Skunk Poetry
Contributed by Instant Orchard on NCTE-Talk
Skunk Poetry is an adaptation of a colleague's seminar which she called Reinventing Skunks: Poems From What Life Gives Us. She takes her name from a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye called "Valentine for Ernest Mann" in which a man gives hs wife skunks for a Valentine's Day present. He thought they were beautiful, so he reinvented them as Valentines (see below for poem) Anyhow, my colleague's seminar was very similar to something I have been doing for years and calling Word Processing Poetry (because it is easier if you use a word processor) . After attending her seminar, I gleefully now call it Skunk Poetry. Here is the plan as I have drawn it up and implemented it in class.
Skunk Poetry (Found Poems)
Symbolism & Imagery
Preparation
Display on overhead a picture of a rainbow. Display the following Bible verses on the board next to the transparency.
(12) And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: (13) I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. (14) And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: (15) And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. (16) And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. (17) And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.
(Genesis 9:12 - 17)
Post the following journal prompt: What does the rainbow symbolize to you? Look at the transparency for a moment and try to envision yourself there. Now write a vivid, descriptive paragraph describing everything you can see and how it makes you feel. (NOTE: The Bible verses are up there for anyone who wants them, but no student is required to use them when writing)
Procedure
Allow students to write for at least 10 minutes. Let them know that they need to have a lot written because you're going to show them how to turn their paragraphs into poems. The more they have written, the easier the poem will be. Assure them that if they do this activity, they will never again have to worry about writing poetry for any English class. Say "Keep writing" when you notice the pencils stopping.
When students have finished, explain to them that the words they have written have poetry inside them: poetry which is waiting to be discovered, to be set free. Assure them that you will help them find it.On the overhead, display a journal you yourself have written. This should preferably be typed. With the class, go over each line, scratching out the words which are not poetry. This may change every time you do it; allow the students to suggest words to keep and words to remove. Ask them to explain why they chose to keep or omit certain words and phrases. Dialogue with students concerning these choices; explain your own point of view if it differs from the class consensus. Ultimately, assert that 30 students would create 30 different poems from the same exact paragraph. They are looking for the poetry inside themselves. Once you have chosen the poetic words, read over them slowly and aloud. Then give students five minutes to find the poetry in their own paragraphs.
Call time and ask them to return their attention to you. They will have more time in a moment if they have not yet finished. Explain to them that poets choose specific words for their poems and they also choose places to break their lines. Display a transparency of your own poem on the overhead and explain why you chose to break the lines where you did. Now give them ten minutes to rewrite their prose as poetry. Encourage them to think about their line breaks and the words they choose. Collect their poems after they have finished.
This is IMPORTANT!!! Read them THAT night and return them the NEXT day, with comments written in the margins. All comments should be positive with a minimum of repetition between students' poems.Instead of making specific helpful" remarks on a student's paper, decide which problems occur on several papers and cover those items in a quick review as you suggest the students rewrite their poetry for publication. The problems will probably be line breaks, parallel structure, too many words, and too few words. Explain that spelling should be perfect before a poem is submitted for final copy. Read the poems out loud to the class. Whenever something is even mildly poetic, make a big deal out of it. Pretend you have chills running down your spine. Let the students know that you are affected by the poetry they have inside of them. Allow authors to identify themselves if they wish.
Finally, share the poem "Valentine for Ernest Mann" with them. The poem reaffirms that poetry is where we find it. When Naomi Nye was presenting her poetry to a class, one young man gave her a slip of paper with his address and said "Write me a poem." This is what she wrote.
Valentine for Ernest Mann
You can't order a poem like you order a taco. Walk up to the counter, say, I'll take two and expect it to be handed back to you
on a shiny plate.
Still, I like your spirit.
Anyone who says, Here's my address,
write me a poem, deserves something in
reply. So I'll tell you a secret instead:
poems hide. In the bottoms of our shoes,
they are sleeping. They are shadows
drifting across our ceilings the moment
before we wake up. What we have to do
is live in a way that lets us find them.
Once I knew a man who gave his wife
two skunks for a valentine.
He couldn't understand why she was
crying. I thought they had such beautiful eyes.
And he was serious. He was a serious man who lived in a serious way. Nothing was ugly just because the world said so. He really liked those skunks. So, he re-invented them as valentines and they became beautiful. At least, to him. And the poems that had been hiding
in the eyes of skunks for centuries
crawled out and curled up at his feet.
Maybe if we re-invent whatever our lives give us, we find poems. Check your garage, the odd sock in your drawer, the person you almost like, but not quite.
And let me know.
-Naomi Shihab Nye
Encourage your new poets to keep looking and to let you know.
The poems my children turned out were phenomenal! Many of my students have never written a poem before in their lives, and they walked away with a sense of having brought some beauty into the world. Nothing beats the feeling of having accomplished something like this. Here are a couple examples. The picture I used has a picture of a flat-topped mountain in an apparent wasteland (no grass, no trees, etc.) with a beautiful rainbow in the sky above it.
The authors name is used as the title in each case.
Matt G.
I'd like to climb atop the mountain
and play acoustic guitar for the clouds.
Consider the movements of the clouds
a dance for the strings I strum
The thought of this releases my soul
and carries it into a state of tranquility.
My mind is clear
and my senses accept nature
I am free.
Tim
I see a
barren place
To some
this may be
a horrible place
Not I
A barren place at
dawn is most
spectacular to
be there away
from everyone is
like ectasy to me.
Greg
Rainbows symbolizes new life
A pathway to heaven
The large rainbow
A strip of red bleeding into
orange
yellow
green
blue
purple
look much harder
See the gracefull clouds
A dark shade of purple
A hole in the in the cloud
The peeking sun
The red rock which is lit for the suns rays The mesa from which the Rainbow starts
New Life All Over Again.
