Reflections on the Teche

Day 5 is with Carol at Beyond Literacy Link

Charles Simic in his poem “Stone” invites us to “go inside a stone.”  So I invited my students to explore rocks.  I found a collection in the closet.  Some child of mine collected them.  I thought I remembered them being there.

I tried to write with my kids.  I listed 5 steps for finding a poem: 1. describe it, 2. analyze it, 3. compare it, 4. associate it, 5. apply it.  Source for this activity is found here in the River of Words teacher’s guide. 

But I was stuck.  Oh, I wrote some lines like these:

The stepping stone
for my foot
grips and holds
me in wonder.

Another try:

On this smooth stone,
time stands still.

Some days I can start and stop like this all day, but eventually something emerges.  Today, nothing.  I was taking myself way too seriously.

Until Jacob said, “Inside a rock is a rock and a rock and another rock, a never ending chain of rocks.”

I wrote his words down in my notebook.  Took them straight out of the air and a poem started rolling out right there.

Jacob wasn’t as successful.  He was disappointed.  No, not disappointed exactly.  He was mad.  I took his words and made a poem with them.  This is my disclaimer.  With complete credit of the original lines to Jacob.

Jacob’s Rock

Inside a rock
is a rock
and a rock
and another rock.

A never ending chain of rocks.

Inside a shell
is a shell
and another shell
and a crab,
a crab?

A creepy, crawling crab in a never ending shell.

Inside my heart
is a beat
and a beat
and another beat

Beating hard as a rock for you.

–Margaret Simon (with help from Jacob.)

Free image from Pixabay