Poetry Units

Remember those horrible poetry units in school (designed to make the student hate poetry) in which you had to collect poems maybe on a certain theme and illustrate them? When Brandon did his, we cut up several copies of Ideals Magazines to illustrate.

Generally the teacher also asked the student to write a poem--maybe a haiku. Haiku is probably one of the hardest forms of poetry to write. It is a Japanese verse form consisting of only seventeen syllables in three lines of five, seven and five syllables each. It should convey a single image or feeling. I like this take-off on it:

The only problem
with Haiku is that you just
get started and then

Roger McGough

But here is a good example

In the amber dusk
Each island dreams its own night.
The sea swarms with gold.

Isn't that lovely...