Thursday was a stormy day. Everyone was talking about the storm, so when we were looking for a topic for a zeno poem, Thunder came through.
A zeno poem was invented by J. Patrick Lewis and it follows the mathematical sequence 8,4,2,1,4,2,1,4,2,1, and the one syllable words rhyme. Great time to pull up RhymeZone and do some chatting about word meanings like dire.
Thunder is a loud, cranky noise
terrifying
crackling
fire
electric charges
targets
wire
outrageously
shocking
dire.
–Mrs. Simon’s class
I then set my students loose to write their own zeno poems while I worked on my own. I tried the haikubes, but there are no rhyming words in them, so it proved nearly impossible to make a zeno. Then I turned to metaphor dice. A little better, but I’m still not completely satisfied with the results. But, as writing partner Molly Hogan stated in her post yesterday, I honored the play of it all.
The mind is a back-handed drum
pounding fissures
into
line
beating thoughts with
rhythm
time
waiting for my
soul to
shine.
–Margaret Simon, (draft) 2019
Poetry Friday round-up is with Karen Edmisten.
Reflections on the Teche 