Poetry (Blog #11)

Hi everyone,

As you know by now, I love poetry. However, not all of my students feel the same. Somewhere along the arc of your education poetry became a necessary evil to you. (Some may not even think it necessary). But poetry is really a study of the English language, using words to express your inner thoughts and feelings. The best poetry takes an ordinary object or situation and looks at it in a new light.

This week I would like you to explore online and find a poem that speaks to you (school appropriate please). Then copy it and post it here on this blog. In the next week, come back and comment on another's choice of poetry.

I will go first - My favorite poem of all time is "Enough Music" by Dorianne Laux because of the nature of family and travel. We have all been in the car on those long car rides, and have most likely felt what she expresses in these lines:

Enough Music

Sometimes when we’re on a long drive,
And we’ve talked enough and listened
To enough music and stopped twice,
Once to eat, once to see the view
We fall into this rhythm of silence.
It swings back and forth between us
like a rope over a lake.

Titles.... (Blog #10)

While some may consider a title to be like a cereal box label in that it explains what's inside, there are other motivations for including one.

It isn't unusual for a poet to leave their work untitled, but even the word, "untitled", becomes a title in itself. A poem needs a reference for publication, and in the event that a poet chooses to leave their work untitled, the first line is often used.

Why Title a Poem?
The cereal box metaphor aside, there are, without a doubt, more choices for titles than there are individual poems and collections. Some may argue that a title limits the poem, as it may become a barrier to "entering" it. Others may argue that a title expands the poem's scope or offers clues to unraveling its meaning. Still others will claim that there needs to be a way to distinguish one poem from another. I feel that the title is the first thing a reader sees when coming to a poem, and therefore sets the mood or gives important information to the reader.

The following poem by Miller Williams is one of my favorites. I've left the title off and I am tasking you with coming up with a new title for the poem. Next week, I will reveal the true title of the poem. Have fun and title away!




Some of what we do, we do
to make things happen,
the alarm to wake us up, the coffee to perc,
the car to start.

The rest of what we do, we do
trying to keep something from doing something,
the skin from aging, the hoe from rusting,
the truth from getting out.

With yes and no like the poles of a battery
powering our passage through the days,
we move, as we call it, forward,
wanting to be wanted,
wanting not to lose the rain forest,
wanting the water to boil,
wanting not to have cancer,
wanting to be home by dark,
wanting not to run out of gas,

as each of us wants the other
watching at the end,
as both want not to leave the other alone,
as wanting to love beyond this meat and bone,
we gaze across breakfast and pretend.