You can't make chicken sale out of chicken manure
~Unknown

Dirty hands are a good sign, so hopefully, you got some mental mud on your hands and created some content to work with today.  To a starving man, any food is good food--unless it is pure manure. It is the same with poetry: if you have thoughts, ideas, directions, images and actions--really anything that implies "content"--you are a good part of the way towards making a poem out of a hash of words .

It may well be that you poem evolves away from your original intent, but that is a natural part of the creative process, but first you have to make sense of either the mess you created--or you have to make poetry out of dull and flavorless sentences. Either way it is work. The work of a poet.

As much as possible I live in the world of real images and actions because I know that a series of images and actions creates an actual physical response in a reader as the brain renders those images using the motor or more primal functions of the brain.  It is my job  as a poet to force my readers to then have "think" about what those images and actions now mean, and so a "higher" function of the brain is brought into play, as in this short poem I wrote about a husband dealing with the loss of his wife in the 9/11  tragedy:

9/11/04

It is so quiet still
three years on,
wondering why 
he didn't hold her
 longer, 
knowing
 one more kiss,
one more sip of coffee;
one more search
for the missing bookbag,
would have kept her
from rushing
to the train.

In this poem it is my title that sets the scene, which is followed by a few images and actions--and then a simple, but I think effective twist, that expresses regret at what happened, but that also hints that if only he had showed more love  his wife would have missed the train that carried her to her death.

My main point here is that images and actions can be the foundation of any good poem, and if you are stuck and in a "poetic rut," you can climb out by immersing yourself in recreating a scene using images and actions--nouns and verbs--to describe a situation.

And then all you gots to do is add a twist...

A week from Friday is "The Ninth Grade Poetry Slam." I will be breaking you up into three or four teams. The teams will compete against each other in front of a voting audience. Whichever team wins, gets to keep the "coveted prize."

For your part, as an individual, I am asking you, for the next ten days, to "live like a poet." That means you have to do what poets do, including:

1. Write poetry every day. Post what you write in your journal.
2. Read and study poetry and about poetry every day. Start with my most recent post, "If You Want to be a Poet, Live Like One." I will post a new poetry post on the discussion board everyday.
3. Keep a "metacognitive" journal of your experience
4. Support your classmates by commenting and offering feedback.
5. Meet with your team to practice your performances

It really is a sua sponte project. I am not expecting you to write amazing poetry, but I would like you to get a foundation of poetry

I will explain this further in class tomorrow. Let's meet in the library.

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.
~Lao Tzu

     A poem is alive. Just when you think it is done and you want to say, "Sit. Stay still. Don't move, change, or be anything different than you are right now" it does just the opposite: it dashes off in a new direction. A once great line now seems as stale as cafeteria bread. That powerful theme that so caught your fancy, suddenly seems trivial and self-indulgent. Or maybe one line transforms the whole direction of the poem and you need to rip out and demolish the old guts and start a total rehab. Or maybe you just want to be done because all you are working on is some forgettable assignment with an even more forgettable due date--and I am a soft grader anyhow, especially when it comes to poetry.

The world is full of people who love to say, "Yeah, that's good enough," but they people who are remembered by the world were always ready for the vortex and insecurity of change when and where change was needed. They misread Thoreau when he admonishes us to simplify our lives by eliminating the possibilities of their lives instead of the useless and vacuous parts of their lives.  If you want to be a poet get rid of the useless and vacuous and expand and seize the potential of what your words can do and effect and change. If you want to be anything that is beyond the ordinary, then you have to be extraordinary.

Last night I watched some Russian figure skater go out on the ice in obvious pain. He skated around the ice and attempted some leaping twirl of some sort and wrenched his surgically repaired back and could not finish the competition. His pained comment afterwards, spoken in broken English, was simple: "I want the world to know I tried." 

Make anything you make better than it was. Make your poem a better poem.  Be open to and embrace the change and the possibilities directly in front of you. It will make you a better you.

Leap.

For Homework tonight, spend 30 minutes or so just letting words pour out onto the page using one of the three styles of slam poems listed below.  Watch the video here and rematch Scratch and Dent Dreams and What Teachers Make to help get the "feel" of what a slam poem tries to do--and how it does it.

Writing a slam poem is all about releasing whatever is clogging up the river of thoughts you have and letting the words flow in a torrent--and then afterwards you sift through what is left on the page--get rid of the fat, keep the stood and sound, and add flavor to this outpouring of words my rephrasing sentences, adding images and actions, twists on thoughts, similes and metaphors, parallelism, etc to help make each line stand out.  Each line becomes a breath--and you don't need a full sentence in each breath. Imagine yourself performing your poem "as" you write. Add humor, seriousness, and silliness whenever and wherever you feel it helps.

Watch the video. It is a bit over the top, but the author makes some excellent points.

There are as many ways to start a slam poem as there are people, but here are a couple of idea to help get you started.

1. A What Bugs Me poem: make  a list of things that bug you and then go back and add images and actions and thoughts your list--and try to tell a story just as if you were telling your friends.
2. Do You Know Who I Am? poem: All of us are way more complicated than people think we are, so this style of poem is always a dependable way to get out in words the depth and breadth of who you are. A lot of these poems take on the "I am from...[add images and actions and thoughts]" style with most stanzas starting out with the same phrase.
3. Remembering a Distant Memory poem: Sometimes it takes us a long time to actually appreciate a distant memory (or memories) in a profound way. In this poem it is often effective to tell the story of your memory and then show and tell your audience what it means to you--and to them.

Work on your poem in Google Docs or on Quip. Just be sure to share with me.

Read this. Watch this. Listen to this. 


It is an introduction to Slam Poetry--to prepare you for the poetry slam that is happening less than a month from now.


Post a thoughtful response. How do you like it" What's different about it? Why is it effective--or is it? 

Monday: portfolio curation, journal entry, & commenting

• Homework: Write a journal entry that reflects on how you deal with and prepare for pressure situations.ournal entry and prepare for WW Fenn Presentation

Tuesday/Wednesday: 

• WW Fenn Presentations (Hopefully, we can finish all of them on Tuesday, because Wednesday could well be a snow day.)
  
• Homework: write reflection that explores all sides of your WW Fenn performance--the good, the bad, the ugly, and the sublime. The reflection counts as a journal entry. It would be awesome to post this along with your podcast.

Thursday:  No class: 

Friday: 

• Homework: Finish reading The Absolutely True Story of a Part Time Indian and complete all other work.
• Comma Rules #'s 5-7
  

Writing

1. Post your daily journal entries. There should be an entry each day for Monday - Wednesday, and at least one on the weekend. Required reading reflections count as journal entries.
   
2. Post a comment to my assignments page on this page and comment on any writing posted to my Crafted Word journal. Comment at least once per week on your classmate's blogs. You will receive extra credit if you go above and beyond the requirements. All commenting and blogging for the week should be completed by 11:59 Sunday night.
   

Reading: 

1. Finish reading The Absolutely True Story of a Part Time Indian

Study:  

1. Comma Rules 1 -7. 

Submissions: 

1. Journal entries posted to your journal. (five points)
2. Comments on all of your classmate's journals