Well whaddaya know?

So reading the Koch book yesterday, I realized that the first poem I ever wrote was based on one of his assignments.



I was in third grade, so what, about ten? I was in a mixed class of third, fourth, and fifth graders and we had daily units in language arts and a separate unit in creative writing. Anyway, the assignment was to write a poem and then the teacher, Mrs. Alexander, would collect them and put them into an illustrated chapbook. We would give a class reading, etc. The title of the chapbook was Poems of a Unicorn's Kingdom. There was one girl in our class--fourth grade--who could really draw, so she did most of the illustrations. Round-rumped unicorns and flowers and stuff. A few other kids illustrated their own poems.



I don't remember the actual lessons, but I know we read Blake, which Koch describes doing with his classes at PS61, because several of the kids wrote imitations like this:





Eagle! Eagle!

In the night.

Full of fire,

Burning bright!

What immortal hand

Or Eye,

Made your wings,

Your sharp beak,

Your dangerous claws,

Your firey eyes?

Eagle! Eagle!

In the night,

Full of fire,

Burning bright!



Here's the funny part. I refused, at first, to write my poem. I was sent to sit at a desk alone in the corner (we were allowed to sit at group tables or on the rug, if we were good) and told to sit there until I completed the assignment.



I didn't feel like writing a poem.



But I sat there until I did. Here's the poem.





I like to dream about the ocean

with seagulls overhead.

I like to dream about springtime

when flowers dance in the wind.

I like to dream about sailboats

drifting in the waves.

I like to dream about adventure,

so exciting and fun.

I like to dream about flowers

with ladybugs all over them.



I had never in my life been on a sailboat.



Other poems in the little chapbook were based on the "I wish" formula, or the "imagine me" formula, or the "thirteen ways of looking" formula, or written as letters to objects (new addresses!). Particularly funny are the ones about the agony of love, written by fifth-grade boys.

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UPDATE: Check out Julia's poems! She's been looking at Stevens too, talking to animals in a Blakean fashion, and has mastered the pantoum as well as the sestina!