2. Introduction to Poetry
“In a poem the words should be as pleasing to the ear as the meaning is to the mind.”
-- Marianne Moore 2

3. The Human Brain Divided into 2 parts Each half has its own function
Right Brain:
Creativity
Emotions
Left Brain:
Logic
Reality 3

4. To clarify . . . When you are looking at big puffy clouds . . .
Your right brain tells you, “Hey! That one looks like a bunny.”
While your left brain tells you . . . 4

5. It’s a cloud, Stupid! 5

6. Survey says . . . Here are a few hints: Poetry requires creativity
Poetry requires emotion
Poetry requires an artistic quality
Poetry requires logic
Survey says . . . 6

7. both 7

8. For the Left Brain:
Recognizing certain devices used within a poem will give the left brain something to concentrate on. 8

9. Introduction to the Aspects of Poetry

10. How to use this PowerPoint
This PowerPoint is designed to help you understand what makes poetry such a creative and wonderful form of self-expression. It will prepare you to write your own poetry.
Anything typed in yellow is something you need to write down in your journal and/or do in your journal.
If you are absent, go to my website to make up what you missed.

11. Poetic expression is hard to define and even harder to label since in itself it can comprise so many styles, ideas, lengths and forms.
In this class we will focus on these poetic aspects:
Idea and Emotion
Type and Form
Style of the Line
Concise Word Choice

12. When students tell me they write for their own enjoyment, most students tell me they like to write poetry.
Answer in your journal: Why is this so? Why do some teens write and/or read poems?
I will provide you with 5 minutes to write down your answer within your journal. Do not waste time; Your journal will be a part of your grade this quarter.

13. “We don't read and write poetry because it's cute
“We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering - these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love - these are what we stay alive for.”
Mr. Keating, played by Robin Williams in the movie Dead Poet’s Society

14. Idea and Emotion
Poetry is the one type of writing that truly comes from an emotional response to an image, an event or experience, or a memory. Most poets say they are inspired to write a poem.
"A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a home-sickness or a love-sickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found the words.”-Robert Frost
“If you know what you are going to write when you’re writing a poem, it’s going to be average.” –Derek Walcott

15. Emotion- Some poets begin writing a poem for an emotional release.
Idea- Some poets begin writing a poem because they are inspired by something they’ve experienced.

16. Answer the following questions in your journal:
What are typical emotions and topics shown in poetry?
Are there bad poetry topics?
I will provide you with 5 minutes to write down your answer within your journal. Do not waste time; Your journal will be a part of your grade this quarter.

17. Answer in your journal: What does a poem need to look like and contain to be a poem?
I will provide you with 5 minutes to write down your answer within your journal. Do not waste time; Your journal will be a part of your grade this quarter.
Things to think about in your answer:
Do most poems rhyme?
Are poems about emotions?
Are poems a certain length?
What is the goal of a poem?
Can poets ignore grammar rules like capital letters and punctuation?
Can poems be funny?
What types of word choice or language do you see in poems?

18. IS THIS A POEM? A Supermarket In California by Allan Ginsberg
What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked
down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking
at the full moon.
In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon
fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!
What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at
night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!
--and you, García Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?

19. Is this a poem?
l(a l(a le af fa ll s) one l iness

20. Is this a poem?

21. Is This A Poem?? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY2VYg-qKWU
Coming Up by Ani DiFranco
Our father who art in a penthouse Sits in his 37th floor suite And swivels to gaze down At the city he made me in He allows me to stand and Solicit graffiti until He needs the land I stand on I in my darkened threshold Am pawing through my pockets The receipts, the bus schedules The urgent napkin poems The matchbook phone numbers All of which laundering has rendered Pulpy and strange Loose change and a key Ask me Go ahead, ask me if I care I got the answer here I wrote it down somewhere I just gotta find it
Is This A Poem??

22. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;   Then took the other, as just as fair And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that, the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
Is This A Poem?
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

23. Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
There is a place where the sidewalk ends And before the street begins, And there the grass grows soft and white, And there the sun burns crimson bright, And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind. Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black And the dark street winds and bends. Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow, And watch where the chalk-white arrows go To the place where the sidewalk ends. Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow, And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go, For the children, they mark, and the children, they know The place where the sidewalk ends

24. The answer ? They are all poems.
When you write a poem, it should have a subject, a goal, a tone, and a flow. It should contain specific, condensed word choice and literary devices like metaphor, simile and imagery.