Fill your poetic well with poems today at PaperTigers.
I start with a thank you to Mary Lee! I too am participating in the Teachers Write camp this summer and saw yesterday's prompt--pasting some of your own text into Wordle to discover common themes. I never thought to use poetry but Mary Lee did! Today, I am taking her suggestion to paste some original poems into Wordle and then create a new poem using the words presented. If you haven't already, go see her's here, (brilliant)!
First Wordle
I love the words that were bolded. Clearly I love them since they apparently appear the most frequently in the writing I pasted together. (That is what Wordle does, takes your most used words and makes them stand out).
Second Wordle: Sames words but a different arrangement.
For extra fun, I picked apart a few sets of words that clumped themselves together, I love these.
Pine
snow
feeds
branches
Alone
babble
berries
balance
Fight
ahead
colors
flee
So, this was fun, tricky and took a bit of back and forth writing for me. Here is the poem I discovered waiting in the word piles.
Though carefully
I watch
young
made brave.
Delicate eyes fall
exhale
wait.
Never alone
miles hope
journey
unafraid.
I watch
though carefully
wonder
wait.
I had several images swirling as I tried to write this. First it was my daughter during her tonsillectomy recently, where I watched a very little girl approach uncertainty in a very brave exterior. Then I thought of it as the way I scaffold young writers, the uncertainty there, the waiting and waiting and wonder that circulates in a school year. Then I thought of seedlings growing, probably because the word grow was staring at me and I couldn't find a way to use it, (ironic I thought). And so, it could probably mean many things, and will probably mean something else tomorrow.
Hey...still here? If you have some chalk and a little extra time on your hands tomorrow, or even if you don't, find a moment or two and chalk some poetry! Come back here and check out what others powder up on the driveways and sidewalks of our world. Want to know what the heck I'm talking about, click here!
I love Mary Lee's Wordle idea too - though I'm no poet. I love the thought-processes it has inspired in you.
ReplyDeleteIt's ever important to give ideas a chance, isn't it? Both yours and Mary Lee's poems are impressive. It reminds me of just choosing any word at random from opening a page in the dictionary, & going with it. I liked that you shared what your thinking was. I thought of students learning and growing, so maybe you could put that word grow in there somewhere? Thanks Betsy!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to try this! Thanks, Betsy, for posting your results.
ReplyDeleteWhat fun. Enjoyed seeing what came of your wordle inspirations!
ReplyDeleteAWESOME! So cool how the same idea yields very different results!! I'm starting to think this will have some real power in the classroom.
ReplyDelete