#NatPoMo

Happy National Poetry Month! Many people consider poetry to be a superfluous, unnecessary endeavor to study in school, but I disagree 100%. Poetry, more than prose, shows us just how powerful words can be and is incredibly empowering when we give students the opportunity to take their own journeys with poetry rather than forcing nothing but close readings and "hidden meaning" analysis. I'll be sharing many of my favorite poems this month with the hope that you'll just enjoy the words. No analysis required. I think Billy Collins would approve.

Introduction to Poetry

By Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem   

and hold it up to the light   

like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem   

and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room   

and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski   

across the surface of a poem

waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do

is tie the poem to a chair with rope   

and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose   

to find out what it really means.