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| Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here. |
2. Stonehenge
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| 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.
At night, with darkness as our cloak,
ReplyDeletewe 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
Have you tried Notegraphy?
Deletehttps://notegraphy.com/dogtrax/note/738218
Kevin
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.
ReplyDeleteI love the way this poem feels in my mouth. The rhythm is just perfect. And I love that your kids are helping you revise.
ReplyDeleteHere'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
Love this, Mary Lee. I am there with you now, and through the ages.
ReplyDeleteI can see this a choral reading in class too!
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.
ReplyDeleteLovely 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.
ReplyDelete