Photo by Marjorie Pierson, all rights reserved.
I’d like to introduce you to a my friend and cousin, photographer Marjorie Pierson. Marjie has an amazing eye for light in nature. She lives in North Carolina, teaches a fine art class at Duke, and sponsors a girls’ art club at Durham Academy. Her mother lives here (actually, across the street),so Marjie visits often. She always finds time to explore the bayous and marshes and take photographs. She creates large prints on canvas that look like oil paintings.
Marjie did not visit my class on her latest visit, but her photographs did. She has developed an inspiring website. I told my students about Marjie’s interest in wetlands preservation and talked to them about writing ekphrastic poetry. I used a 6-room organizer from Georgia Heard’s book Awakening the Heart.
Then I played classical music while the students watched a slideshow of wetlands beauty and wrote.
Magic happened as magic often does when writing combines with art. Here are some of the poems my students wrote.
Song of the Wetlands
The beautiful details of the wetlands.
Shadows reflecting off of the water.
I am silent.
I smell sweet and damp.
I feel wet, mossy, grassy and slimy.
I taste bitter, salty water and sweet.
Like
I am pretty places
flowing everywhere,
a wetland full of
green.
I am precious and you can preserve me to save me before I am gone.
–Tyler
Silhouette of the Sea
The fine art of blue dancing waters
embrace the feel of warmthreflections of green
sounds of naturea wind in the silhouette
smells like freshly cut grass
small droplets drip
drip
dropping
on the smallest blade of grass
–Vannisa
I’m Home
A green line of cane,
above the tan dirt,
under the bright blue
Louisiana sky.
Colorful, like a
shining rainbow after
a harsh rain,
like a path full of
roses and daisies.
There is a hushing noise,
made by the stalks slowly
and gently rubbing together,
hush. hush, hush.
With the touch of the angel’s wing
so delicate and free, reassuring
you that anything is possible.
Always giving off the soft, welcoming,
harmless, I’m home feeling.
I’m home,
I’m home,
I’m home.
Join the Poetry Friday blog hop at Merely Day by Day.
Check out Matt Forrest’s Mortimer Minute over at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme.
Wow! These are beautiful, Margaret! Thanks so much for sharing these poems, and for sharing my work with your wonderful students.
What great work you are doing! Marjorie
Always fun to see the work of young poets. Inspirational!
So lovely!
Marjie’s photographs are stunning! It’s easy to see why your students were inspired to write such amazing poetry. Thanks for sharing!
What a lovely poetry prompt you just did for your students. These are such gorgeous poems that capture the heart of nature at its finest. Thank you for sharing these. Thank you also for telling us about your cousin’s photographs.
Lovely poems, Margaret – so interesting to see what our kids notice in the world, isn’t it?!
The sugarcane one got to me because it is so tall now, almost harvest time, and Brooklyn captured the sound and the feeling of security the tall cane provides.
The photos are fantastic, Margaret. I imagine your students were very inspired, especially after reading those two samples. Love “fine art of blue dancing waters” and “hush, hush”, then those tastes and smells of the first poem. Thank you!
I love how Vannisa used what I said in my introduction about Marjie’s photography being fine art. Having these writers for another year hones their skills and mine. During the lesson, I was being evaluated by a woman from the school board. She told me she was inspired to write. Doesn’t get better…
Beyond fun to miraculous. I’ve had very good results with “photopoetry” and also with having kids make artworks and then write from their pieces. Perhaps you already know about the program Picturing Writing http://www.picturingwriting.org/combined.html
but you’ll really enjoy learning about it if not! Keep up the awesome work, Ms. Simon!
Thanks for the link, Heidi. My students also worked with models. That helps, too, giving them a form to follow.
I do love these peeks into your classroom! Great stuff happens there!!
gorgeous poems from your students. I got chills.
Some talented kids there; I especially like Vanissa’s! Thanks for sharing.