Poetry Everywhere is a great resource for poets. Before Common Core was adopted in our district, I used to pull out this book on Fridays with my eighth graders, and we spent all class hour simply playing with poetry. Students were always invited, never required, to share their poems. I never graded these poems. It was just play. I loved it. Many of my students loved it as well.
I need to get back to incorporating poetry better in my classes.
Saturday morning I pulled Poetry Everywhere out in search of some inspiration. I came across a section called "acrostics-from-phrases." It is a variation of an acrostic poem. However, instead of using a letter of a word as the beginning of each line you use a word at the beginning of each line. The words make up a phrase or a title.
Here's an example from the book (page 27):
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| Example of acrostic-from-phrase poem |
When my children were babies, I sang them the song “You Are My Sunshine” as I tucked them in at night. It was also a song I sang when one of them was hurt or needed extra snuggles. I adore that my daughter, now nearly ten years old, sings this song to me when she realizes that I need extra comfort. I thought that it would be fun use “You Are My Sunshine” as my acrostic-from-phrase poem.
This ended up being a lot more challenging to write than what I anticipated. I couldn't get it to work like an acrostic poem without adding extra lines. So I bent the rules a bit, and here’s what I came up with.
For my son:
YOU may rip holes in pants and jackets,
“forget” soap to clean, and
my constant inquiry seems to be,
“when ARE you going to clean your room?”
MY budget is exhausted at the large quantity of food
your adolescent body consumes,
yet you still bring
SUNSHINE into every room you enter.
For my daughter:
YOU scatter treasures throughout our home,
create baby blanket basket nests for stuffed animals,
wallpaper your closet doors with sketches when you
ARE in the mood to create beauty, and
ARE in the mood to create beauty, and
MY heart swells when I watch you swing
and drink the SUNSHINE.
Aw, the acrostic from phrase poem is a reversal of golden shovel poems, yes? And it’s okay to bend the rules. It’s your poem. I teach a lot of poetry in AP Lit but am trying to do more in my general speech classes this trimester.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I hadn't heard of a golden shovel poem! I just looked it up!
DeleteTwo of my classes (my senior classes) are Written Communications-basically business writing. I have a set syllabus because it is a dual credit course, but I can add things. I need to figure out how to keep the daily reading and infuse poetry next year while still accomplishing everything I need to do with Written Comm
I love this acrostic phrases idea much better than acrostics. And You are my sunshine is perfect, and I love your two poems to your children. I think bending the rules adds to them a lot. Poets should only be rule-followers when they choose to be, and let go whenever it serves their greater purpose :)
ReplyDeleteI'll bet students would love to choose a line from their favorite popular song to use for this kind of poem.
Thank you Fran! I also like your idea of using a line from their popular song to use in this kind of a poem.
DeleteI think your "failure" turned out perfectly! You've invented a new form.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I am sure that I didn't invent this - just modified it a little!
DeleteI have never seen phrase acrostic poem. I enjoyed reading your poems.
ReplyDeleteThank you Terje
DeleteAlice Nine calls these golden shovels. Love them and this post.
ReplyDeleteLove your phrase acrostic poems! And especially that you didn't restrict yourself to just using those words at the beginning of lines. What a lovely capture of your children. The phrase "when I watch you swing and drink the sunshine" is lovely. I sing this song often to my grandson Jack (just like I did with my two children). When he sees the sun in a book, he starts bouncing so Grandma will sing the song. I coined the phrase "sunshine bouncing on my lap" to describe him.
ReplyDelete