The American Sentence Goes to High School (On-line)

Poster sheet 1 of 3 on which one class created their American sentence
chain by posting their individual lines based on a shared-environment
free write. (4/21/15)

In years past, I would have students work with analyzing and writing a number of different poetic forms during National Poetry Month. A very standard task for schools, I know, but neither this particular school year (COVID-19!) nor the poetic structure are "traditional." So, we adjust. The unfortunate reality is that by the time I receive students in my classroom as juniors, much of the communal joy around poetry, in general, seems to have been driven from them. Most mentions of "poetry" elicit groans from classes. That doesn't mean you don't attempt to fan what small flames of affection for poetry remain. This year, what was taught and produced in our classroom over two days will now be attempted via Google Classroom. Whereas the process describe in the following (revised over last 9 school years) results in an accurate picture of a singular shared space: our classroom; this year our work will be linked by a shared experience: social distancing in our individual homes.

I like to have classes work first with that form with which they are most familiar (at least in terms of its superficial structure) and one that they especially seem to disdain, the traditional (Western) haiku. The next logical step, and one that provides as many opportunities for the meaningful application of imagistic writing skills, is the introduction of a personal favorite form, the American sentence.

The American sentence is a fairly modern poetic form initiated by Allen Ginsberg (Howl) as a means of compressing (“Maximum information, minimum number of syllables”) Western language in a style similar to that of the Eastern haiku. The key comes from a Ginsberg notion that poets are "people who notice what they notice." Ginsberg felt that divvying syllables into three 5-7-5 lines makes the poetic process an exercise in counting, not feeling. American Sentences are haiku-length poems that Allen suggested be limited to 17 syllables, like haiku in Japanese.

By using a free write centered on our classroom, at the time a common point in time and location, the class's first experience playing with this poetic form can also ultimately be used as an opportunity to collaboratively prepare an extended American sentence chain. (As the teacher, I also model the entire process from free-write to "publishing", on the computer and SMART board.) The idea that each student opening their individual awareness of a moment (or four minutes of "moments") can yield similar superficial observation filtered through varying perspectives can be powerful. The collection of sensual notes and observations taken during the free write always seem to result in enough brain fodder for students to pull two images with which to play and build their introductory American sentences.


Reviewing with class the potential contributing elements to an American sentence also creates the opportunity to review several concepts that are valuable in their analysis on literature (fiction and non-fiction) in a context that is easily accessible. For Regents-level students, the American sentence also is an excellent way to review and practice the use of figurative language. In a broad sense there is not much "new" here; students play with common literary elements in a new and open manner, by extending the but the application within the context of a modern form (an insight that some lack anyway: that understanding that forms and language do change and evolve).

Four applicable strategies in particular are especially fun to re-frame for classes:

• Imagistic: a style of poetry that employs free verse and the patterns and rhythms of common speech. 
• Found poetry: Found poetry is a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources (written or oral) and reframing them as poetry by making changes in spacing and/or lines (and consequently meaning), or by altering the text by additions and/or deletions. The resulting poem can be defined as either treated: changed in a profound and systematic manner; or untreated: virtually unchanged from the order, syntax and meaning of the original. 
• Busted syntax: poorly worded, incorrect syntax perhaps to illustrate a point 
• Demotic speech = of or pertaining to the ordinary, everyday, current form of a language; vernacular: a poet with a keen ear for demotic rhythms.

While one of my classes has already completed the activity (with part of the final results posted above), two more will be working through the format over the next few classes. Sadly one of the skills standardized test don't currently assess are creativity or the use by students of figurative language. This is unfortunate as this is where the majority of students excel despite the limited opportunities to develop a unique authorial voice outside the academic one favored by the exams.

Materials for 2020 American Sentence project using poetry generated by 2015 classes.

Given that the topic of the American Sentence Chain above is our classroom, occasionally the lines students' choose as their personal favorites to contribute do not reflect what I think of as a fairly productive learning environment. In addition being of the proper syllable count and imagistic, some lines evoke feedback that is personally and professionally helpful.It is always insightful to see the work of students' reflect their inner lives (at least the little of which I am aware) in writing. The American sentence is just one of the poetic forms that provide a wonderful vehicle for reflection.

The significant shift in focus in the time of COVID-19 may elicit some even more interesting insight. To be written via Google Classroom over the next few "classes", this year's individual and collaborative "products" should (fingers crossed!) reflect the diversity of our shared social distancing (oxymoron!) experience through the lens of the American sentence. This seems a perfectly natural outcome given the range of students and experience present in classes, which I miss dearly.

Sources:
Paul E. Nelson's Blog
Allen Ginsberg's American Sentences by Bob Holman and Margery Snyder

Poem du Jour: "Old Fashioned Spaceman"

From Leonard Nimoy's poetry collection Warmed by Love,
published by Blue Mountain Press in 1983.

Apologies for slacking, but here we are already six days into National Poetry Month 2020 and I have yet to post anything. Fortunately, this error is easily rectified by digging deep into my book shelf for a poem by recently departed Star Trek actor-director-poet Leonard Nimoy.

"Old Fashioned Spaceman" is fairly representative of the collection as a whole: Nimoy's style is free form, devoid of traditional  punctuation, with occasional rhyme, and frequently self-referential. There are few writer's who can use their own careers, especially an iconic character initially brought to life on a television screen, as a means of providing cultural allusion ("logic"). As we know, though, Leonard "Mr. Spock" Nimoy was not your normal cat.
The typography and publishing elements in this collection (gold hues, New Times-Roman font, bright, chalky strokes of color) strongly suggest the Vintage Hallmark poetry editions sold at the greeting card shops of my youth. These volumes, and my weekend evenings watching Star Trek, represent the breadth and depth of my youthful poetic experience. The warm traditional presentation (the very pleasant and joyful headshot of Mr. Nimoy on the cover for example) occasionally comes into contrast with the cold (logical?) tone established in the lines of poetry. One could interpret this contradiction and  of publishing style and content to reinforce the conflict Nimoy himself once felt about his association with the character.

My hard cover of Warmed By Love is a gift from many star-dates ago, so I am unsure whether it is still in print. If you do happen across it, I recommend picking it up as it is very readable, and worthy of some consideration beyond the kitsch value. Of course my own appreciation of Mr. Nimoy's poetry may be because I, too, often feel like an "old fashioned spaceman."

Haiku v. Haiku: Fight 2014!

With National Poetry Month kicking off this week, I didn't want to miss the opportunity to lay the groundwork for some haiku writing in my Advanced Placement Language and Composition courses. In order to mix things up slightly, rather than requiring that students simply generate two haiku, I assigned them to develop a Dueling Haiku. With Spring Break and AP exam administration on the horizon, what better time to still ourselves in the interest of crafting haiku? Our initiating activity was intended to covertly inspire students to collect the clay that would ultimately be shaped into their dueling haiku.

Initial journaling prompt.

Past experience has shown me that the "write about Nature, because we're going to write haiku" approach is lacking, I first shared a prompt (posted to the right) that would--if explained correctly--result in two 50-70 word free-writes about naturally occurring, potentially oppositional, animals or elements. The prompt does not overtly suggest that the final outcome will be two haiku (which when placed side-by-side are dueling), but rather nudges students to focus their thinking and writing on a specific subject as well as its opposite number. It was helpful to share some examples of potential topics that while initially too broad, could be refined in such a manner as to yield appropriate fodder for the poetic grist.

While students have been shown how to write haiku since elementary school, I annually like to revisit the form with them. The hope in doing this is to reveal some new background information, or to at least elicit from them a poem or two that does not consist solely of seventeen syllables thoughtlessly puked out on a paper ten minutes prior to class.

Some students insist that the haiku is an "easy" poetic form to master. My response to these shows of hubris is that "Writing crappy haiku is as easy as 5-7-5." Crafting good haiku takes time. The challenge here is to impress upon students that simply stringing together enough syllables in a familiar structure (5-7-5) does not mean one is "good" at writing them. I find it helpful to remind students that the while the form they (and I) have been taught since childhood is "haiku," it is not purely haiku in the Eastern sense, but more of a Westernized "traditional" Haiku form. The basic rules are well-know: haiku are comprised of 17 syllables, arranged in 3 unrhymed lines of 5-7-5 syllables and the content should evoke or link to the natural world.

The modified evaluative tool.

The use of the word "opposition" in the instructions can be confusing for students as there is no actual "conflict" or coordination between the two poems, only the potential for the reader to sense the opposing/contradictory/differing nature of the two forces, animals or moments. As I explain to the students, while there is no "shared DNA" between the two, there should exist an implied connection that is discernible to the reader. While the two poems can stand alone as well-crafted haiku, when paired together they offer a sens of opposition or express the dual nature of a subject.

Each time I deliver this lesson and assign the corresponding task, results vary. The majority of students can generate three unrhymed lines in a 5-7-5 syllable structure. Not all can write haiku that give pause for reflection on the image.  Often times the resulting poems are quite impressive, and my hopes are that some images will pop with evocative language this year, too.

School Poetry Reading Revisited

Advertising does work!

Evidence of my negligence as a blogger is mounting up... it's been over two months since my last post on this blog, during which time I shared an activity my Advanced Placement class and I had been working on as part of our National Poetry Month (NPM) celebration. In the interim, while NPM has come and gone with varying degrees of success, its impact on my thinking regarding the success this year has not faded.

By far, in my mind, the most successful activity in the month long series was a poetry reading organized by the our school's library/media special, in collaboration with select Special Education staff. A more complete review (with pictures) can be read on the library/media speclialist's blog The Book Stops Here.

While I regret that more of my own English students did not attend and share their writing, I was extremely pleased to be part of the activity which highlighted the efforts of a wide variety of students in our learning community. Those of mine who did attend walked away with a new found appreciation and respect for those students, who while differently abled, have much to contribute to our culture of poetry appreciation.

Thanks in large parts to the efforts of our librarian, we have made some nice gains in the arena of poetry appreciation in the past few years... and there's always room for more next year!

A Poetry Month Coloring Book Discovered!

While combing the stacks at one of my alternate comic book shopping locations I came across a coloring book, which is apparently based upon a popular children's title, from Arcana Publishing, A Cat Named Haiku. Written by Mark Poulton and illustrated by Dexter Weeks, the small (24 pages) book cost only $2.95, and as suggested by the genre, consists of simple wordless pictures of a cat, presumably named Haiku, engaged in silly cat-like activities.

At the time that I initially saw is coloring book, I was a little cash-strapped (validating buying so many comic books is difficult enough--explaining the purchase of a coloring book to my wife might not be so easy), so I did not purchase it, a decision I now regret.

The source material, with the same title, on which the coloring book is based chronicles Haiku's antics in the eponymous three line poetry--as a fan of the form (as well as its variations) I will be ordering have ordered from my local comic shop!

Poetry Found?

Do you see it? I didn't.

A celebration of National Poetry Month is in full swing at school. Between prepping the "release" of our Hallway Haiku Project signage after next week's Spring Break, and working on individual American sentences (that will later be combined into collaborative poems), one of the students in my Advanced Placement class made an interesting observation that further illustrated my premise for students that poetry really is everywhere. As trite as it may sound the exchange also created a "teachable moment," (groan!) during which some previously unknown (and truly "nice to know" in nature) information could be shared with my class.

As I circulated around the classroom offering assistance with syllable counting and image shaping, one lad prompted me to look carefully at the recently hung writing framework signage in the front of our classroom. The air was ripe with discussion and consideration of a variety of haiku formats, as well as "found poetry" (a form I explained to students--who had oddly never been exposed to it--by explaining about the 5-7-5 hand washing reminder I came across in the hospital men's room years ago), so it makes sense that the sharpest students would begin to apply their poetic mindset to their surroundings... and once again I was shown that the student quickly becomes the master.

Upon first glance at the aforementioned signage, I sincerely had little idea what I was intended to observe in the poster. "What does that sign look like?" the student prompted me once again.

Despite my having actually having been part of the committee that generated it, I had failed to notice (or clearly see) what my student had. Pointing to it again, he revealed, "It's got seventeen syllables like a haiku."

After congratulating the student for innately processing the syllable count (without clapping it) of he signage around him, I wondered aloud with the class whether or not that though the phrase "All evidence must be/supported with/details and analysis"  did indeed meet the strict syllable count requirement learned since kindergarten about what a haiku is... but was that enough to label it a haiku poem? Lacking a kigo or cutting word (or punctuation), it seemed clear that it was not a haiku in the strictest sense, but could it be presented as such with some syntax rearrangement or punctuation? The syllables (and words) could easily be set in a haiku 5-7-5 format, thusly:

All evidence must (5)
be supported with details (7)
and analysis. (5)

While a traditional image is absent, this found poem might better fit under the "heading" of a senyru rather than haiku (senryū is a Japanese form of short poetry similar to haiku in construction that tends to be about human foibles rather than nature, and are often cynical or darkly humorous than the more  serious haiku. Senryū also do not include a  cutting word, and do not generally include a kigo, or season word.) There are few things more cynically received than a new writing framework shared to a group of educators comfortable with an existing state.

Now, that's getting really Zen...

Earth Day Poetics

"Poets, as few others, must live close to the world that primitive men are in: the world in its nakedness, which is fundamental for all of us--birth, love, death; the sheer fact of being alive."~Gary Snyder, "Poetry and the Primitive"

The "celebration" of Earth Day can be an awkward and tricky thing.

While the idealistic intention is to (maybe) "honor the Earth," the necessity of a "special" day strikes me as unfortunate: that we, as a disparate, loose community of people, require the setting aside of a specific day on which to 1) demonstrate our commitment through special "events", and/or 2) honor the intrinsic connection through an outward expression of unity.

Perhaps, I'm being too cynical--any progress towards a deeper understanding of our innate connection with nature and each other can only be viewed as positive, right? For me, I'll acknowledge "Earth Day" by sharing Gary Snyder's reading of a piece of his poetry from his excellent collection Axe Handles:


It does sometimes seem apropos that Earth Day falls within The Academy of American Poets National Poetry Month celebration, especially given the connection between the poet's potential role in illuminating/preserving the individual's connection with Nature.