Edited to include links to the senior writing class’ found poems at the end of this entry.
After the absolute and utter failure of any of my writing students to respond to my poll about whether we should do genre studies with nonfiction or poetry next, I made the unilateral decision to start with nonfiction. April is poetry month, yes, but it’s also not exactly the best month to hang around outside in nature and write poetry. Hence, nonfiction now, poetry when the weather is better.
Naturally, two hours after I’d planned that unit, I received an email from the New York Times Learning Network about this year’s Found Poetry contest.
Well. Since the found poem needs to be on an article from the New York Times, I am going to twist the definition of nonfiction (news articles) to include poetry (like a ninja!) and our class is going to write NYT found poems. (As an aside, if you read more than ten articles, the Times prompts you to purchase a subscription; you can get around that, though, by finding articles linked to by the Learning Network, all of which are free. A good place to start is the Learning Network’s Teaching Topics post.)
As an example, I chose an article I had at hand, “A Master’s Degree in … Masculinities?” by Jessica Bennett (full disclosure: clicking the link will count as one of your ten articles). I went through and highlighted the words and phrases that I thought were important in terms of conveying content, as well as those I thought would create good poetry, then combined them into a single poem.
Then I re-read the guidelines and edited my forty-two-line poem down to fourteen lines or less. This is why we read the instructions first, Ms Smith!
My final draft:
- on a dreary Wednesday,
American men are confused
about what it means to be a man.
it is harder today.
a good man – caring, honest –
or a real man – suppressing weakness:
the political struggle
with unintended consequences.
the influence of pop culture
becomes The Mask You Live In.
connect the dots.
“Ether Reality” by Alicia
untitled by Mariah
untitled by Gulnisha
“THE BOSS” by Kalev
“Alcoholic Toilets” by Justin
“Human Art” by Ceanna
“BRING BACK OUR GIRLS” by Lily
