Poetry attempts and lesson ideas

Inspiration from Sound

Home

A solitary Bird calls, tweeting, singing, calling out
Calmly listening awaiting fresh retort
Its soul mate chirping, twittering, responding, confirming
A comfort in partnership
Patient thoughts fulfil me
Home can be so peaceful

I can hear the river waters rising like many times before
The waters trickle, babble and flow
Before thundering over the wear
A solitary loneliness
A weary traveller rests
Home can be so peacefu

Compose your own ode

Ode to the door

Often looked over, just like the floor
How could we live without our front door?
He stands and he guards letting only you in
His letterbox opens to give postie a grin

Standing tall and broad, with handles of brass
His cousin patio door made of glass
Taken for granted just doing his job
He creaks, he groans, but never a sob

Without a door we’d have just doorframes
That won’t stop those burglars’ games
An entry without a door is just a ‘frame’
A door is not a door by any other name

We push, we pull and he’s given a slam
He staggers, stands firm, he’ll close like a clam
He holds firm and protects all that’s yours
Where would we be without good, old, doors?


Inspiration from imagery: metaphor

Time – The time thieves

The times thieves they steal away the day
Time thieves take your time to play
Its light then suddenly it’s dark
Time has gone, time to leave the park

Where do they put the time they steal
If we took time to follow, would they reveal?
Time thieves have been and gone
Time thieves stop for no one

Where does the time go?
How can we ever know?
Time passes by as they darken the sky
Time thieves why, oh why?


Using Rhyme to inspire

This time no limerick
No haiku to make you sick
Just thoughts and sounds to inspire
A poem is what we require

What rhymes with rhyme?
A door with a chime?
Or Thieves that steal time?

A planet in space
That seems to displace
Seems silly to think the moon has a face

Can we procrastinate?
And watch the time thief
It will be worth the wait
And the sense of relief


Using nonfiction to inspire

Lost Data?

As they refuse to name the guilty
Mislaid secrets abound
Three million people affected
A theft of tapes makes no sound

Sensitive phone conversations
And consumer records snatched
An effort at customer relations
To cover the fraud they have found

Irony of confidential bunglers
Security experts have lost
Exposed and vulnerable were left
Whilst these banks cover the cost


Inspiration from perspective

The Earth

An orbit passing without timed delay
A speck in the galaxy that’s been led astray
Surrounded by stars light years away

Not the biggest
Not the smallest
But the centre of ‘our’ universe

Languid, lonely and listless it turns
Strive for life from sunray
Distant and lonely it yearns
Never so peaceful as it sits today
So innocent it seems from so far away


Thoughts on poetry and what worked best for me

I found the inspiration from sounds or objects to be the most useful, in writing down the feelings and emotions alongside the descriptive words based on the sounds was a useful way to get the feeling and the metaphors to flow when writing the poem based on these words, though I did also enjoy writing the ode as it allows a certain amount of artistic license in creating the simile and metaphors for the object in question, in my case a door, the first item I fixed my gaze on........... so useful, so common but taken for granted

It’s been interesting writing the poetry as I find this gives me a much better feel for poetry than just analysing and picking apart other peoples poetry, the two side by side make poetry interesting and less scary to a degree, having always been a little wary of poetry. I do like wordplay though and am enjoying taking onboard the types and styles of poetry and attempting to write poems that match those formulas and mixing them up and having fun with the words, alliteration, rhyming and so on.

Lesson ideas

Having found inspiration from sound and objects to be useful I would approach a lesson in a similar way, though playing on the children’s likes and dislikes at the same time asking them to think of a celebrity or film/TV character that they like or dislike and getting them to describe their appearance and manner and then ask them what it is about the character that they like and what it might be like to be like that character.
The use of a character, for example Bart Simpson would allow for constant reference to other things within the show or about the characters family and friends, especially as the child will remember things that happened in the show, though with the younger classes expect a few SpongeBob Squarepants and Ben10 poems. Many children’s shows have repetition, rhythm and rhyme in their dialogue and title songs which will increase the children’s interest in writing a similar style of poem.

Possibly using a favourite catchphrase, motto or slogan of that character as an opening line to rhyme with and create the rhythm of the poem. Focusing on the motto and pulling words from it to repeat throughout the poem.

Alternatively if they do not have a motto or the child chooses not to use then they could use descriptions and metaphors to describe the character, maybe this would be usable as an exercise in descriptive writing, asking the children to write short descriptive passages or little metaphors and simile about the character and without drawings leave the decision on who it is about to the reader.
For younger children they could also draw the character or person and have this covered until the poem has been read to see if the reader expects to see the image that had been drawn.

I loved your ode to doors. I think writing poetry has also helped me to understand it better and to be less intimidated by it.