We wrote poetry yesterday using Blake and others as models. During the course of class, we enjoyed another teacher’s recitation of If by Rudyard Kipling. This poem was published in 1895 and the message still holds true today. It is a powerful message. My students discussed his performance in relation to their own coming this day. Although we have watched many examples on-line, it was wonderful to have a live example.

I hope that several of them will have the confidence to compete in our school wide competition and maybe I’ll be taking a freshman along to the state competition. In the meantime, we continue to write our lives.

Some Blake-esque poetry:

Dear Dragon, do you know emotion? Have you felt regret for any acts of arson?   Dragon do you think of all the people lost from your need of blood lust, or the homeless in the frost? Dragon could you imagine never doing these wrong things? If so, I might decide not to have you slain.

Shark! Shark! moving quickly. It has big ‘ol teeth that are prickly. It has fearful eyes that strike soul, they make your body feel cold. It doesn’t matter if you can’t shed a tear, a shark can just smell fear. It’ll rip you into pieces with no mercy. You’re in its home, which is the sea. And what method, way, can you make just to stay okay? And why should you fear a shark? Because, they’re all bite and no bark!

This one was to pick a color and use it five times in a poem: Gold is oh-so-tempting, to take without a thought, golden coins and claws encourage things to be bought. With all the gold a hero could want, but no shining companion, to share in golden want. So all of it is empty.

Where do we go from poetry? To Romeo and Juliet of course.