Back in the classroom today it was time to play around a bit with poetry.  I asked my students for three words…and then read them some poems that featured three words from the book I am Writing a Poem About… by Myra Cohn Livingstone.  All of the poems in the section included the words blanket, ring, and drum.  They were unique in content and style and all used the words in completely different ways.

With those poems as inspiration, we took the three words I collected: candy, cat, and park and worked on our own poems.  The first attempt felt more like stories about cats and the park and candy…even my own was focused on a cat.

Royal Cat

She slinks, graceful

a cat with a calico coat

as shiny as hard candy

Parking herself on the

windowsill

in a pool of light

she oversees her kingdom

©Douillard

After our first try, we took some time to brainstorm ideas about candy and cat and park, thinking about ways to incorporate imagery using the words.  Then the challenge was on…write a poem using the three words that is NOT about cats or candy or parks.  This was much more difficult!  My second attempt was about recess.

Recess

The bell rings

and they rush out

like candy raining from

a busted piñata

a herd of cats

running this way and that

each following an invisible path

playful

fierce

full of energy.

Exhausted,

I park myself on the step and watch.

©Douillard

Wyatt (who had seen a bear over his spring break) tried his hand at a guessing poem…about what else?  A bear.

I sometimes eat things as sweet as candy

but I can be bitter and scary.

People leave treasures in the car,

I take that as an opportunity

to leave the car scarred.

Cats are no match for me.

I live in a place something like a park,

vast,

and you see the same things

over and over again.

I can see that we all need to play around more with the idea of layers of meaning…I think that will be tomorrow’s lesson.