Poetry Out Loud & Beyond

About a decade ago, The Poetry Foundation announced it planned to do something on a national scale with an exceptionally generous donation. Many poets hoped that it would be something new, perhaps a program to bring the next generation of poets along. So when the new program turned out to be a program to recite older poems, there was some disappointment.

Perhaps one of the forces that shaped Poetry Out Loud (POL) was Reading at Risk, a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) study that identified an accelerating decline in the reading of literature. Perhaps one of the benefits of a national poem recitation contest with a 20,000 prize was that it would reward students who demonstrated a deep level of understanding about three poems respected as literature (by literature I mean a collection of words that holds significance for a group of people) . Here, for example, is Ocil Herrejon reciting “On Virtue” by Phyllis Wheatley.

The good news is that many of the POL participants are passionate about performing their own work. For several years at the California State Finals, students have performed their original poems for each other. Here is Herrejon’s original poem she recited at the dinner before the 2010 California POL finals:

The Women’s role

My mother once told me that a mujer debe

Trabajar en la cocina,

Que debe cuidar de los hijos

Que debe servir al hombre,

De niña me decían

As I got older

They taught me

To cook

To clean

To serve

& not talk back

To stay quiet

, and do as your told.

When time went on I learned new ways

I learned the power that a mujer has

&

How blessed we are to be Cihuatl

To be able to create another life

In our own body.

One that grows for nine months

en la vientre de uno.

I learned that we are not less than a man

&

We are also not more.

we    as males and females are equal

and need of each other

To create duality

Now I’m becoming a mujer

I am a Xicana una Mexicana

In search of my identity

I am gaining knowledge and speaking the truths

Now my mother says . To fight

for what I believe is right

To become independent and not dependent of any man.
To be a           mujer             &   a strong one

Because now she as well as I has learned the blessing and strength

We have as mujers.

Perhaps it’s because March is National Women’s History Month that I see a similarity between the two poems. If the poems in POL can inspire new writing, continue the conversation between creative writers across history, then it goes beyond its original conception and accomplishes what many hoped it would.

It should also be noted that Herrejon uses code-switching—using words from two or more languages. Like the “duality” of male and female, code-switching can reflect the thoughts and feelings of people who live in more than one culture. For one of her poems in POL, Herrejon recited the code-switching classic “Bilingual/Bilingue” by Rhina P. Espaillat:

One of the areas of evaluation in the POL competition is “Level of Understanding.” Although there is no category for “Application of Understanding,” it is marvelous to see students making use of the poetry they’ve recited to write their own.

This week in Sacramento (March 20 & 21), high school students from all over California will

Sleep Soft by Sierra N Carrel

Sleep Soft

I will use my time,
but it will not be like the minutes,
ticking away after you were gone.

I will be loved,
but not like the love
that you gave to me.

I will be cold,
but not like the coldness
that I felt when I pet you the last time.

I loved you,
And you were special,
And I’m glad you were my pet.

Sleep soft, Sugar.
Sleep soft.

By Sierra N Carrel, a 4th grade student

“Sleep Soft” was originally published in My Song is the Light, the California Poets in the Schools 2007 statewide anthology. Buy a California Poets in the Schools anthology to read more poetry from CPITS students and teachers.

A Poem of Hope by Brian Go

A Poem of Hope

A poem isn’t a rip in the sky

where evil lives

A poem isn’t a hint of darkness

in a peaceful meadow

A poem is a faint light

in a pitch black room

A poem is a familiar seed

in a foreign land

A poem is a forgotten rose

in a field of poison ivy

A poem is life

in a graveyard

By Brian Go, a 5th grade student

“A Poem of Hope” was originally published in What the World Hears, the California Poets in the Schools 2009 statewide anthology. Buy a California Poets in the Schools anthology to read more poetry from CPITS students and teachers.

“AMERICA, america” by Cheryl Evans: a student speaks on education reform

At a dinner for the 2010 Poetry Out Loud California Finals in Sacramento, students had the chance to read one of their original poems. Because Poetry Out Loud is a poem recitation competition, it’s interesting to see how memorizing poems might influence student writing.

Cheryl Evans recites Gwendolyn Brooks' "The Mother" on the floor of the California State Senate at the 2010 Poetry Out Loud competition.

In 2010, Cheryl Evans was a senior at Deer Valley High School in Contra Costa County. She was also a founding member of The Wolverine Writing Club. Evans was one of three county champions that night who introduced themselves as interested in “educational reform.” Poetry Out Loud was something they said our educational system should keep and develop. Members of the current U.S. House of Representatives majority, however, have mentioned the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), which organizes Poetry Out Loud, as a program to cut for deficit reduction. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, whose name is often mentioned as a presidential candidate for 2012, has described the NEA as “fluffery.”

As evidence that the NEA is an essential partner to quality education, watch & listen to Evans recite Gwendolyn Brook’s “The Mother” on the floor of the California State Senate:
As impressive as Evans’ public speaking skills are, it was what she wrote herself that most impressed me at Poetry Out Loud in Sacramento. At the dinner for California’s county champions, Evans stood and said from memory an original poem on the need for education reform. Given unrelenting arguments–such as in Wisconsin–to once again reduce budget deficits with policies that further diminish public education, Evans’ poem is sadly the news of the day a year later:

AMERICA, america by Cheryl Evans

I thought you were great.
Everyday I stand to not just recite,
But to confess the pledge of allegiance
Even if no one else does.
I believed in you.
Even though you became dishonest, cold-hearted and untrue.
And in 1992, I don’t even think you were prepared to raise me for society.
How you promised to protect me, and my brothers, and my sisters.
You lied! Because I sat back in 2001
And through innocent eyes I witnessed you cross the line.
But I was okay with the excuses you gave
To take my siblings away from home
To fight in another country’s gates.
But at that age I would have forgiven you for anything, America.
You were my hero.
However, as I grew older, each year you grew colder.
But maybe it was because of the man in the House at the time.
He had you in so much turmoil I thought you would never recover.
But in 2004, to my surprise, did I discover
That you still wanted him around.
Despite how my brother’s blood continued to be shed
On that other country’s ground.
Wow, America, you truly are unpredictable.
But I just sat back and laughed,
As you allowed him to take you deeper in turmoil
Then, BAM!! In 2008 your markets crash.
So now your Americans have to sit back
And watch the government fix itself.
And it remained like that for a number of months
It was the government and then it was everybody else.
But, luckily, later that year Obama is elected.
So, “YES WE CAN!”
Meant that we were no longer neglected, right?
Wrong. Because remember that we take pride in the last lines
Of America’s freedom song:
“The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave”
Marianne Williamson was right.
She said, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate,
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”
So I’m taking Obama out, but America…
You took that power to a whole nother level.
Especially when you put your foot on my education.
If anything, these college campuses and universities
Should be your primary obligation to invest some dedication.
And really, America, this shows how much you know.
Without education, how do you think Corporate America is going to grow?
And this is a problem how education is becoming
Harder and harder to afford.
And I always looked at it as a necessity
To maintain the flow of this world.
But how does that happen
When nearly 22,000 teachers in my state is pink slipped?
The audacity of you America. You and your budget cuts,
No mercy, just snip at whatever you care to snip.
I wonder if it has ever dawned on you
That these present Economists and Congressmen will eventually grow old,
So whose next in line to take up the load?
Now excuse me, America, as I become even firmer.
But my education is being put on the back burner
And I don’t think you understand.
You talk about health care,
Without education there will be no doctors here.
And the present doctors today will eventually grow old
So whose next in line to take up the load?
And the media is blowing up these unemployment rates.
Well have you heard what employers are looking for in employees today?
For one, their looking beyond a diploma from a high school graduation.
But with these budget cuts, tuition is expensive
And if we can’t pay tuition then we can’t get that college education.
So your unemployment rates will remain high.
And, again, the presently employed today will eventually grow old
So whose next in line to take up the load?
I’m not hating on you, America.
I am still proud to be an American.
I just hope that you remember what I’ve said, remember me.
Stop while you’re ahead before you cut us too deep.
It’s when you can first admit you have a problem,
Take different steps of action so we can live out our true creed.
So God Bless You, America because His blessings is what you need.

Poetry Out Loud: More Than Standard Education

“Poetry and football players don’t really mix,” Jason Klingerman said when asked about his involvement in Poetry Out Loud. “I think I’m probably the first [football player] to ever do it for my school. I’m hoping they take a look at me and think that it’s just not for the geeky kids or the drama kids. It’s for everyone.” Ah, reminds me of The Breakfast Club, the 80s movie in which five students from different cliques learn acceptance. Can poetry itself gain acceptance beyond high school?

Jason’s love of poetry and sports was a difficult mix as he prepared simultaneously for Poetry Out Loud and the California Interscholastic Federation Championships in wrestling. Sometimes the conflict is not from people’s assumptions about poets but from the limits of time. For his poems in Poetry Out Loud, Jason between meets learned Mark Doty’s “Golden Retrivals” and Gregory Djanikian’s “Immigrant Picnic” and practiced Jonathan Swift’s “Elegy on the Death of a Late Great General” on the flight to Sacramento.

On his way to compete in Poetry Out Loud, Jason Klingerman stood for a moment by the San Diego County diorama in the state capitol.

The pacing calendar for standardized testing more or less dictates the school year. Despite speaking being a California Language Art Standard and despite the euphonious attributes of poetry, recitation is seldom assigned. While high school students often make oral presentations, if they do so without attention to sound, they have missed an aspect of language arts education.

Jason, however, was hooked on poetry’s sound. He received a football scholarship and declared literature as his major. The football program where Jason first attended college advises the players on their studies, so Jason asked to have his schedule adjusted so he could handle the reading for his upper-level literature course. The coaching staff decided that the literature course wasn’t the right course for Jason because he was “wasting too much time on reading.”

After participating in Poetry Out Loud, Jason continued to perform poems and started writing them. Literature has become a life study to him, so he transferred to a college that would let him pursue it and football.

Here’s a poem he recently sent me:

Douglas County

Once again, a patch of land is stamped,
in red dye it reads: ACCESS GRANTED,
permitting Deep Pockets to feast on their prey

This royal and ancient land—
A King presiding over his Kingdom: The Plains.
The Rocky Mountains his Throne,
and Pike’s Peak his Crown,
decked in the purest essence of ordinary brilliance,
with jewel encrusted robes
of jade, lime, tan, basil, burgundy;
adorned with lakes and mountains,
ravines overgrown with thickets of Pinon,
willow, wild rose, Choke Cherry, juniper scrub,
and, woven in the threads, sylvan designs of Ponderosa Pine, Spruce, and Fir—
is given another burn, treated as if it were Man’s ash-tray;
sections cleared, cleansed and purged away,
then paved.

The wound is treated with maggots
in the form of Bobcats and cement trucks.
Earth folded over earth, pressed,
splattered with asphalt and concrete,
then steam-rolled to perfection.

Teach the Poetry of Gratitude

Writing and reading poetry can help students learn how to explore unwieldy ideas, how to look at things from a different perspective, how to approach challenges (like building a sonnet), and how to express feelings. When it comes to expressing feelings through poetry, people often jump first to feelings of hurt, sadness, depression, or upset. But the page is also a place to be positive, to share joy, to teach gratitude and appreciation. As helpful as poetry can be for letting out anger and frustration, it is an equally strong way to celebrate the important things in life.

Below are a few lesson ideas that focus on positive emotions, like gratitude. These are meant as outlines for lessons and will require additional research or preparation before being used in the classroom.

Nurturing Creativity

summer poetry class

In teaching poetry to young people, I tend to focus first on generating excitement about reading and writing poems. I design lessons to nurture creativity and open-mindedness about what poetry is and who can write poetry. I want to dispel the idea that poetry is always hard to write. Students need encouragement to realize that poetry is not too difficult for them to comprehend and connect with. Good poems, powerful poems, can come from simple ideas and be written with language that is easy for people to understand.

I consider it part of my job as a poetry teacher to help students conquer their inhibitions about facing, and filling, a blank page. Once students gain confidence about the fun to be found in writing and deciphering poetry, they are more ready think about word choice, line breaks, poetic forms, and revision work. Those topics help students build a shared vocabulary within a classroom for analyzing what they read, what they write, and expressing their ideas about what they want to write.

As students begin to feel successful in poetry, I hear a lot more talk about what they want to write next and how they want the poem to work on the page. That’s when I really know that students are gaining something from poetry as a writing exercise and an art practice.

Poetry Postcards

• Check out this article in Poets & Writers on the power of political poetry–Poets Act on Oil Spill and read a poem and eco-poetry statement by me (and hundreds of other poets) at Poets for Living Waters.
• The Brits have a great, interactive, video poetry site!
• What are your thoughts on poetic appropriation? Read “The Voices of Hurricane Katrina” and the ethics of using real-life subjects and events for poems–a great commentary, but also an interesting thing to think about when designing poetry assignments for our students!
• NPR reviews Natasha Trethewey’s Beyond Katrina
• Huffington Post Gets the scoop on James Franco’s turn as Allen Ginsberg in the upcoming HOWL to be released September 25.

Supporting the Arts–FUNDRAISING PLEA!

A book-bag and t-shirt design created by cartoonist Mathew Digges c.2009

Last January I made a commitment to support the arts in a number of ways. As the new school year gets underway,I find myself reviewing my yearly goals and checking in this last quarter to see how I’m doing–because for artist-in-residency programs, this next year is going to be one of the toughest yet, in terms of garnering funds to support our students in their classrooms.

Some of the ways I decided to support the arts:

A Few Good Quotes

I keep a file that is basically a long list of quotes that speak to me for one reason or another. Here is a sampling from those quotes that I like to consider when I think about writing and reading poetry. (Listed in no particular order.)

“The poems we need, even when we might not know we need them, will find us, if we are looking, if we are open.” -Nick Flynn & Shirley McPhillips

“Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.” -Albert Einstein

“The young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.” -William Faulkner

“Practice is Art. If you leave off you are lost.” -William Blake

“If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don’t write, because our culture has no use for it.” -Anais Nin

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” -Annie Dillard

“A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together.” -Margaret Atwood

“What writing does is to reveal. ” -Rita Dove

“The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.” -Gustave Flaubert

“Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.” -Hermann Hesse

“All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.” -F Scott Fitzgerald

“And poetry, because it is timeless, takes time.” -Cynthia Ozick

“All writing is a risk and a trust; all writing is critical as it pertains to consciousness, and every word of it is for the record.” -CD Wright

“We, too, can divide ourselves, it’s true. / But only into flesh and a broken whisper. / Into flesh and poetry.” -from “Autotomy” by Wislawa Szymborska