Friday, July 16, 2010

Poetry Friday: Visual Response

My adoration of The Poetry Foundation is no secret. (I almost fainted when I got to visit their Chicago offices last summer.) I have to admit, though, some of the journal articles they post are a bit over my head. But I try to read and understand them, I really do.

One that I read this week is called The Assemblages of Jess. In describing the life and art of Jess Collins, the article tackles the question: "What does it mean to say a visual thing is poetic?"

This got me thinking about an assignment I gave my fifth graders this past school year. Step One: find a image on the web that seems "poetic" and that could inspire you to write a poem.  Step Two: Write the poem inspired by this image. Step Three: find some companion images that match your theme. Step Four: combine text and images and music to make a short video.

They have some imperfections (this was our first time making a movie of any kind so it was a bit of an experiment), but for the most part they turned out beautifully. To celebrate Poetry Friday, I thought I'd share a couple. The first is by Claire, probably my best writer of poetry. The second is by Stasarahmy. I like the repetition (something we focused a lot on in poems we read) in her poem.







Poetry Friday is being hosted at My Juicy Little Universe today. Be sure to stop by and check out what everyone's up to.

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