Writing a journey poem.
On Steven Ratiner’s third classroom visit, he started the lesson by talking with the children about the art of revision. He shared his personal poetry notebook and showed how he revises again and again, always in search of the perfect words to capture the images. Sometimes he does as many as 60 revisions over a 6 month period, all in different colors so that he can see how the poem has changed each time. Through revision, a poet works until he/she owns all of the words line by line and rhythm by rhythm.
Today’s lesson was on poetry from the Song (Sung) Dynasty where man’s interaction with nature was important. A scroll was displayed giving a detailed glimpse of the artist’s world. People in ancient China often attended singing parties for inspiration where new poems were presented as songs with familiar tunes. Eventually poems became so lyrical that they sounded like music just through their words.
“Find one treasure in your life. Pick one memory you never want to lose and capture it,” Steven told the class. After
The students share their poems with Steven.
listening to the crisp, clear sound of Tibetan prayer bells, each child wrote their own poem about a special moment in their life.
