I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
Welcome to nonamegirl’s poetry corner!! Here, I’ll be sharing poems I’ve liked and, occasionally, poems that I’ve written. This blog is to help broaden people’s tastes in poetry and to introduce new poems to those of you who are trying to expand your poetry knowledge.
ReplyDeleteTo my tutoring students: essay submissions for one of these poems must be in within a fortnight after the post and give me around 2 days turnaround to get the essay marked and back to you. Hope you enjoy!
First poem is Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins. My English teacher this year got my class into poetry with this poem first, and I thought it’d be a really cool poem to start off with. Note the gorgeous imagery, of a poem being a colourful slide, and what the author is trying to convey. NCEA students, you will be looking at AMPing this poem up (I know, bad joke, but did you really want me trying to make a connection to MAP or PAM or whatever? Make sure you always find the Audience, Message and Purpose in 2.6!). Cambridge students, you all know the drill by now, and remember! Grammar Nazi Sensei is watching tehm essays.