September 30, 2013

Poetry

Why do students hate poetry? 

1. Confusing
2. Tends to use complex, indirect language
3. Requires thinking
4. People are looking for the easy answer
5. Can be boring
6. Maybe it’s too deep
7. Maybe they can’t relate to the poems they get
8. They are forced to study it in school
9. Don’t understand the language used
10. They always get it given to them as WORK - analysis

First Step

Finding poetry that isn’t automatically a problem. 

Teach a pattern to analyse poetry more easily. You can apply the pattern and have more comfort in the work.

Figure other ways to “study” poetry that will also help. 

Find poems that are more relatable and understandable in your life. 

Contextualize the poetry. Putting the story into the poem or seeing the story around the poem.

Charles Bukowski - poet

Wrote in the 50s and 60s and 70s.

Knowing that influences how we see his work.

When we read his work, we can think about who is this guy? Where was he? What was his life like? And this gives us more to think about and enjoy. 

Bukowski is the opposite of the effete, British, dandy character writing about his feelings in some incomprehensible way

Bukowski is just a person - he is a man in a place who has a lot of thoughts and writes them down in a direct, powerful way. 

Charles Bukowski (1920 - 1994)

I Met A Genius

I met a genius on the train
today
about 6 years old,
he sat beside me
and as the train
ran down along the coast
we came to the ocean
and then he looked at me
and said,
it's not pretty.

it was the first time I'd
realized
that.