Sunday, October 18, 2009

So Far Away...6th Graders Deal with Emotional Distance

6th graders at Columbus Elementary School read poet Susan Stewart's "yellow ice and stars," about feeling really really far away from one another. I asked them to think of what it feels like to feel far away and to describe those feelings by talking directly to the person/idea so far away.

Death Is Near

You are as far as god and I

am as far as the world

on a planet with a house on it.

You are as far as a memory

in the sky and I’m as far as

my cousin’s death, as he rides

in the sea like a dead man.



You are as far as my sister’s

lies, I’m as far as my death is

near, and you are as far as

Navy Pier in an old place. I am

as far as gods in the sky.



You are as far as my love.

I am as far as my love in the

blue sky. You are as far as the

trees. I am as far as a river

of love.





You are So Far I Never Saw Your Face



You and I are as far as where

Jesus is. I am as far as the bottom of

the boat of the Titanic. You are so far I

never saw your face. I am as far

as the first day I saw you. I am so

far away that nobody is understanding you.

You are as far as the day I was born.



You are so far away that I don’t

even remember your name. I am so far that

I don’t even remember my brothers’ and sisters’

names. You are so far away into the first

War we ever had. I am so far where

I could see the universe. You are so far that

You don’t even know the place you are.

You and I are so far away, where only god

sees us.



Jessica A.

As Far As...

I am as far as a gem that is

cascading down eternity and you are as far as

a computer with its vast knowledge.

You are as far as the heavens that rain

smoldering, flipping boulders and I am

as far as the person on the bottom of the

pain where darkness is eternal.

I am as far as destruction and you are far as creation.



I am as far as a black hole at the nexus

of nothing and you are as far as the person

trapped in that hole. You are as far as the river

o life and I am as far as the person

who sings “oh how far I am from life!”

I am as far as destruction and you are

as far as creation.



You are as far as a boy playing in a field

and I am as far as the father calling

the boy from the mountains. I am as far as

the sky and you are as far as the

mountain piercing the sky.

I am as far as destruction and you are as

far as creation.



Alexander C.

Until We Turned To Dust...4th Graders' Takes on Origins

In 2003, at Columbus Elementary School in Chicago's Ukrainian Village neighborhood, I worked with 4th graders once a week. One week, we wrote poems about rewinding the universe and finding the origins of things around us. What was a baby before it was a baby? An egg. What was an egg before it was an egg? Dust. What was dust before it was dust? An idea. and so on...there were some really wild spiraling ideas in their poems...


Origins


The car turns into wood and wood turns into a tree and a tree

turns into a root and the root turns into water and the water

turns into a seed and a seed, how can all things come from a

seed?



The door knob turns into iron and the iron turns into a

railroad track being torn down or maybe being torn

up.



The milk turns into a cow and the cow turns into a cattle

and the cattle turns into a lost cloud.



A letter turns into a memory and a memory turns into a

big Glob of Nothing.



Gianna S.




And Where was I?



The world turned into an egg again and then

into a rock. I was in the rock.



The board would turn into a rock and I

was in a volcano.



The clock would turn into a stick again and I

was a rock.



Chicago was a small fort on land and I was

on a mountain.



The White House would turn into sand and

I was in a store.



The sky would turn into water and I was

a tadpole.



The land would turn into sand and I was

in a tree.



The boat would turn into sticks and I am inside a

clam.



The light would turn into dark and I was in the

shadows.



The ocean would turn into land and I was in

a pond.



Tomasz B.



God's Breath

The house turns into bricks.

The bricks turn into dust.

The dust turns into air.

The air turns into God’s breath.

God’s breath turns into us.



Becky N.


The Origin of Humans



The humans turn into monsters.

The monsters turn back into big piles of goo.

The big piles of goo turns back into a green sun.

The green sun turns back into Venus.

Venus turns back into the Earth.

The Earth turns into a bird.

The bird turns into an egg.

The egg turns back into a human.

Jonathan F.



The Words

The seas turn into bees

The bees turn to E’s

The E’s turn to nothing

Nothing turns to air

Air turns to Jesus

Jesus turns to God

God turns to Christ

Christ turns to spirits

Spirits turn to hope

and hope turns to love

Love turns to wife

Wife turns to husband

Husband turns to dust.

Alexandra P.



Origins

Your words turn out to be air

The great lakes become ponds

My heart turns into sadness

A person becomes death

The devil becomes an angel

The teacher becomes a student

The world becomes a map

The picture becomes a country

Power becomes a spirit

Love turns into sadness

Earth turns into a singing bird

The teapot turns to water

A family becomes love

Ice becomes a book

The tree becomes a desk

The gold turns into silver



Khrystyna K.




Rewinding the World



My pencil becomes a wooden stick.

All humans become clouds.

The water becomes the sea.

One hour goes back to one second.

The world becomes a huge forest.

All chalk becomes dust.. This is what

would happen if we rewind the world.



Xavier M.


The class will turn into glass.

The city will turn into sand.

A pupil will turn into your eye.

The train will turn into rain.

Your hand will turn into your skin.



Alyssa R.



The air turned into solid gold

The wind turned into a whistling

Pole. My hair turned into

slimy stones. Five socks

made of gold break my bones.

A bird walks over the sea

10 fish turned into flees

A hippo couldn’t have broken

my knees oh please oh please

don’t change back, oh please.



Jasmine H.

Cruising Away From the Madness -- 4th Graders' Poetic Escapes

In 2003 at Columbus Elementary School in Chicago's Ukrainian Village neighborhood, I was working with 4th graders. We read Naomi Shihab Nye's poem called The Rider -- about a boy who leaves his Loneliness panting on a street corner because he's riding so fast away from it on his roller skates. So I asked these guys to think about what they wanted to get away from and what mode of transport they'd use to get away -- how far would they go and what would whatever they escaped be doing if/when they were finally gone?



The Boy Left



I wanted to get away from war so I got in a

spaceship and flew over the world and

the war disappeared.



I wanted to get away from the world so I

borrowed a flying machine and I flew

all the way through the atmosphere and

the world followed me all through the

galaxy. And it caught me and smashed

me in a thousand pieces.



Tomasz B.


Anger



anger anger dries up like a solid

stone. broken up like fearful

tone. having pain and wonder

of the torturing cold. being an

angel of the goodest poem

i’m stone can’t break my bones.

so i hop on a flying poem

my body’s wondering where i’m goin’.

my soul is heading to the north pole..

who knows where i’m goin’?



Jasmine





I Wanted



A wise man told me he wanted to jump in

his red truck and go so fast just to get away

from fear. He said he would be going so fast

that fear would be left in the middle of the

earth panting. It didn’t sound so wise to me.



That night I thought about what he said and

thought about my fear. I thought of what the

old wise man said and it kind of made sense.

So I hopped into my red roller skates and

went so fast that I went half way across

the world and I did it. I left my fear

swimming across the Pacific Ocean.



Gianna S.

Trying to leave my soul behind,

I hop on a hot air balloon and took happiness.

Trying to get away from love,

I left my soul and she’s still trying to find me,

Looking all over the world.

She said, please Alyssa, find me oh please,

Banging her hands, having a fit for me.

I tried to get away from love but

Love still found me under a rock

So little you can’t see me.



Alyssa R.



I was really, really so sad that I hopped to my

Airplane and traveled all around the world. And my

Sadness was left on top of the ceiling.



I was really, really so angry that I hopped into

A motorcycle and I traveled to the moon and my

Anger was left in a garbage can.



I was really, really so shy that I hopped into an air

Balloon and flew to Mars and my shyness was

Left in the sink.



I was trying to get out from an enemy’s house.

I got on my bike and traveled to China and my

Enemy was left in a pile of garbage.



Anahi R.





I want to get away from loneliness.

I got on my boat and I went to Hawaii, leaving

loneliness swimming in the ocean.





Michael L.



I wanted to get away from an enemy.

I got in my limo and went around the world and my enemy was sitting on the front

stoop.



I wanted to get away from a bully

and went on an air balloon and went to

the Great Wall of China and the bully

was crying out loud.



I wanted to get away from sadness

and went on a helicopter and then

came back and my sadness was down

in the basement trying to get out.



Sandra M.


One day I was so bored so I got on

my roller blades and I rode 400,000 miles

and my boredness got tired and went away

from me forever.



I tried to prevent war but a nuclear bomb

blew the world up so I got on a train

and flew out to space and landed on

Mars.



Lyubomir S.




The Loneliness



I had a big anger to

I go on my motorcycle and

went all over the world.

Anger started spinning away from

me.



I had a big sadness so

I got on my jet plane

and sadness was burning

in the clouds.



I had a big cold so

I hopped on a bus that

went so fast, cold couldn’t

keep up and it got freezing in the

street.


Xavier M.

Friday, October 16, 2009

EKPHRASIS -- EKPHRASTATIC -- Poems & Paintings, Poets & Painters

responding to works of art through poetry:

 NOUN-VERB-NOUN – identify nouns, verbs, and nouns in 3 columns and begin to mix and match new imagery as a result of various combinations (first taught to me by Evan Plummer)

 GETTING TO THE ESSENCE – write 24 words in response to a work of art, then reduce it to 12, 6, 3 and finally 1 word as the essential “essence” of the work (first taught to me by Jenn Morea)

 3 WORDS ONLY – on small post it notes, respond by describing, analyzing, interpreting works, but only write 3 words per post it note – then arrange/rearrange post it notes into a poem

 JUST OUTSIDE THE FRAME… -- imagine what is “just outside the frame/image” – what do you see, hear, imagine, remember, dream, wonder about?

 JUST BEFORE/AFTER…what happened just before or just after the narrative in the art work?

 FIRST PERSON MONOLOGUES – pick a person or object in the work of art and speak from their perspective/voice

 WHAT YOU DON’T SEE IS…/WHAT YOU DON’T HEAR IS…/WHAT YOU DON’T REMEMBER IS…

 QUESTIONS TO…the object, person, landscape

 I AM…place yourself inside the work and become an object or landscape, etc. What do you see/experience/feel/remember?

 ___________IS___________________ -- pick an object/person/landscape and compare it to something else

 LETTER LIMITS – write about what you see/hear/think/feel only using words that begin with certain letters of the alphabet

 EPISTLE/ODE TO AN OBJECT/SUBJECT WITHIN THE WORK – directly address an object, person, etc. through a poem or ode praising that thing/person

 LIST POEMS
o TEN THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER ABOUT…
o TEN QUESTIONS FOR…
o TEN THINGS I HATE/LOVE ABOUT…
o TEN SOUNDS…
o TEN VERBS…

 IN THIS MOMENT… try to capture a single moment in the work of art – expand – and choose another moment – expand

 WHAT IF… what does this work of art make you wonder – start with a “what if” question about the object, person, etc. and keep asking

 HAIKU-or-LUNE-AS-REFLECTION – write a haiku (5-7-5 syllables, 3 lines) or lune (3-5-3 words peron line, 3 line poem) about what you see/experience

 FIVE TITLES AS A POEM – come up with at least 5 different titles for the work of art

 I KEEP DREAMING OF…-- imagine that this work of art is causing you to dream – what is happening in this dream?

EKPRHASTIC POETRY --http://valerie6.myweb.uga.edu/ekphrasticpoetry.html
FROM POETS.ORG: The Shield of Achilles by W. H. Auden
The Painting by Jon Balaban
War Photograph by Kate Daniels
The Family Photograph by Vona Groarke
Museum Guard by David Hernandez
The Mad Potter by John Hollander
Messieur Degas Teaches Art and Science at Durfy Intermediate School, Detroit 1942 by Philip Levine
Ode to a Grecian Urn by John Keats
Die Muhle Brennt—Richard by Richard Matthews
Photograph of People Dancing in France by Leslie Adrienne Miller
Why knowing is (& Matisse's Woman with a Hat) by Martha Ronk
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by William Carlos Williams
Stealing The Scream by Monica Youn
Joseph Cornell, with Box by Michael Dumanis
QUESTIONS to consider when writing in response to a work of art: (from http://wwwf.countryday.net/FacStf/us/hammondk/Ekprasis/Default.htm)
• What's the perspective of the poem? Does the poet "enter" the painting and join its world? Does he/she become a figure in that depiction? Is the poet a spectator? Participant? Art critic?
• What part of the art work has inspired the sentiment? Is the poet sympathetic? Compassionate?
• To what is the poet responding: the subject? the technique? the history? the artist?
• Does the poet make mention of the time difference between when he/she writes and when the work was created?
• What special language does the poet employ to deal with the art work?
• Is the "point" of the poem the same as that of the art work?
ANOTHER GREAT SOURCE FOR EKPHRASTIC POETRY:
http://www.dwpoet.com/poetassign.html “ekphrastic excursions” -- David Wright

ekphrasis --
 give voice to the work of art by entering its world
 praise the work of art by examining what you learn from it, why you need it
 examine a personal issue by zoning in on a specific feeling/issue raised in the work of art
 examine a social/historical issue by zoning in on the work of arts’ context/intent