POEM AS AN EXPERIENCE

          Jen McConnel, “The Teacher/Poet in V parts and Kati Macaluso’s “Finding the Poems that Hide: Why Students Should Write Poetry”, made me realize that Poetry is not just about reading and analyzing. I remember teaching the poem, “Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats to my SS 2 students (in U.S it is called the 11^th Grade) and students looking bored and tired, and stating that they don’t like poetry. I asked one of my student why they don’t like poetry as much as prose. This student replied, “…..poems are complex and boring, I don’t like it. I don’t see the importance of us doing it and its usefulness to us…..” This is in line with what Jen McConel said in her writing that students should be allowed to approach Poetry creatively; to be not just the reader, but also the poet. Poems mustn’t always be works by Aristotle and other famous poets, it can also be poems by the students. In Kati’s writing, she writes a poem called “Forgotten Items”, which is about her experience at the grocery store, and how she ended up being a companion to an elderly woman who has been forgotten ‘by the one she loves most’. More so, Naomi Shihab Nye’s spoken poem, “Gate A-4”, talks about her experience at the airport; how helping an Arabic old woman who felt helpless due to her inability to understand English, and also the sharing of the ‘homemade mammal cookies’ made her realize the world she wants to live in, ‘the shared world’.

          These poems, written through one’s experience makes me wonder why the Common Core State Standards doesn’t make mention of writing poetry. Teachers of course has to follow these standards to the letter (which can be said to be the Dominant discourse that is being followed in the classroom), which makes the classroom to be more traditional. I believe that incorporating, ‘writing poetry’ to the curriculum will allow the students to come alive and get involved in the study of poetry, just as Kati stated, “While some might rightly make the case that writing poetry sharpens students’ linguistic awareness or knowledge of genre, I’d like to reflect on how writing poetry,…..might serve as an invitation to students to “live” as Nye says, in a particular way”.

          Poet Charles Simic, in his explanation of poetry says that the “labor of poetry is finding ways through language to point to what cannot be put into words.” This is the reason why students see poetry as a complicated work of art, because it is written so the reader would not fully understand it. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser counters Charles explanation of poetry in his book, ‘The Poetry Home Repair’ by saying that, “once a writer begins to work in the spaces between language and experience, the way she sees the world is forever altered.” I agree with Poet Laureate on his argument. I believe writing a poem about one’s experience doesn’t require the use of complex and abstract words in order for it to be authentic. Poetry should be a work of art that can be read and understood by the readers, and the readers should be able to link it to reality. This we clearly see in Naomi’s spoken poem, and also in Jen and Kati’s poem.

           As a teacher, I would incorporate writing poetry into the curriculum, and would follow the guidelines by Jen McConnel on ‘What I’d do now’. Approaching poetry not only through analysis, but allowing my students to write poems describing a character of their choice in a text, or allowing the students to write poems based on their personal experience. I believe this is a way to not only teach poetry, but to also develop the students’ skills in writing, just as Kati stated in her writing,

“…..I have tremendous faith in what poetry writing can and will do for these students’ linguistic dexterity, knowledge of form, and other technical knowledge. But I also wholeheartedly believe that the opportunity to work in the gaps between language and experience, like my own experience listening for and writing “Forgotten Items,” will serve as an invitation to live in a particular way: to seek out poems by becoming more fully present to the details and people that might otherwise go unnoticed.”