Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ddeubel]

I tried searching for this topic but as usual, couldn't find a thing.... so starting a new thread.

At the new year, I decided to start trying to keep up for a whole year, "A Poem A Day". I'm 3 weeks in, so feel proud enough to share.

I just needed to return to this creative outlet. Teaching has me a bit burnt out, overworked and since I'm not running miles upon miles any more - throwing myself into thought. I'm sure some fellow teachers out there can sympathize.

What's do you like in poetry? How does it give/affect you? Any favs? What is the power of the word (to you)?

I think poetry is a very important thing to a teacher of language. Not the be all and end all but it must be said, words are our oxygen.

Cheers,
DD

http://eflclassroom.com

[JMO]

I read certain poems repeatedly trying to figure out new things about them and myself depending on my mood..mainly by Patrick Kavanagh and Michael Longley.

My favorite poem is Pity the Bastards by Tom French. It is an absolutely relentless beast of a poem and very very sad. I'd recommend it.

[ddeubel]

Don't know of it but I'll look it up. Great title.

I'm pretty international in the poets I love and not too current I think. Gyorgy Faludy - Hungarian / T.S. Eliot and Auden / Rexroth / Bukowski when he really hits it / Langston Hughes. Lots of surrealists and for sure Valery.

My fav. poem is one of Bukowski's "I met a genius". I've used it at teacher training workshops and it is simple to understand but profound.

[emetib]

Ah poetry. Oxygen to some extent? =) I've always written poetry, though now it takes the form of song lyrics. I love everything from Shakespeare to Frost.

I love the English translation of the following poem by Octavio Paz. I was exposed to it as a choral piece in high school that was composed by Eric Whitacre.

The Broken Water Jar

The rain...

Eyes of shadow-water,
eyes of well-water,
eyes of dream-water.

Blue suns, green whirlwinds,
birdbeaks of light pecking open
pomegranate stars.

But tell me, burnt earth, is there no water?
Only blood, only dust,
only naked footsteps on the thorns?

The rain awakens...

We must sleep with open eyes,
we must dream with our hands,
we must dream the dreams of a river seeking its course,
of the sun dreaming its worlds,
we must dream aloud,
we must sing till the song puts forth roots,
trunk, branches, birds, stars,
we must find the lost word,
and remember what the blood,
the tides, the earth, and the body say,
and return to the point of departure...

edit: I forgot a word in the poem!

[beercanman]

Here's an old thread with loads of poems ...

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=69390&highlight=poems

[djsmnc]

I used to be quite interested in poetry until I took a poetry class in uni. This woman tore a poem I wrote apart one time, to the point where people in class were defending it. It wasn't even a nasty or unusual poem by any means, just not the happy tripe she wrote about sitting on the balcony of a house on a summer's day drinking lemonade and *beep*.

From then on I determined that all poetry is lame and prose is far more clear and interesting. Poetry is about as practical as New Age healing. Down with poetry.

[Fox]

I find prose almost universally more interesting that poetry. However, I do like stories conveyed by poem. I just finished reading Tolkien's revisions of the old poems about Sigurd and really liked them. Greek epic poetry is also nice.

[maingman]

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori Wilfred Owen used it in the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est

[conrad2]

Fleas: Adam had em

[The Gipkik]

[Anthem]

Bravo!

[ddeubel]

Yes, Gipkik,

It is all that and more! I'm always so dismayed that many get a rather academic, staid view of poetry that really is undeserved.
Anyone seen Bukowski's doc. -- Born into this? That gives a good taste of what poetry can be. Some good youtube versions of this poem too.

Beercanman - thanks! Believe me I looked and looked. The search is a mess here.

Here's a poem I think speaks a bit to teachers. Richard Brautigan.

The Memoirs of Jesse James

I remember all those thousands of hours
that I spent in grade school watching the clock,
waiting for recess or lunch or to go home.
Waiting: for anything but school.
My teachers could easily have ridden with Jesse James
for all the time they stole from me.

[ddeubel]

Here's a poem I mentioned above...

Speaks to me as a teacher. "I Met a Genius" by Charles Bukowski

I met a genius on the train
today
about 6 years old,
he sat beside me
and as the train
ran down along the coast
we came to the ocean
and then he looked at me
and said,
it's not pretty.

it was the first time I'd
realized
that.

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

[Fox]

Why is the poem spaced like that?

[beercanman]