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DOCUMENT RECUME ED 322 520 CS 212 470 AUTHOR Johnson, David M. TITLE Wcrd Weaving: A Creative Approach to Teaching and Writing Poetry. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urpana, In REPORT NO ISBN-0-8141-5822-6 PUB DATE 90 NOTE 187p. AVAILiBLE FROMNational Council of Teachers of English, 1111 Kenyon Rd., Urbana, IL 61801 (Stock No. 58226-0015; $8.95 member, $11.95 nonmember). PUB TYPE Guides Classroom Use - ..a_des (For Teachers) (052) -- Guides - Non-Clzroom Use (055) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC08 Plus P.,stage. DESCRIPTORS *Classroom Techniques; *Creative Writing; Descriptive Writing; *Figurative Language; Literature Appreciation; Motifs; *Poetry; Reader Response; Reading Writing Relationship; Secondary Education; *Student Writing Models; Writing Instruction IDENTIFIERS Writing Functions :03STRACT Offering activities for secondary school students and amateur creat_) writers, this book demonstrates how teachers can break out of "high culture" stereotypes that make students think poetry has no connection with real life. Part one discusses the essentf.als of poetry and the roles of poets from ancient oral cultures to the present. The four chapters in this section picture the reading and writing of poetry as a means of introspection through language and also as a way to discover a connection with a larger human community. Demonstrations illustrate how poetry expresses universals in terms of particulara, how it "shows" instead of "tells," and how a "live" metaphor difiers from a "dead" one. The entire second section focuses on helping student poets f:;.nd subject matter for their own writing. The eight chapters are in the form of a do-it-yourself handbook for amateur creative writers. The book's approach (read, respond, play with language) helps studen_-use their imagination for more authentic expression and find subjects and ideas for poemF in their everyday lives. Every chapter contains classroom actiTiities, discussion questions, bibliographies of works cited, and student writing models. (KEH) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ***********1********************N************************************** i 8 E I= 0Z 8. <2 <I= Ea et0 0 1,- w4 ,0 14. t> 0 (0,1 111 ?:41 no w 2 W z tr tri ["1 33 (..) fb g 1 0 D0 0 0. I = 90 D0 0= wc: 11E4 n' 4!4 Z CIO a.. cn . 04 EI z c:-.)x . Aia = C., Ill DJ 0 < ixcc 0z . LU 111 uj CC Lu aa 0 CD 0 I ....4 cn -cc tu < ?" 2 ,2 Word Weaving 3 Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following poets, their representatives, and publishers for permission to reprint copyrighted material: "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." Copyright 1926 by Alfred A. Knopf Inc. and renewed 1954 by Langston Hughes. Reprinted from Selected Poems of Langston Hughes by permission of Alfred A. Knopf Inc. "Walking the Arroyo" is excerpted from Talking to the .and by Patricia Clark Smith. Copyright 1979 by Patricia C.12_k Smith. Reprinted by permission of Blue Moon Press at Lewis-Clark Stec: College, Lewiston, Idaho. "The Excesses of God." Copyright 1941 by Robinson Jeffers and renewed 1969 by Donnan Jeffers and Garth Jeffers. Reprinted from Selected Poems by Robinson Jeffers, by permission of Random House, Inc. "No. 53" from Mary Barnard, Sappho: A New Translation. Copyright C) 1958 The Regents of the University of California; © renewed 1984 Mary Barnard. Reprinted with permission: "The Decade" from The Complete Poetical Works of Amy Lowell by Amy Lowell. Copyright © 1955 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Copyright C) 1983 renewed by Houghton Mifflin Co., Brinton P. Roberts, and G. D'Andelot Belin, Esquire. "Chicago" from Chicago Poems, copyright 1916 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., and renewed 1944 by Carl Sandourg, reprinted by permis.,ion of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. "Wilderness" from Condi uslkctcopyrignt 1918 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., and renewed 1946 by Carl Sandburg, reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. Illustration of caduceus is reprinted by permission from The Random house Dictionary of the English Language, 2nd edition, Unabriaged. © 1987 Random House, Inc. "Life." Copyright Scott L. Sanchez 1976. Reprinted by permission of the author. "Back into My Body" first appeared in the Salt Creek Reader (Lincoln, Nebr., 1972) und was the title poem in Back into My Body (Berkeley, Calif.. Thorp Springs Press, 1974). Reprinted by permission of the author. 4 Word Weaving A Creative Approach to Teaching and Writing Poetry David M. Johnson University of New Mexico National 'Thuncil of Teachers of Eng lich 1111 Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 6-i801 o NCTE Editorial Board: Richard Abrahamson, Celia Gen;shi, Richard Lloyd- Jones, Raymond J. Rodrigues, Brooke Workman, Charles Suhor, thatr, ex officio, Michael Spooner, ex officio Cover Design: Doug Burnett Interior Design: Tom Kovacs for TGK Design Staff Editor: Tim Bryant NCTE Stock Number 58226-3020 © 1990 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. It is the policy of NCTE in its journals and other publications to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee the Board of Directors, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Johnson, David M., 1939- Word weaving : a creative approach to teaching and writing poetry / David '21. Johnson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. 7SBN 0-8141-5822-6 1. PoetryStudy and teaching.2. PoetryAuthorship.I. Title. PN1101464 1990 808.1dc20 90-39980 CIP 6 Contents Preface ix Introducticn 1 I Poets and the Nature of Poetry 11 1. Voices of the Poet 13 Singer 13 Storyteller 17 Magician, Priest, and Name-Giver 19 Explorer and Insider 21 Classroom Activities 24 2. The Nature of Poetry 26 Definitions and Ornamentation 26 Image: Counecting with the Outer World 28 Image: Connecting with the Inner World 28 Metaphor: The Warp and Woof of Relationships 30 Met iphoric Comparison: Subject and Figure 32 Dead Metaphors and Live Metaphors 33 Conventiona or Closed Poetry 34 Teachers and Closed Verse 37 Open Forms 37 The Spoken Word as a Model for Open Forms 38 Rhythm and Organic Forms 39 Writing Suggestions for Classroom Use 42 3. Bugaboos and Red Herring: Misconceptions about Poetry 44 Poetry is high culture. 44 Poetry consists of elevated ideas in elevated language. 45 Great poetry contains universal meanings. 46 Poetry is essentially a puzzle. 47 Real poetry uses conventional meters and rhymes. 48 v 7 vi Contents 4. Writing Poems: Some Suggestions 49 Writing Tools 50 Writing Regularly and Journals 50 Organizing the Journal 51 Two Paths of Creativity 52 Automatic Writing/F:Te Flow Writing 53 What Do I Write About? 54 The Rough Draft E5 Warm-Up Exercises 56 Showing versus Telling 57 Concrete Language versus Abstract Language 58 The Basic Forms 59 Lin?. Lengths and Stanzas 61 Revising and Critiquing 61 Finding an Audience 62 11 Weaving the World 63 Introduction to Part II 65 5. Origins 71 Sky and Earth 71 Macrocosm and Microcosm 72 Creating a Human Being 76 Rites of Childhood 78 Names 78 Classroom Activities 81 6. Family and Home 84 Patriarchy, Matriarchy, and Partnership 84 The Modern Family: Conflict and Resolution 86 Homes Reflect Who We Are 89 Feeling at Home 90 Classroom Activities 93 7. Love and Loving: Romance and Friendship 96 Romantic Love 97 Qualities of Friendship 100 Models for Friendship 101 Loving the World 103 Classroom Activities 105 8 Contents vii 8. Food and Fiesta 108 Feeding the Psyche 108 Bread and Economics 109 Food, Family, and Community 110 Bread, Wine, and RAgion 112 Ceremony and Celebration 114 Classroom Activities 116 9. Work 119 Work in Ancient Israel and Greece 119 Work in America: Jobs and the Working Blues 121 Working Images for the Young Writer 124 Gardening: An Alternative Metaphor 126 Classroom Activities 128 10. Nature and Balance 131 Nature as a Mirror 132 The Living Earth 135 Dominion and the Death of Nature 135 Out of Balance: Ecological Disaster 138 Needed: A Change of Attitude 139 Classroom Activitie3 143 11. Dreams, Reveries, Monsters, and UFOs 146 Dreams as Visitations from the Gods 147 The Shape of the Psyche: An Iceberg 149 Keeping a Dream Notebook 151 Interpreting Your Dreams 151 Daydreams and Reveries 153 Monsters, Fairies, and UFOs 155 Classroom Activities 159 12. A Matter of Death and Life 162 The Age of Death 162 Mortality and Metaphor 163 The Death Journey 166 Cerements and Rituals 166 Life-in-Death/Death-in-Life 169 Classroom Activities 173 Author 177 9 Preface Every person is special and feels the need to express this uniqueness. Everyone has a song and a story. Human beings also need community, a web of relationships, a pattern of meaning and purpos--. Communities are woven together through songs and stories. This book is about the imagination and about the role that poetry plays in peoples' lives. This book is about the creativity thatpro- duces songs and stories and is the vehkle for self-expression and relationship. Creativity shows up in every human pursuit, from cabinetmaking to goldsmithing, from quilting to gardeningwherever the imagination is used to create connections between one person and another, between human beings and nature or the cosmos. Creativity is important throughout our lives, in the particular ways we express ourselves and in the bonds we build and maintain with the world. Some people have problems with the wordcreativity,as ifit represented an alien or exotic activity in the practical world of business and technology. Many adults deny their own creativity, choosing to associate this process with a tiny minority of the population, usually dead, who were or are artists living on the fringes of everyday, normal society.