CELEBRATING POETRY MONTH

It's poetry month, my favorite time of year. Spring is in the air, school is almost out, and people everywhere are celebrating in verse. Here is a fresh take on a popular format, the cinquain. A cinquain is a five line poem traditionally written with a syllable structure of 2, 4, 6, 8, 2; however, a popular form with students uses word count instead of syllables as follows: 

Line 1 - one word title (subject of poem)

        2 - two adjectives describing the title

        3 - three word phrase or 3 gerunds

        4 - four words related to the subject

        5 - one word relating back to the title

I used a variety of poetry forms, including the cinquain, in my verse novel, Forget Me Not. I chose the cinquain to create brief character sketches to give the feeling of introducing a cast of characters.

Ally

afraid, alone

hurting, hiding, biding

never can go back

me

Elijah

brave, bold

knowing, helping, showing

he risks it all

friend

 Copyright 2012 Carolee Dean

If you are a teacher, consider having students do a fresh take on the traditional book report by incorporating character sketches written either in this format or the traditional 2, 4, 6, 8, 2 syllable structure of the cinquain. This is an activity that can be fun for all ages. 

If you are a writer, think about using the cinquain to create sketches for your original story characters.

Another poetry form I used in Forget Me Not was the pantoum. It can feel constricting and circular since the beginning of the poem often comes back around again at the end. A pantoum consists of four-line stanzas with the second and fourth lines of one stanza repeating as the first and third lines of the next one. Traditionally, these rhymed in quatrains of a,b,a,b. In many pantoums, the first and third line from verse one repeat in the final stanza.  The poem below from page 221 of Forget Me Not is an example of a pantoum.

In nice straight lines

He sets up pens

He orders life

He schedules plans

He sets up pens

the black, the blue

He schedules plans

For both of us

The black, the blue

Words on the fridge

For both of us

Tell where to go

Words on the fridge

Our whiteboard week

Tell where to go

The clock is king

Our whiteboard week

Filled to the brim

The clock is king

And I comply

Filled to the brim

A tight-run ship

And I comply

But it can sink

A tight-run ship

A neat abode

But it can sink

If there are holes

A neat abode

Is not enough

If there are holes

It fills up fast

It's not enough

He thinks that if

It fills up fast

He'll keep us both

He thinks that if

He orders life

He'll keep us both

in nice straight lines

Copyright 2012 Carolee Dean

The theme of this poem is fairly dark. Ally's father is a tightly wound and highly controlling man. Consider, though, what fun you could have with this poetry form if you had students take turns writing stanzas about a story they had read or perhaps a humorous subject or theme with the requirement that they need to repeat the second and fourth lines of the previous student's stanza as the first and third lines of their own.

While we are on the subject of poetry, consider using verse novels for your next class project. They are great for struggling readers because there is a lot of white space on the page. Also, if you are working on having students understand the main idea of a reading passage, you can focus on a page talk instead of a chapter. A page can be a much more manageable amount of information for many students.

Here are a few of my favorite verse novels:

May B. by Caroline Starr Rose (ages 8-12)

Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate (ages 10 and up)

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander (ages 10 and up)

Girl Coming In for a Landing by April Halprin Wayland (ages 12 and up)

and my own Forget Me Not by Carolee Dean (ages 14 and up)

Last but not least, I was very excited to learn that Bethany Hegedus has a book coming out in August of 2019 about the life of Maya Angelou. That one is definitely going on my "to buy" list. See her post on the Nerdy Book Club page about Rise! From Caged Bird To Poet of the People, Maya Angelou (Lee & Low/ August 6, 2019). Maya's grandson, Colin Johnson, writes about her childhood in the foreword of the book.