In Melissa’s demo today, we reflected on our experiences with poetry. I hated poetry in school, mostly because I felt like I didn’t “get” it. There weren’t clear right answers, and it often seemed like analysis of poems was just the teacher or students BS-ing about how it made them feel.
My best teachers of poetry weren’t teachers I had in school. They were friends who shared poems they loved with me. They loved the poems in front of me. (Mister Rogers says teachers are “people who have passion for their art or their science or their craft and love it right in front of us”)
As we were choosing a poem to share for the gallery crawl, I noticed how intently everyone was working. I wanted my poem to be a good representation of what I cared about and found beautiful. I decided to pull together a quick video- a title, a picture from one of my hikes, and my reading of the poem. 10 minutes was not enough time to do it justice, but did give me a sense of having completed something that I could share. I was impressed by the variety of poems people chose- songs, haiku, funny, penetrating.
In For Good 
You got so much further with your poem than I did. I wanted to do sort of the same thing–a picture of Magritte’s “The Human Condition” with a reading of Nemerov’s poem by the same name, which was written about the painting. However, that fear of the “right answer” came clomping back into my head and I got afraid I wouldn’t get it done in time, I wouldn’t read it correctly, etc. etc. etc. It is in my golden years that I have come to appreciate poetry and I think school is probably why it took so long.
I really loved the way you paired your poem with the image. It was short, simple, and very powerful. At least yours isn’t in an echoey stairwell in the nearly forbidden space above the 4th floor… 😉
I am with you as far as poetry being difficult, because I thought of it as being a right and wrong. I truly started to enjoy poetry from 9th grade and up. In ninth grade, I was able to study a poet and read one of her poems to the class. I decided to read Nikki Giovanni’s poem about “Beautiful Black Men.” No there is no discrimination to the men that I will date (race is not a factor). However, I loved the language and style of this particular piece.
As a teacher, I enjoy reviewing poetry with my class. It opens up for multiple meanings and discussions. We truly take advantage of this in the class.