WHAT MAKES GOOD POETRY?

Poetry Showpiece Paragraph

HERE ARE SOME THOUGHTS…“A poem is a communication from one soul to another that makes one or both hearts sing.”

-Walter Mayes.

What is a good poem?A good poem is a slip-of-a-thing

that celebrates language, that takesyou on a short journey and touches your heart,

turns on your imagination, or tickles your funny-bone somewhere along the way.

-Nikki Grimes.

MORE THOUGHTS… Love and care for elemental details, for

chosen words and their simple arrangement on the page… and a way of ending that leaves a new resonance or a lit spark in the reader or listener’s mind—that’s part of it.

-Naomi Shihab Nye

CONTINUED…When I think of a good poem :Many things come to mind but a few specifically: A good poem makes you feel like you’ve been there before, or want to go. A good poem takes you to the city, to the sea, to the heart of any and all matters; you see it, taste it, belong to it. A good poem is a menagerie of craft; a spinning of sound, word choice, alliteration, rhythm and often rhyme. A good poem is the arrangement of enchantment, or as J. Patrick Lewis says, a blind date with enchantment.

-Rebecca Kai Dotlich.

FINALLY…A good poem surprises your senses, shakes you awake, stirs your emotions, and startles your imagination. Each poem is an act of discovery. Poetry helps us widen our vision and our hearts.

-Joan Bransfield Graham

WHAT DO YOU THINK?Based on all of the work that you have done with poetry thus far, what do you think makes good poetry? Think about form and all of the devices that you have been using to create your own poetry magic when coming up with your answer.

BRAINSTORM IDEAS!

FORMATQuestion: Based on all of the work that you have done with poetry thus far, what do you think makes good poetry? Think about form and all of the devices that you have been using to create your own poetry magic when coming up with your answer. 5- 8 Sentences Remember your “ET” model if you get stuck

- Topic: What makes good poetry? (~1 sentence)- Example 1 How and why? (~ 1-2 sentences)- Example 2 How and why? (~1-2 sentences)- Example 3 How and why? (~1-2 sentences)- To conclude: Tie back to your topic (~1 sentence)

“One thing that makes a poem really great is the use of imagery because when someone talks about the sweet aroma of apple pie in a poem, I imagine it and can almost smell it myself because I have made it before!”