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

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.

Two Cardinal Pics & One Haiga

Cardinal on hanging planter of wave petunias. (6/16/13)

Sunday afternoon, while talking with my kids who had stopped by to wish me a Happy Father's Day, my son noticed this Northern Cardinal sitting in the planter outside the house. Fortunately that little guy stayed there for long enough for me to grab my camera and get outside to take pictures. My daughter later noted that it was "like he was posing for you!"

Often I'll use moments captured on film (or as digital images) as visual haiku prompts. In truth, when I employ this strategy, what I am writing can best be defined as a haiga. Haiga is a style of Japanese painting based on the aesthetics of haiku, and usually including a haiku. Today, haiga artists combine haiku with paintings, photographs and other art. A haiga (haiku + image, in my case, photographs). The wonderful thing about haiku is that whether what you generate is "good" or "bad" there is always something (a moment) "around" one to offer worthy inspiration.

Cardinal. (6/16/13)

Toes clutching chipped paint
trellis, Cardinal awaits
whatever comes next.

Hay(na)ku 2

Nighttime--
rooftops dance
bathed in light.

Photo taken last night at 10:00 p.m. in downtown Rochester, New York.

Welcome to You, Hay(na)ku

While looking through an older class blog I set up a few years ago for an eighth grade English class I taught, I came across a number of different poetic formats that we had worked with. I figured it was time to revisit them and give a few a try... first up is a twist on an old favorite, the hay(na)ku .

The hay(na)ku is fairly modern poetic tercet (three-line) form where the first line consists of one word, the second line of two words, and the third line of three words. Pronounced "hay-nah-koo," this form was "invented" by poet Eileen Tabios and was officially inaugurated on the Web on June 2003. Since then, the form (a variation of a haiku) has spread through the Web to poets all over the world.

Here's some easy-to-follow criteria for what a poem needs to have to be considered a hay(na)ku: First, the purpose of the form (a tercet: 3 lines) is to concisely capture a specific moment or feeling in time. Each tercet will include a total of six words; one in the first line, two in the second, and three in the third line. Remember, there is no restriction on syllables, stresses or rhyme. Easy enough, and without the (occasionally challenging) necessity of maintaining a strict syllable count, slightly easier to write than a traditional haiku.

Here are a few examples, this first from Spring 2007 and a second from today:

1
Lost,
off course—
trail flashes lie.

2
Sunshine
warms cheek.
Summer is here!

Why not give this simple, quirky form it a try yourself?

Totemic Tanka Tweet

Dashing down the trail
on a misty morning run,
in the trees and long grass
totemic neighbors peer out--
squirrel, rabbit, bird, chipmunk--
"Which, Friend, are you now?"

As entertaining as writing haiku, twit-aiku, run-ku and many other "kus" can be, sometimes I like to mix it up by playing with other forms.

One poetic form related to the haiku is the tanka. Like haiku, the tanka (both are ancient forms of Japanese poetry) follows a suggested syllable "count" for each line, in this case 5-7-5-7-7 (five lines).

Poem du Jour: Word-type Cinquain

In class yesterday, the student teacher with whom I am working this semester presented a mini-lesson on writing two types of cinquains: word-type (which has a prescribed "formula" of specific words, parts of speech per line) and, what he termed, a "straight" type (which is more open, specifying only the numebr of words per line).

Regardless of which "type" of cinquain is being crafted, some elements remain the same: 5 lines, with the following word count for each line, line 1--one word (the poem's focus), line 2--two words, line 3--three words, line 4--a phrase of three to four words, and line 5--a single word, often a synonym that restates line 1.

Here's the word-type cinquain I drafted while sitting in the back corner of the room (thankfully near a window), the location from which I generally observe class:

Houseplant
wilting, browning
common, dry, unkempt
leaves turn toward the window--
Green Schefflera.