I recently completed teaching a series of seven sessions in a poetry workshop for incarcerated teens and on the last day they spent nearly an hour writing the following group poem. Though I posted it in my blog post on Wednesday when I talked about the session, I wanted to post it again today as it really touched my heart.
Poetry
has a beautiful life to it.
You sound like happiness, sadness, love
taste like fresh strawberries and feel like soft skin, sandpaper, a brick wall.
Poetry is all the colors of the rainbow
and smells like freedom, incarceration, a sexy girl.
Oh poetry, you drive me crazy.
You make me want to scream, to feel, to heal.
You look like sunshine and moonlight in the city.
Poetry is feelings on paper.
The round-up today is at Adventures in Daily Living.
WHAT A GOOD MINISTRY!
Thanks, Meg.
Oh YAY!
I love that poem.
YAY!
I missed it the first time. Thank you for posting it again.
You’re welcome, Carrie.
This just slays me, Susan. Because it really is all that. Isn’t it?
I agree. It really captures it all. It’s going to be the centerpiece of the display I’m doing of their work for the museum.
Oh, poetry you drive me crazy! All the good stuff does. Thanks for sharing everything, including this poem, with us.
Thanks for reading along, and for supporting the project.
That was wonderful….really great. I think it’s great that you did that with them. My daughter loves poetry….but her reading comprehension is not the best…I’m trying to come up with a poet that would suit her age for next year’s reading list (for English course- we homeschool) that will not overwhelm her but really introduce her to a better quality of poetry than say Shel Silverstein…. I’m thinking my buddies Robert Frost and Emily Dickenson isn’t quite the thing just yet….
I just wondered if you would have any thoughts…
Thank you. How old is your daughter? What reading level would you say she’s at? If you give me some parameters I’d be happpy to offer some suggestions.
Well she is 13 (14 in April) and will be in 9th grade next year which is what I am planning for. I would say her reading level is approximate 7th grade level…possibly higher now… she is just now showing an interest in reading more difficult books…her latest trends have been the princess diary books, James Pattersons YA (maximum ride) so I think it is improving…and she has such an interest in poetry…I just am afraid of what to pick because I don’t want it to be more complex than what she can understand and then cause her to lose her interest…you know what I mean?
Yes! I work with teens at a local non-profit. Some members of my group are residents in our shelter. I relate to your work and your writers’ words. Thanks for posting this.
Susan
Thanks for reading along. Good luck with your own hard work.
All I can say is WOW!
You taught them well. What a wonderful poem!
Kelly Polark
Thank you.
You are an Angel
What a beautiful gift you have given these teens, and from the poem it is wonderfully obvious how much the kids absorbed, healed, loved.
The poem is a fantastic tribute to their feelings and your generosity.
Re: You are an Angel
Thanks so much. It was quite a struggle to get them to do any work at all but I couldn’t have been happier with how it all came together in the end.