For Educators

Purple
by Sydnee Bowden, 16

Violet cotton candy skies
And purple lilacs grown from my eyes
Grape candies stuck in teeth
And lavender from the ground beneath
And sugar plums
And Autumn mums
And amethyst crystals
And blackberry fistfuls
I strive to see through a purple lens
I strive for love
And affection
And happy ends
I strive to see weight of the world
Blow just over my shoulder
I strive to feel long eternal emotion
Emotion that stays in one’s heart
And appears effortlessly on one’s face
I strive for brightness and color to seep out of my bones
And glow from within me
For I radiate purple
A pale pale purple
Deep beyond my skin in which is nearly invisible
And my fat in which you can see right through
There is sight of a dull purple
A purple that is locked away
Waiting for a key
Waiting for a door to open
Always patiently waiting to come out
And it will come out
One day it will
One day I will radiate purple

Shrewsbury, New Jersey

From Bridge Ink, Issue 8.2

 

VISION: understanding and experimenting with metaphors

PREWORK: Either introduce or review the definition of “metaphor” and “extended metaphor.”  Encourage students to come up with the definition on their own or while working in pairs.

A metaphor is a comparison that does not use the words “like” or “as.” Example: The cop displayed Herculean strength to lift the car. Extended metaphors are comparisons stretched across multiple lines, stanzas, or, in some cases, spanning an entire poem or literary work. They often feature multiple references or allusions when making the comparison between the two objects or concepts. Examples: “Hope Is The Thing With Feathers” (Emily Dickinson) or “The Road Not Taken” (Robert Frost)

READ: Read the poem out loud and have students underline or jot down words, phrases, images that resonate. Ask them to look for the extended metaphor.

Take a few minutes to discuss their initial reactions, identifying what they see as the extended metaphor and what it represents for them.

WRITING PROMPT: Have students brainstorm lists: colors, emotions, ideas, places, etc. (3 to 5 minutes)

Have them pick a topic off one of their lists and play with writing about it as an extended metaphor. (7 to 10 minutes)

REJECT THE PROMPT: Have students write in response to the poem, choosing a word, phrase, image, or idea. Or allow students to write about whatever they want to write about.

SHARE: Give students time to share with one another, in pairs and/or with the group at large.

what if … it’s okay … to wish
by the 7th & 8th grade AVID students at Red Bank Middle School

What if this pandemic never happened?
(We all wish it didn’t)

What if we do whatever comes up in our minds?
What if we just do what we love?

What if there was no earth?
What if there was no tomorrow?

What if we left all our second thoughts?

What if people listened?
What if we could all just be kind?

What if we had a balanced life?

It’s okay to have fears
It’s okay if you are different
It’s okay to be yourself
It’s okay to own yourself
It’s okay to be who you are

Accept yourself

Because no matter who is in your life
Only your opinion matters

People you meet might not continue your journey with you
But every person is there for a reason
Some may be for a lesson
Others for a blessing

My wish is to treat this place we live in right
So we can live in peace
My wish is to finish one piece

Why is it that when the story ends we begin to feel all of it?

Let me hold on for a bit longer

Red Bank, New Jersey

From Bridge Ink, Issue 5.1

 

VISION: generative writing & collaborative poem creation

POEM OF THE DAY: “Manifesto of the Lyric Selfie” by Becca Klaver

PREWORK: Write each set of prompts (listed below) on a separate pieces of paper.

#itsok
#whatif

#mywish
#mywishfortheworld

#lettinggo
#holdon

#iam
#iwillbe

READ: Read the “Poem of the Day” out loud and have students jot down words, phrases, images that resonate.

Tell them that today we are going to do some quick writing with new prompts every 5 minutes.

If you are doing this in a classroom, you can arrange your students into four groups. Place two of the hashtag prompts that go together in each group. Then set the timer for 5 minutes (you are welcome to extend that time). After the timer goes off, move the prompts to the next group and repeat.

At the end of the write-a-thon, invite students to share their work aloud. After sharing, have students identify one line they’d like to include in a collective poem. Using their lines, arrange them into one large collaborative work as seen above. (Try to include all of the students’ writing as is, but feel free to edit for clarity.)

Virtual Modification: Put two prompts at a time in the Zoom chat or Google Classroom. At the end of the session, invite students to share their work aloud. Then have them identify one line to share in the chat. Arrange their lines into one large collaborative work.