Skip to main content

I Don'T Want to Write A Poem About Cats! -Poetry Friday

I have been this young poet. I have experienced the frustration that descends when topic choice is not offered and you are writing merely to please the teacher. This was me in Grade 5. In the interest of honest disclosure, this poem has autobiogrpahical underpinnings. It is a poem for all those quiet subversives. Names have been changed,  withheld to protect people, ants and cats...

This poem is for all those young writers who want ownership, need ownership, in order to write with a sense of authenticity and voice. 






I Don’t Want to Write A Poem About Cats

Our teacher

Ms Hydracklu

Has insisted we write a poem about cats.

Ms Hydracklu loves cats

But they’re not exactly my favourite animal, or topic

Since my sister’s cat –Princess Alice

Peed in my track shoes.


I sit in class

Chomping on my pencil

And staring at the floor under my seat

It seems inspiration has run away to hide

It’s turning into a –catastrophe…


Suddenly, Ms Hydracklu announces-

It doesn’t have to rhyme!


I haven’t got a single cat word

Let alone two that might rhyme.


Looking down again I see two ants on the classroom floor

Rushing about in all directions

Crashing into one another like dodge-um cars at a carnival

Backtracking

Walking in circles- busy, dizzy ants

They appear confused in their rush and nervous haste

Briefly stopping to talk

Flapping their feelers

Chatting like long lost friends

Then off they scurry across the floor 

In search of sandwich crumbs, no doubt


At the end of this writing lesson

I certainly won’t have a cat poem completed

I haven’t got so much as a fur ball!


However,

If Ms Hydracklu

Is at all interested in ants

She should talk to me…


Alan j Wright










It is Poetry Friday and out host this week is Jone Rush MacCulloch. Jone shares an interview with Carol Labuzzetta, about the soon to be released book, 'Picture Perfect Poetry: An Anthology of Ekphrastic Nature Poetry for Students.'

Comments

  1. Good reminder… both humorous and poignant. Prompts don’t always inspire.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I didn't often give prompts, and usually, within a group already in a group that wanted to write more poetry, but your poem makes me wish I could share this with students, and let them respond, with a poem? I can hear the wonderings now - He did respond already! Fun to read and ponder, Alan! Have a great weekend!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Linda. We pause to reflect. Wishing you an equally enjoyable weekend.

      Delete
  3. Alan, wow. I love this poem. It's perfect for encouraging voice.

    "If Ms Hydracklu

    Is at all interested in ants

    She should talk to me…"

    is a perfect ending. I feel like teachers should read this as much as students. By the way, thanks again for the trinet inspiration on my post today.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your considered remarks, Denise. I'm making a B line for your Trinet poems after this...

      Delete
  4. Love this Alan! The ants were so clearly engaging.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It had to be antsl, Rose. As a child I was fascinated by them.

      Delete
  5. Brilliant Alan! This made me laugh out loud but at the same time is a wonderful reminder of the constraints writers feel when given very specific parameters.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very kind of you, Sally. Your response sustains me and encourages me to persist. I recently submitted this poem to an Australian Children's magazine and it was quicky rejected. I suspect it may have been viewed as uncomfortably honest.

      Delete
  6. My favorite comedy is that which has a tinge of sadness mixed in--this is it! Oh, those assignments that confined us. I pray I don't do that to students today.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The tragi-comedy it is, Linda. I have always committed to choice in writing, given my own experience in those formative years. We write best about those matter we care most about. Those tihngs closest to our hearts. I recall Donald Graves stating similar thoughts back in the 1980's.

      Delete
  7. Aww,... Alan this poem is why I love Sharon Creech's 'LOVE THAT DOG'... I love the heart of a fifth grade boy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hold that book close to my heart as well, Patricia. Some powerful messages. Glad you saw this connection when you read my poem. I feel quite honoured.

      Delete
  8. I feel your pain, Alan! Even editing one’s work to fit within the parameters required by others can induce a bit of dread. Hear, hear to focusing on the ants that inspire you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was indeed pain, Tracey. It's porbably why I have retained such memories all these years. I vowed way back then that if I became a teacher I would not teach writing in this way. I can only hope my ex students recall the choices I gave them regarding topic and genre. I always wanted them to have the same choices I had as an adult writer. Ants still fascinate me...

      Delete
  9. The twist and tone change in the final stanza is so fun Alan! Thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Sarah. Glad you enjoyed the poem and its final twist.

      Delete
  10. Right there with you, Alan! I usually hated writing prompts, and whenever I do school visits I never teach rhyme - I always focus on helping students to understand their subject using free verse.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like your approach very much Matt. I'm with you all the way .

      Delete
  11. Some folks need a little structure and flail around if they don't have a prompt, and some folks are imprisoned by them. Enjoyed your poem, Alan! I wonder if Ms. Hydracklu would like a poem about an ant named Cat?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm with you on the need for structure Tabatha. Some writers do need such scaffolding/support, but I see that as separate to prompts. I like your ant /cat contention...

      Delete
  12. This poem is so spot on. I have seen those children who go off in a different direction. I love the name Ms Hydracula.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jone. I should have called her that. It would have added some extra bite...

      Delete
  13. I love this, Alan. As a homeschooling mom and a writer, I usually avoided prompts with my girls, unless they asked for one (and then they got their pick of prompts.) :) I love the pov in this poem and I wish that fifth-grade boy had been allowed to write about ants. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gl;ad you like this Karen. Choice is such a critical consideration in writing development, particularly with regard to attitude and confidence. That fifth grade boy has written about ants. He has even had ant poems published...

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poetry Inspired by Images and Objects

There are many ways pictures and photographs can be conscripted to support the writing of poetry. Allow me to share a few ideas with you: Old photographs are a great source of inspiration. Cynthia Rylant explored this idea with great success in her book 'Something Permanent' where she employed the Depression era photographs of Walker Evans to add a new voice to the starkness to the lives of people experienced under extreme circumstances. I have used this strategy to spark many individual poems. In ' I Bet There's No Broccoli On The Moon,' I used a photo I had taken in 2004 while living in New York to inspire a poem. The poem was based on a story related by a friend who grew up in New York.  I regularly combined poetry and pictures in my writer's notebook, drawing on inspiration from the photograph and my personal memories. We can also utilize existing cartoons and illustrations to create ekphrastic poems. I frequently use the illustrations of Jim Pavlidis to co

Opposite Poems

O pp o s ite P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,'  Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will  notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. Not e

Powerful Poetry, 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston

  This week, Poetry Friday is hosted by Janice Scully  @ Salt City Verse where Janice shares some original words and offers us a taste of Thomas Carlyle to ponder. I encourage you to join a host of poets from all around the globe and visit Janice's page... Almost two years to the day, I wrote a post featuring the poem 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston. The poem was included in Brian's first book of poetry, 'You Took The Last Bus Home.' A very powerful Reverso poem and technically brilliant.  A Reverso poem can be read from top to bottom or bottom to top. It will often express opposite opinions depending on which way you read it. Such poems really make us think. A Reverso poem is like a picture turned upside down, a frowning face upended to reveal a smiling one. The poem read in reverse, contradicts itself with an opposing message. In 'Refugee' Brian Bilston focuses on a societal issue that tends to polarize feelings and the opposing views are clearly in eviden