The Power of Poetry: It’s in You

August 3, 2012 by agnestirrito 4 Comments

School will be starting soon, and while I can get a little overwhelmed thinking about all there is to do to get ready for a new school year, I know there will be poetry from the very first day, and somehow that calms me.

My students will read and write poetry all year long. We’ll try out the tried and true forms like acrostic and haiku–searching for the right descriptive word and syllable counts. We’ll laugh as we rhyme words and discover it is harder than it looks. We’ll write free verse. A lot of it. So many imaginations at work, spilling words onto the page. The best part will be when we think of poems we’ve read (or written ourselves) that connect to something we are reading or learning. That will happen over and over. Something else will happen, too. My students will enter a world of words that have the power to shape meaning in a new way. A musical way. A specific way. They will be the better for it. We all will.

I wonder sometimes how I fell in love with poetry, why I have such a passion for it. Was it my mom’s constant reading and reciting of nursery rhymes? Was it the rhythm of the songs Daddy played on the organ every night? Was it my aunt who typed little rhymes to go with every single birthday gift? Maybe it was my second grade teacher, Mrs. Day. I can still hear her reciting The Wise Old Owl, and I think of her as I teach it to my own students. Maybe Mrs. Taliaferro contributed with the Back to School Blues poem she had written on the chalkboard when we returned to school one steamy August day.

I wish I knew who to thank because somehow, someone planted a seed of hope in me when they gave me the gift of appreciation for words. Poetry has power in it, and as a teacher I have to tell you, the power is in anyone who wants it. There is not just one way to teach it, not some secret strategy that is required for success. Just dig in and read. Find poets that you like, rhythms and styles that appeal to you. Share that, and when you share what you like with your students, your honesty will shine through.

Students will learn that they can find words that they like, and before you know it, you’ll have a classroom of kids clamoring for the newest book of poetry you bring in. They will bring you poems to read. Good ones. They will call out “Simile!” and “Onomatopeia!” as you read a novel aloud. You’ll smile. They are learning that strong prose writers use poetic elements. And in that moment when they hold open a book, presenting it to you like the gift it is, you’ll see what I mean. In the moment when they check out a book just like yours, or open to a page to show you a poem they like, you’ll realize that the power of poetry is in you. It is in them, too, just waiting to be known.