I discovered The Private Eye Project years ago and have a set of jewel loupes in my classrooms. For our nature field trip last week, I brought them with us. One of our goals was to look at nature from different perspectives, as art and as explorers.
I took this picture of a rock one of my students shared with me. There is a whole kingdom inside one sedimentary rock. Use your imagination to write about this ordinary object in an extraordinary way. Make a list of what the rock looks like. You can create an extended metaphor poem. Leave a small poem in the comments and encourage other writers.
I used a formula for writing a pantoum about an ordinary object by PÁDRAIG Ó TUAMA from On Being.
A rock can be a kingdom
if you look through a jewel loupe.
Pick a small rock on a walk
before you embark on a new journey.If you look through a jewel loupe,
this rock seems insignificant,
but you can embark on a journey.
If you look closely, you may find yourself.This rock may seem insignificant
but a student thought it a gift.
If you look closely, you may find yourself.
When I hold it tight, I feel warmth.A student gave me a gift–
Margaret Simon, draft
a small rock.
When I hold it tight, I feel warmth.
A rock can be a kingdom.
Reflections on the Teche 
The short lines make this form seem new again!
I’m loving playing with this. So are my students.
Margaret, I think pantoums are so elegant, and this one is no exception, especially with your incredible metaphor of rock as kingdom.
Not “just a rock,”
I hold the history of the ages,
living things entombed in time,
encased in silt, sand, soil,
give clues of long ago
Life.
~Jane Heitman Healy, draft
So much to love here. I love the word choice of hold and also the landing on Life. Thanks for your comments about my pantoum. “Elegant”
Jane, I like not just a rock. That is so true! So many clues of our history are found in the rocks. Yours and Margaret’s poems invite inquiry and discovery.
So much story in these lines. I love this pantoum thing…let’s keep it going!
Margaret, nice idea to bring the jewel loupes to focus on the rocks the students found. It looks like it was a winner of an idea for the arts! I too like the shorter lines in your pantoum. Yesterday was a travel day for me, so I missed out. A quick thought…
signposts of the past
meld together, become one
this millennia
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