"I tried.
Can't do it.
Brain is empty."
-- Love That Dog by Sharon CreechWhen I first began to write poetry , I was not sure where to begin. There were so many ideas swarming in my head, yet none of these ideas I felt like could be put together thoughtfully. I asked myself, how do poets make writing poetry look so easy? Where do they get their ideas from? How do they know when to break the lines and create emphasis on certain words? Can just anyone be a poet?
Yes. We are all poets, especially children. More importantly, we all have the ability to write meaningfully from our experiences and to provoke others to think deeply for themselves. However, what hinders us from thinking otherwise depends on how poetry is introduced to us from the beginning. For most of us, including myself, I was introduced to poetry with 'pittbull' poems in high school (Jason Reynolds 2017). Poems that fill the entire page and decorated with words that are difficult to pronounce. But that all changed when I took RE 5130 Teaching the Language Arts with Dr. Beth Frye. In this course, I rediscovered poetry through "puppies in the window" poems and the simple message that poetry carries with it: we are all poets.
As part of my journey in rediscovering the richness of poetry, I decided to practice writing poetry everyday. I wrote down my observations of things in nature or everyday household items. I read mentor poem after mentor poem --- and learned different techniques and tools that I can add to my poet's toolbox. I even experiment with other poets' poems and techniques by borrowing some of their language until I finally discovered my own style for writing poetry.
"Poet's are like scientists" -- Dr. Beth Frye
Looking back on everything now, I feel like I have grown so much as a writer and a teacher. I have learned the significance of what it means to be a teacher of writing, and why it is important to "write with your students." When we write with our students, it allows students to begin to see themselves and their teacher as being part of the same writer's community. This simple act of writing together can be key especially when nurturing student's writing experiences, as well as helping them to see that anyone can be a writer, or in this case a poet.
References
Creech, S. (2001). Love that dog. New York: NY. HarperCollins.
Reynolds, J. (2017). How poetry can help kids turn a fear of literature into love. YouTube.