Creativity and Joy

I received a lovely package in the mail a few days ago. Meri, of Meri's Musings, has written a beautiful book of poetry. The photo which graces the cover is also hers, with a poem by the same name within. Visit Meri's website and learn more about this writer and photographer.

Writing poetry is not an area I am particulary good at. I write narrative fiction and non-fiction, but the art of poetry has always escaped me. So I admire a creative spirit who can make few words say so much.

One of the poems in the book, "Lesson Learned," is a poem which I identify with very much...speaking of the process of finding yourself, letting go of one way of thinking and embracing a more growth-minded attitude. At least that is my interpretation; poetry is so personal, two different people can achieve an entirely different perspective from the same passage.

I used to love teaching this writing form when I taught middle school students. This age group is all about emotion and drama and speaking what's on their minds - and they seemed to embrace poetry as a means of personal expression and interpretation. The poetry slams we conducted were fabulous - table cloths, candles and all:)!

http://www.poetryguy.com/teachers.php

Thank you, Meri - I love your book and the memories it evokes!

Comments

Relyn Lawson said…

My favorite thing to teach is poetry. I could go on and on and on. One of my goals as a second grade teacher is to teach my students to love poetry. Consequently, I do several things to create this love in them. One of them is a poem of the week. Each day we read together our new poem of the week. It is totally optional, but each student who memorizes it by Friday gets a prize. The students who have memorized every one all year long become a poetry master and get taken out for ice cream and to the park after school. BIG FUN!!

July 15, 2012 at 10:57 PM

joyce said…

I think you have to be in the right mode to write poetry, but it's lovely when it comes out so expressive isn't it?

July 31, 2012 at 11:49 PM

Sandy K. said…

I love to write, but find poetry to be the most difficult for me to get "right." I can not quite get the words to fit the form. But I love to teach it:).

August 4, 2012 at 9:02 PM

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