Teachers of poetry have always had many reasons to teach it. Poetry can enrich instruction in reading, writing, speaking and listening, capture students with its musicality, and spark their creative and critical thinking.
But during the pandemic, and a painful national soul-searching on racism, an often-overlooked reason has quietly resurfaced: Poetry can sustain both students and teachers during tough times. That power is fueling renewed explorations this month, the 22nd annual National Poetry Month.
鈥淧oetry just looks like a bunch of rhymes on paper, but it can save lives,鈥� said Terrain Small, a junior at Miami-Norland Senior High School in Miami.
As COVID-19 ravaged his community, shutting down his school for long stretches, Terrain turned again and again to a poem by William Ernest Henley, mining its lines in search of a steadying force. He even memorized it, reciting it over and over to burrow into its meaning and rhythms.
Henley was only 26 when he wrote 鈥淚nvictus鈥� in Edinburgh in 1875, after losing his left leg to the complications of tuberculosis. But his search for bravery reached through the years and miles to Terrain, reminding him that even amid pain and chaos, strength can find its roots.
鈥淚t really made me feel more confident, like I know things will get better,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 always gonna hurt, but nothing negative will last too long.鈥�
Precious Symonette, Terrain鈥檚 teacher, dives deep with her students in Creative Writing II, a year-long course on poetry. They study a diverse array of poets, from William Shakespeare to U.S. poets laureate Rita Dove, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Joy Harjo. They analyze hip-hop lyrics and watch spoken-word performances. They learn to write in classic forms such as sonnets, villanelles, and sestinas.
And, of course, they perform their work in readings and slam competitions, such as 鈥減iano slams鈥� that incorporate keyboards, dance, and spoken word. Seven of Symonette鈥檚 students collaboratively wrote a poem that was published last month in the latest in a series of collections of writings by young people that grew out of a project launched in the mid 1990s by California high school teacher Erin Gruwell. The piece, 鈥淧oetry is Our Poker Face,鈥� is a paean to the life-saving power of writing.
鈥淧oetry reminds us all that we are whole, that we are human beings, and it is so important that students know that, even in the midst of everything that鈥檚 going on in the world,鈥� Symonette said. 鈥淭hey have all these emotions that they are going through, and poetry helps them make sense of all of that.鈥�
After the murder of George Floyd, students gravitated to one poem in particular: Renee Watson鈥檚 which uses the dictionary-definition format鈥攕omething students know well鈥攖o explore racism and affirm Blackness. Symonette read it to students over Zoom. They kept asking her to re-read it. They flooded the chat with thoughts and questions. They wanted to discuss it over and over.
鈥淚 think what really resonated with them is the fact that it鈥檚 written with a series of definitions, and it gave them the idea that we could write a poem where we are defining things for ourselves,鈥� Symonette.
Sydheera Brown, one of Symonette鈥檚 12th grade students, loves reading poetry. She finds strength, too, in the poems she鈥檚 written herself. Again and again in the last year, she re-read her poem 鈥淢y New Normal,鈥� a piece that details the pain of racism, and the isolation and fear of the pandemic.
鈥淲hen I go back to re-read it, I鈥檓 looking for hope and courage, because I really needed that during that time, and I鈥檒l continue to need that in the future, with how things are changing,鈥� she said.
Even as Sydheera takes on difficult experiences in her poem, she finds her way to an uneasy kind of hope:
Three thousand miles away, a student in Los Angeles wrote herself into calm and connectedness by exploring her cultural roots. Andrea Mejia Garcia, a 10th grader at Belmont High School, wrote a poem detailing the vibrancy of her family鈥檚 homeland, Guatemala.
The poem began as a class assignment by her English teacher, Elizabeth Bush. It asked students to research and write a poem using sensory details from their cultures.
Like many of her classmates, Andrea had been dealing with hard things: family members falling ill with COVID, her grandfather dying from the virus. As she explored her thoughts, the poem morphed into a kind of rescue. 鈥淚t let me express feelings I鈥檇 been holding back, and that gave me an inner peace,鈥� she said.
Exploring the work of established poets, Giselle Sanchez-Vasquez, one of Bush鈥檚 11th grade students, stumbled on writing by S.C. Lourie, and found messages of self-care that she needed to hear.
Bush covers the whole gamut of language-arts skills and knowledge in her class. She can use poetry to address academic standards such as figurative language and evidence to support a claim. But well-chosen poems also have a way of getting students鈥� attention, she said.
鈥淎 powerhouse poem can compete with a phone,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey like to take poems apart, peek between the blinds, and look for insights into life that will remain with them.鈥�
Bush has long had a list of poems she likes to study with her students. But with racial debates and pandemic fear roiling, she dug back in to find pieces that would connect to students鈥� lives now. Here are a few that proved popular:
- Ada Lim贸n鈥檚 uses the emergence of spring leaves as a symbol of humanity鈥檚 power to go on living, 鈥渄espite the mess of us, the hurt, the empty.鈥�
- Mary Oliver鈥檚 The final two lines are the famous and most-quoted ones: 鈥淭ell me, what is it you plan to do/with your one wild and precious life?鈥� But Bush likes to focus her students鈥� attention on Oliver鈥檚 lush, natural imagery for solace and presence of mind.
- Gary Soto鈥檚 This bittersweet tribute to family and back-breaking field work often grabs students鈥� attention with its striking imagery.
- Pablo Neruda鈥檚 Students are charmed by this romantic take on a common vegetable. Bush assigns them to write their own odes to everyday objects.
