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don-bouchardPoems
"Write two poems," I said. My students left the room. Some frittered the week away, No idea how to start, What to say.... Others found a way to play, Rolling phrases Making hay, Coding words in lines Testing assonance, Alliteration, Anthropomorphization: A door, a pen, and clouds... Always clouds. "Write one that rhymes," I'd said, And so the rhymers vied, Stretched morphemes until dead, Finding words I thought had died, Bruised themselves with rhythm, Metered anapests and dactyls, Resorted to trochees and iambs And smiled as if inventing fractals, My little lambs. "Write free verse; break all rules!" I said, And though they tried, No ee cummings Jesus resurrected, No William Carlos Williams rose To eat plums beside white chickens, And no apologies. Still, when all was finished, Notes came in, A treasured, precious few Wrote to say they'd found Appreciation for words Arranged intentionally, For power of images, For realization of the value Found in working words.
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May 13, 2020
May 13, 2020 at 9:56 AM UTC
First Poems
"Write two poems," I said. My students left the room. Some frittered the week away, No idea how to start, What to say.... Others found a way to play, Rolling phrases Making hay, Coding words in lines Testing assonance, Alliteration, Anthropomorphization: A door, a pen, and clouds... Always clouds. "Write one that rhymes," I'd said, And so the rhymers vied, Stretched morphemes until dead, Finding words I thought had died, Bruised themselves with rhythm, Metered anapests and dactyls, Resorted to trochees and iambs And smiled as if inventing fractals, My little lambs. "Write free verse; break all rules!" I said, And though they tried, No ee cummings Jesus resurrected, No William Carlos Williams rose To eat plums beside white chickens, And no apologies. Still, when all was finished, Notes came in, A treasured, precious few Wrote to say they'd found Appreciation for words Arranged intentionally, For power of images, For realization of the value Found in working words.
Concluding 16 years' teaching Writing & Literature & College Composition. Finals, last papers, and student comments....
don-bouchard
Written by
don-bouchard
66/M/American
May 13, 2020
May 13, 2020 at 9:56 AM UTC
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