poetry and that you describe it as your toxic lover. I think poetry truly is one of those things that you are either born to create or forced to read and work on in school. I think that is what makes it so beautiful because anyone can write poetry but not everyone can be a poet. I do have to say though you are a poetic writer in the way you describe your feelings about poetry.
ReplyDeleteYou went on to describe how writing poetry has effected the way you view poetry and mentioned how you stopped to consider value. I think this is an interesting perspective because it is true, every reader weighs the value of poetry different. Some love a long and dramatic poem that is performed like a show and others find the best poems to be short and concise in their structure. It is an art form so this does not surprise me, we all have different ideas of what poetry should be and that it why the poet must write from themselves rather than their audience. I think in turn like you mentioned that we will write about poetry and consider what was strong or weak; we may consider what was profound or plain but we will always know that it is just our perspective. When our poetry is under the lights and being picked apart we will always have a defense for it. This is what I think is so wonderful. I think this is also where we find true courage like you mentioned!
Yours truly,
Hailey Pack