Friday, November 20, 2009

Love That Dog

                         Although this was not one of my favorite 
books 
          we have read, 
I am glad 
    we read it 
                            since it would be a great book to get kids 
interested 

in poetry. I think 

                        it would also help young people 
                           


realize that if this kid can 
be a poet, 

           we can too! 

Any walls or barriers keeping 
kids from thinking 

poetry is for them would be broken 
                                                                     
                                                                      down 
 when they read 
the simple 
                           "poems" written by the author. I think it would get them excited 
to think that they can take just 
about 

a      n        y           t       h       i    n   g and break 

                     it 
                            up 
into 
    lines and 
call it 
                             a poem. 
This kind of revelation 
would get kids imaginations reeling...
            
This book would also be a great tool to introduce kids to other famous poets. It would demystify the process of interpreting poetry by making them realize that maybe the poet didn't even understand what he was writing about when he wrote it. Maybe William Carlos Williams was just sitting by a red wheel barrow and some white chickens, and, having no idea what to write about that day, decided to write about what was right in front of him and wanting to make his boring circumstances really exciting threw in the line: so much depends upon... Maybe he was just like any young student who wanted to make something exciting out of something mundane and boring and he used language to do that. Now everyone is asking: what is so significant about this wheel barrow and white chickens that makes everything depend upon on them? I think good writing should make people ask questions and I think kids can come up with poems that do that, even if they don't have the answers themselves. Writing shouldn't be easily understood, because if it can be, then it doesn't stretch one to think outside the box, or find the sacred in the mundane.

No comments:

Post a Comment