Anna Grossnickle Hines is a poet who brings a beautiful blend of poetry and quilting expertise to her books for children. Since I am a poetry enthusiast, and my wife is a professional embroidery artist, we were thrilled to discover her picture books this year!
Her 2011 picture book, Peaceful Pieces, contains a poem that will speak to younger and older writers alike. It is called "Peace: A Recipe," and the picture under the poem shows how the quilting complements the words.
Peace: A Recipe
Open minds -- at least two.
Willing hearts -- the same.
Rinse well with compassion.
Stir in a fair amount of trust.
Season with forgiveness.
Simmer in a sauce of respect.
A dash of humor brightens the flavor.
Best served with hope.
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| Click to Enlarge! |
After reading the poem twice aloud in my classroom -- first a teacher reading, then a student read aloud -- I ask my students to think of someone that they need to make greater peace with in their own lives. I invite them to ponder: which of the "ingredients" in this poem could help lead to greater peace. In their Writer's Notebooks, write for a few minutes about what action they could take using this "ingredient" to create greater peace in their relationship.
This activity welcomes students to see poetry not just as literature or a collection of images or a weaving of words. Of course, it is all these things. But it can also be a motivator, a catalyst for change, an invitation to an epiphany.
As teachers, we cannot manufacture epiphanies. But we can give students the chance to take a message from a poem and look for ways to apply it in their lives. This deceptively simple poem may give them just such a chance.
Further Reading:
Brett
Vogelsinger is a ninth-grade English teacher at Holicong Middle School in Bucks
County, PA. He has been starting class with a poem each day for the past
ten years. He is the creator of the Go Poems blog and the author of Poetry
Pauses: Teaching With Poems to Elevate Writing in All Genres. Find him on
Twitter @theVogelman.
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