An email subscription led me to a podcast called Everything is Alive, where inanimate objects are interviewed. (Full disclosure, I only listened to a few minutes of one podcast–but did read the transcript linked above.) But, this idea of the personality and alive-ness of inanimate objects got me thinking about inspiration for writing. And, in the serendipity sort of way I often experience when thinking and writing and lesson planning, I came across an old favorite poem I have used with students called Pencils by Barbara Esbensen. (You can read Esbensen’s poem linked above.)
I have this idea that students will pick an object that matters to them and create their own inanimate object poetry inspired by Pencils. Should I have them write about pencils? No…let them choose something that matters to each of them. What would I pick? My camera, of course. So, here’s my try:
Cameras
The rooms in a camera
are a tight fit
but forests seascapes classrooms
crowd right in
In a camera
nature’s colors riot, drawing your eye
and dim light shifts the world
to black and white
From a photographer (experienced or not)
an unexplained photo may emerge
framed by the untold story
living in the stillness, frozen in time
Every image in your camera
is ready to
dance on rays of light
ready
to focus and expose
ready to come right out
and save that moment
so that you can explore
and experience it again and again
®Douillard
Will my third graders be able to animate their inanimate objects? I think so…and I also think that the objects will connect them to places they love and spend time at…so #writeout it is! I’ll share the results later in the week!
Here are some of my favorite places that crowd right into the rooms in my camera!
Thinking Through My Lens 