Thinking

Well, I have been considering the value of thinking lately. My consideration is connected with our new poetry unit of which many students claim to hate---loathe---detest the idea of reading poetry. If I step outside of my cozy little English cocoon and consider the world at large, could I find ways of thinking or imagining that I detest? Let's see...if one were to ask me to make sense of a physics problem would I hate it? Or describe the significance of a Picasso painting? What about if I had to recite the conjugations of Latin verbs? I am not sure I can say I would hate any of those subjects, but I know I would find all three examples a challenge to my brain. I still am pretty fascinated by those who know how to study and appreciate physics, art, and Latin.

So, what makes poetry different? It is like putting a dog in front of a cat--ooh scary raising of the hair on the back. Or maybe it is more like telling a four-year-old he needs a nap---"No, I don't Mommy!" Or being told sit ups are good for you. C'mon, who needs this pain?

I'd like to connect poetry to thinking; sometimes poetry is hard and it asked for our imagine to be stirred; our analytical skills to be honed; or our ability to make connections to be ignited. It works the brain. We've been using words for how long-oh yeah, our entire lives, so looking at a few words on a page must be easy. Here comes the hair on back, no I won't take a nap and I'd rather have a flabby belly reaction because making meaning of the words on the page is not always easy. Poetry is NOT just words on a page; rather, it is speaker, voice, meter, images, language, structure, and words all working together to share an idea with the reader.

It is all a clever way to get someone to THINK! Just like all those crazy physics laws get us to think, so do the laws of poetry. My next few blogs will be posting of student's poetry---stay tuned for some thinking! I hear Colin Sabie wrote a great poem about...hating poetry! Sigh.