You Can Teach Children About War

Thanks to Andrew Sullivan, I found this article about how poets should/can/must write poetry about war. 100 Years of Poetry: The Magazine and War by Abigail Deutsch. Poetry has lovely editorials and essays -- this is more in the vein of a long lesson, primarily directed toward adults -- but with a little imagination, any adult lesson can be modified for children. Or for a different audience of adults. Or for you, just you, the poet in you. You the poet. You the one who wonders about how to/ if you should/ whether you must write about war.

This photo is from Andrew Sullivan's blog "The Dish," part of "The Daily Beast," which my husband reads, well, daily. I love photos of poetry manuscripts, the more crooked the handwriting on the page, the better.

I'm going to have to scan some of my student's war poems to post. There are some images available on the web, but not a lot.

I did find an article from the UK, posted in The Guardian earlier this year, about how to teach children about war by using war memorials and writing poetry in response to them. The article was written to correspond with Remembrance Sunday in Britain, but the principal applies in the US as well, or course. A visit to any of the memorials in Washington DC, or even in your local community, can inspire a poetry lesson. The Guardian has an amazing Teacher Network, in which I often find gems and inspiration.  This photo is from the aforementioned article.

When In Doubt, Twirl (How to make a twirly dress)

These photos are lovely and the whole idea is great. Alix of Bohemia has a lovely lesson.

Candles for Emily

One way to introduce (otherwise disinclined) people to poetry is with art about poetry. My daughter found this installation on line. I will have to look up all the poems Emily Dickinson wrote in her annus mirabilis in 1862 (or '63). She wrote 366 (or 360?) poems in 365 days. I don't want to steal this artist's thunder, so read about the beautiful thing Spencer Finch has made here.

This photo is from his website. The patterns in the wax and colors are plenty poem for me. 

It's a bit of a challenge to find information about the annus mirabilis, but of course ED is everywhere. 

"poetry teaches us to wrestle with and simplify complexity"

Not expecting to find my comfort zone in the Harvard Business Review, but this is a poetry-friendly article. I'm not sure I see how poetry helps develop emphathy, but I do know that writing poetry helps develop creativity. Does reading poetry develop creativity? I'm also not completely sure what a poetry "user" is -- although I know I am one. So I guess it can't be too bad.

Rethinking The Twirly Word

At last my masters thesis is completed. I have lost interest in posting my own poetry on this site. Time to think more and more and more about poems and children (perhaps children of all ages...) and how to get some work and play going on. I'm not sure yet how this will all play out, but I plan to practice speaking out with poetry and other child-like things. At 52, they say it is never too late.