From their
school newspaper -
When I was eight years old, I told my friends that I wanted
to be a poet when I grew up,” said Ms. Elizabeth Thomas, a
guest speaker to the middle school on December 14. Today
as a published poet she teaches writing programs for
schools throughout Connecticut, promoting literacy
through what she calls ”the power of the spoken and
written word.” We have already visited her web site called
Upwords Poetry at
www.upwordspoetry.com
“I have
always loved words,” she told us in Room 236. Middle
school students learned that she likes the way words
sound, the way they feel in her mouth when she reads them,
and the way they look on the page.
“I got
into poetry because of my dad,” she said. “He loved words
and their meanings and passed this passion on to me.” Of
all the writing she did in middle and high school, poetry
writing was what made her feel electric.
“When
writing it, I got the feeling you get in your stomach when
you are on a roller coaster or when you ride your bike
the first time without the training wheels,” she
explained.
Ms.
Thomas also suggests reading as a way to be a good poet.
“The more you read, the better a writer you will be," she
advised us. She said that reading brings us closer to
people as it exposes us to different lives, new
experiences, and exciting possibilities. Here is one of
her favorite quotes, written by C. S. Lewis: “We read to
know we are not alone.” She says that many people write
and read poetry for this reason.
According to Ms. Thomas, “If you let it, poetry will grab
you by the pigtails and or sneaker laces and shake you up
a little- or a lot. It can flash bright neon in your
dreams or blow hailstorms the size o oranges on the desk
in front of you and say in its most excited voice, ‘Write
me! Write me alive!’”
Ms.
Thomas shared with us some exciting Hispanic poetry. We
learned about the poet Naomi Ayala, who emigrated from
Puerto Rico and lived in New Haven. In her poem “Who Is
I?” she writes of “I in the prados of Mira and vente
conmigo.”
Learning more about Gary Soto, a favorite author in the
Reading Department, we looked at the poems “Saturday in
the Canal, Who will know us? and How Things Work. “Gary
Soto, ” said Ms. Thomas, ”is a Mexican American who
writes poems based on his own experiences. He writes about
the poverty and destitution he faced in his youth, while
working in the San Joaquin Valley, California fields."
Another
one of Ms. Thomas’ favorite Hispanic poets is Luis J.
Rodriguez, a personal friend of hers. Ms. Thomas spoke of
how this poet was once a Los Angeles gang member who was
stealing at age 7, using drugs at 12, dropping out of
school at 15, becoming homeless at 16, and then starting a
6-year prison sentences at age 18. After turning his life
around, Luis J. Rodriguez began writing poetry and working
with gang members to help them survive. He and his wife
founded a group called Youth Struggling for Survival. His
poem “The Concrete River” gave us much to consider.
Middle
schools students wrote the poetry on the next page based
on the instruction Ms. Thomas offered on the use of color,
emotion, senses, and similes. Imagery was what she
emphasized. ”You can’t write a poem without images,” she
said. “Paint a picture with your words,“ she suggested.
“Provide an image to surround your readers - to bring them
inside your mind. And to do this, use your five senses-
sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch.”
To begin poetry writing, she recommends that we identify an
emotion such as jealousy, confusion, happiness, anger, or
sadness. Next, we can describe the emotion as a color, a
sound, a taste, or something we can see. Then, to take the
reader to another level of the poem, we can add similes.
“You are the poet and the words belong to you,” she added.
We thanked her for inspiring us to write poetry.