It's Poetry I Teach

A month ago, I taught a poetry unit, and so my students were forced to write it. After they wrote about 10 poems, I forced them to create it into a book, reflect on their style as a poet, and be decorative.
I thoroughly apologize to students who hate all of the latter activities.

But I'm an English teacher.

And I love poetry.

And so they will, too. Naturally.

Anyway, I'm also quite vain, so I see the very best of what my students have written and take complete credit for it.

But my favorite parts of these poetry books have been the dedications and the selected quotes. More or less, I'm proud of them for their work and thoughtfulness.

Also, this may be illegal to blog their writing, but I'm doing it anyway.

Student 1
Title: Poetry from a Sophomoron
"Dedicated to my dear friends that make our English class so much fun even though we may be getting in trouble, being annoying, or being too loud. And also to my teacher Miss Boman, for showing us the depths of poetry and teaching us with 'all the knowledge of the universe'."
Writing poetry is the hard manual labor of the imagination. ~Imanuel Reed

Student 2
Title: Due Monday! Read pg. 1-12 or Megan's Poetry. Have a Great Weekend!
"To my English teacher, Miss Boman, who has taught me more about poetry than I ever thought I would want to learn, and also to my crazy classmates for giving me the motivation to write amazing and heartfelt poetry."
Poetry is plucking at the heartstrings, and making music with them. ~Dennis Gabor

Student 3
Title: A Poetic Journey
"To those who were forced to write poetry for a grade, and are unwilling to admit that they almost enjoyed it."
A poem can have an impact, but you can't expect an audience to understand all the nuances. ~Douglass Duncan

Student 4
Title: Taking Life One Day at a Time
"To my family and friends who inspire me to write random poems and show me it's okay to be yourself."
Music is the shorthand of emotion. ~Leo Tolstoy

Student 5
Title: The Undefined
"To those who understand the feeling of being serious while having fun at the same time."
Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart. ~Eleanor Roosevelt

Student 6
Title: Make Your Mark
"To those who believe that the written word is essential to life."
Books are like mirrors: if a fool looks in, you cannot expect a genius to look out. ~J.K. Rowling

Student 7
Title: Book of Wonders
"To my friends who helped me with rhyming my words. Without the help of those wonderful people, my Book of Wonders would not be what it is today."
Non typical/Forget what lyrics say/What movies portray/What magazines imply

Student 8
Title: ________Mae's Poetry
"To country music, my inspiration for writing and to Miss Boman for pushing us to write."
Every man dies. Not every man really lives. ~William Wallace

Student 9
Title: A Waterfall of Words
"To all those kids who do not enjoy poetry and want to be free and stay young."
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. ~Robert Frost

Student 10
Title: Random is Key
"To my awesome class that helped me get through this tough poetry unit. Also to my mom who was dedicated in helping me with most of my poems. With my classmates who made poetry fun, and something that I will remember forever."
Sometimes questions are more important than answers. ~Nancy Willard

Student 11
Title: Just Words
"To those who actually like poetry...those who like writing because their voice is too quiet to be heard."
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind. ~Dr. Seuss

Student 12
Title: It's Poetry!
"To all the people that influenced any of these poems. Thank you for your uniqueness, and allowing me to write about you."
Howd con Ih dew it. ~Kayla

Student 13
Title: A Ginger's Tale
"To my fellow classmates who made this poetry unit enjoyable. Also, to my teacher Miss Boman for teaching me and my classmates."
What is my life, if I am useless to others? ~Wolfgang

Student 14
Title: All the Poems
"To all the peole who think they're terrible at poetry - just read mine."
Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. ~Dr. Seuss

Student 15
"To all the poetry lovers of CCHS. Hope you enjoy this as much as I had fun writing it."
O captain! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Ris Up-for you the flag is flung-for you the bugle trills. ~Whitman

Student 16
Title: Le Rage Book!
"To my best friend in the whole world, who had no effect on this book."
Life is a long preparation for something that never happens. ~William Butler Yeats


There you have it: a number of students' inspirations and thoughts.

I get to teach that :)

Fight Club

Fight Club

Grotesque and intriguing, this film is about a young man wrought with living a mundane life. he lives in a high-rise apartment, eats out at a local diner, and goes to work every day. (His run-ins with the boss are hilarious, by the way). He claims that it's the repetitive and civil lifestyle that contribute to insomnia. The only thing to calm him are cancer support groups, none of which apply to him, but in them he is able to cry in the arms of a man named Big Tits and finally sleep, that is until Marla, another support group fraud, begins attending the support groups. Soon after, the narrator meets Tyler in an alleyway where the two fight until they're bleeding. They begin Fight Club.

Beyond the blood, the head bashing, or the skin-singing, what disturbed me most was the main character's tone of narration, a flat but mused voice that recounted events leading up to the present, each stated as though it could happen to anyone, that it may have happened already to you.

These events were unusual. The narrator finding an old abandoned house in a desolate district after his apartment blew up, Marla sleeping with Tyler, but the narrator was never in the same room as the two, the compliance from thousands of men who worked and supported families but were also part of Fight Club, the Robin Hood-like nature of Tyler (was he really that evil? Yes.) the moment Big Tits dies and there is a learned reaction from the followers not to show emotion for the loss of human life. Is masculinity in its truest form really so animalistic and brutal? Is Marla's femininity what saved the narrator?

The man was an insomniac. By day he was the narrator; by night he was Tyler Durden. It's quite Freudian. We are not who we are when we are alone. We are someone just a little different with our closest family members and friends, who choose to believe the best in us. We are entirely different in society. True? I believe so.

The narrator was trying to find truth but also be his truest and best form of a human--leave the insignificant things, like working your way up in the American Dream and instead induce fear into people until they discover what it is they need to be that matters. The narrator makes it clear by the end of the film. We need to have a little of both qualities in us. We should fear the system, we should be civilized, but we should not accept it to a fault. Likewise, we should not separate ourselves completely because we need still to identify with humanity and to be able to know what love is. A little of both and you become a smarter person, a critical thinker, and one who is content enough to accept the world around him but always question it.

This film is about compliance and whether we will choose to obey the system or not.

Watch it, but beware, the blood and brutality is unforgettable.