Poetry Friday posts are with Jone at Check it Out.
Image from Nola.com
What do you do when there’s a hurricane in the Gulf? Write a poem about it, of course. Here in South Louisiana, we are no strangers to the dangers of hurricanes. Hurricane Harvey is threatening, but all models show the brunt of the storm heading into west Texas, miles away from us. We will have rain, days and days of rain, which could lead to some flooding. That remains to be seen.
I asked my students to list all the words they could think of about hurricanes. Their lists included words like danger, wind, storm, and bigger words like magnificent and treacherous. We talked about the poetry form called a cinquain. We counted syllables in the words we had listed. Doom and gloom poems emerged.
The weather channel is on. We are watching the progress. These weather events are scary yet intriguing. We can channel our thoughts and worries and fascination into words.
Tracking
hurricane’s path
swirling charged red center
unwanted catastrophic storm
Gulf beast–Margaret Simon
Massive
Dangerous floods
Treacherous destruction
Magnificent monstrous mammoth
Scary
–Noah, 6th grade
Jacob chose to write a free verse poem. I like to introduce forms, but also choice. There should always be choice.
Hurricane Harvey
A spinning circle of destruction
On a treacherous journey through ruined parts of Earth
Walking through this dark thick rain, trying to find home
I see the eye of this magnificent beast
I stare as the tornadoes and rain fly away in the sky
I see the Sun, I know that this monster of wind and rain is over.–Jacob, 4th grade
Reflections on the Teche 