Wednesday, April 02, 2014

Our Wonderful World.2


Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.


Wikipedia

We stand.
Sun warms us,
wind pushes us,
people stare at us.

We wait.
Moon comforts us,
rain gouges us,
people stare at us.

We know.
Tools made us,
ancients moved us,
people stare at us.

We endure.
History created us,
future sustains us,
people admire us.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014




S t o n e h e n g e
feels              hard,
can                lift,
sounds          silent
very              strong
reaches         high
to the            sky
feels             rough.

©JB, 2014




We did another two-column brainstorm for today's poems. This time we thought about what moods the picture evoked, and what sensory images we might include in our poem.

There's so much we don't know about Stonehenge. I tried to capture the solid silence of the stones, and the wonder and amazement that we continue to feel in the presence of this mighty ring of standing stones.

EDITED AFTER SHARING WITH MY CLASS: The last line of my poem used to read "people stare at us." AH suggested that perhaps since the poem shifts in that stanza to bigger themes, the last line could be "people admire us." I totally agreed and have made that change! Thanks, AH! (This is what I love about being a part of a community of writers...in my classroom!)

Carol and Kevin both wrote poems yesterday for The Great Pyramid of Giza. Check them out at Carol's Corner and  Kevin's Meandering Mind.

7 comments:

  1. At night, with darkness as our cloak,
    we work,
    building a mystery that others will ponder,
    puzzled over the intent
    of this stone upon stone upon stone,
    and it will be only the two of us, alone,
    that will ever know the message hidden over time
    in this convergence of rock,
    as we send forth a cryptographic signal of love
    to the world.

    -Kevin

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Have you tried Notegraphy?
      https://notegraphy.com/dogtrax/note/738218
      Kevin

      Delete
  2. Love this. I shared Jane Yolen's First Take with my students yesterday. This will be a nice follow up to that. I think the concrete nature of objects and visuals inspires students.

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  3. I love the way this poem feels in my mouth. The rhythm is just perfect. And I love that your kids are helping you revise.

    Here's my "poem" for today.

    "Stonehenge. Why?"

    Stonehenge.
    Why?

    Were you simply
    a cemetery?
    A place where townspeople
    bearing incense
    or mace heads
    might commemorate
    the lives
    of their society’s
    religious, political
    or military
    elite?


    Stonehenge.
    Why?

    Were you a place for healing?
    Did the lame, maimed
    sick, dying, hopeless
    make pilgrimages
    to chip away at
    your great blue stones
    and somehow
    eke out
    wholeness
    and protection?


    Stonehenge.
    Why?

    Were you some kind of
    celestial observatory?
    a place where worshippers
    slaughtered pigs
    in celebration of
    summer or
    winter solstice?


    Stonehenge.
    Why?

    Were you an
    Neolithic concert hall?
    Did pipers
    travel to this
    earthen Carnegie Hall
    to play tunes
    they could hear
    in no other
    human cathedral?


    Stonehenge.
    Why?

    Were you just
    an ancient
    teamwork exercise
    a place
    where people
    unified
    to create something
    much greater
    than themselves?

    Stonehenge.
    Why?

    © Carol Wilcox, 2014

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  4. Love this, Mary Lee. I am there with you now, and through the ages.

    I can see this a choral reading in class too!

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  5. I still have never been there, have you, Mary Lee? Even in pictures, it has such an aura. Love that you're sharing what happens in class, too. And all the other poems, too. Maybe I can find time to join you sometimes. Just so busy.

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  6. Lovely poem. Stone Henge is such a fun subject. I never visited it but I have been passed the field where the knight of the round table was.

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