Further Reading:

by Brett Vogelsinger

Gabriel Fried's poem, "Twilight Field" establishes a delightfully creepy mood with simple langauge and one short stanza:


Twilight Field

The spirits play a children's game;
they pose as trees in clover.
I look. They stay. I look. They stay.
I look again. They're closer.


The second read of this poem demands a choral reading from the class, which adds to the sinister overtones.  And if a student just happens to be open the door and come in late as you read the last word of the poem together as a class . . . well that's just perfect!  For me, this poem catpures that feeling we can sometimes experience when alone with nature, that something is watching us or drawing near, for in nature, we are never entirely in solitude. (Note: The Dr. Who fans in your class will impulsively want to point out a connection to The Weeping Angels at this point as well!)

I use this poem on days when I want to maintain my Poem of the Day routine, but I have limited time.  I write this statement on the board: "This poem has an excellent example of 'near rhyme.'"

After two readings, I ask students to defend this statement, even if they have never heard of "near rhyme" before.  In each class, someone is able to infer what that term must mean, and the student points out that "clover" and "closer" seem to rhyme, but do not excatly rhyme, and the repeated "a" sound (assonance) in "game" and "stay" create a similar effect.

While I do not make it a formal homework assignment, I invite students to pay attention to the lyrics the next time they listen to their favorite music.  Where in the lyrics can they spot an example of near rhyme?  Songwriters often employ near rhyme in order to fit the needed ideas within the rhythm of the music without compromising the overall rhyme scheme.  Put to music, near rhymes sound even more like real rhymes.

While literary terms can be dry when learned in isolation, taught in the context of a quick, enjoyable poem and favorite music they seem far less daunting.

For another Gabriel Fried poem to share, see this post from last year's collection.

Further Reading:





Brett Vogelsinger is a ninth-grade English teacher at Holicong Middle School in Bucks County, PA.  He has been starting class with a poem each day for the past six years and is the creator of the Go Poems blog to share poetry reading and writing ideas with teachers around the world. Find him on Twitter @theVogelman.

by Brett Vogelsinger

Safia Elhillo's beautiful poem "first adornment" captures a moment that is personally meaningful but also culturally rich.  Elhillo describes herself as "Sudanese by way of Washington DC" in her bio, and much of the imagery in this poem highlights her Sudanese roots.

Challenge students to use clues from within "first adornment" to explore the cultural roots of its poet. In this poem clues such as Ramadan, the stones in the rice, the crushed hibiscus, the henna, suggest certain climates and regions of the world.  With guiding questions, you might see how close you can lead the class to Sudan.

After revealing that these images reference Sudanese culture, a question flood might be appropriate.  Ask the class to generate plentiful questions based on the poem, flooding its margins:  What does this poem make you wonder about this culture? What questions do you have about Sudan after reading this poem?

Sadly, many students receive too little exposure to cultures outside of their own.  I recently heard of an elementary school student who was given the opportunity to research the culture of any country in the world.  He chose Mozambique because he thought the name was fascinating, and it made him want to learn more.  He was redirected by his teacher to choose Brazil because he was told "no one has really heard of Mozambique," which, to me, seems even greater reason to research it and bring it to the class. (On a brighter note, he enjoyed researching and learning about Brazil.)

Poems give us the chance to introduce voices from all over the world.  By starting class with a new one each day, students experience inquiry into cultures they may never study in a social studies or history class, which is just one more reason to start sharing more poetry.

Further Reading:



Brett Vogelsinger is a ninth-grade English teacher at Holicong Middle School in Bucks County, PA.  He has been starting class with a poem each day for the past six years and is the creator of the Go Poems blog to share poetry reading and writing ideas with teachers around the world. Find him on Twitter @theVogelman.

by Brett Vogelsinger

Welcome back teachers, poets, writers, and students to our first post of the 2019 National Poetry Month season!  Subscribe now via email so you can catch every post and add new selections to your repertoire of poems to share with students.  On this site, you will also find engaging methods, questions, and media to provoke powerful thinking in your classroom.

Naomi Shihab Nye is a familiar name to many teachers who share poetry in their classrooms. Her poems are accessible and profound. They balance provocative, relevant commentary on our world with a sense of joy and possibility that children need to hear in their reading at school.

Her poem "Famous" is one of her best-known poems, but the title is slyly misleading. Instead of celebrating fame in the red-carpet sense of the word, it turns an eye on commonplace things "like a pulley . . . or a buttonhole . . . because it never forgot what it could do."

After reading the poem with students, discuss this question: "What is she doing here with the title and the concept of fame?"  Then, in their notebooks, invite students to create an imaginary"deleted scene" from this poem that fits the spirit of the original.  They might begin with her refrain "The _______ is famous to the ________" to shine a light on a different sort of fame. The opening lines of the last two stanzas also work well for this prompt: "I want to be famous to _______" or "I want to be famous in the way ________." My students wrote about the "fame" of jeeps, staples, touchscreens, pen caps, and tree trunks in their notebooks, to name a few.

When you visit the link to today's poem, be sure to watch the film adaptation of Nye's poem at the bottom fo the page.  The creative pairing of video imagery with lines from the poem could spark a discussion all of its own.  In a later post, we will look at another video from the Poetry Foundation's Poem Movie collection.

Further Reading:




Brett Vogelsinger is a ninth-grade English teacher at Holicong Middle School in Bucks County, PA.  He has been starting class with a poem each day for the past six years and is the creator of the Go Poems blog to share poetry reading and writing ideas with teachers around the world. Find him on Twitter @theVogelman.

by Brett Vogelsinger

Welcome back to our third year of Go Poems.  Look for new posts here starting March 15, 2019.

For now, explore our collection of powerful poetry and teaching ideas. There are sixty here already!

Then, be sure to subscribe via email on our home page so you don't miss a beat this National Poetry Month.  Look for posts from some of our Go Poems veterans -- Carol Jago, Jason Stephenson, and Amy Ludwig VanDerwater -- and some from Go Poems first-timers like poetry powerhouse pairs Sara Holbrook and Michael Salinger, Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell.  And of course, in year six of my Poem of the Day routine, I will have some fresh ideas and poetry approaches to share as well.

The countdown to National Poetry Month begins, and the time to start preparing for a poem to share each day in your classroom is now! Ready . . . set . . . go!