Hayden Saunier's poem "I Need to Live Near a Creek" is so short and lovely and calming, and students enjoy writing their own variations of it. The poems helps me teach two things: assonance and self-knowledge.
First, we read the poem twice and I ask students, "What sound do you hear repeated here several times?" Naturally, they pick out the rhyming words, "lush," "rush," and "hushes." I have them next identify what is the vowel sound in all those rhymes. "OK, here's something really cool. That "u" sound is hidden four other places in this poem. Can you find it?"
the
because
of
up
"And it just gets cooler - that vowel sound creates a little bit of a lullaby sound in the poem doesn't it, especially when you put it with the "s" and "sh" sounds sometimes. And that sound effect matches the whole point of the poem -- knowing what brings you calm, what hushes you up inside."
Of course teenagers love learning that these repeated vowel sounds have a fun name: assonance.
This year, we read this poem days after the Alex Dimitrov poem, "Love," which I wrote about two days ago on this blog. So this time I had them create a poem that begins with the words "I need" and told them they could use them once like Saunier or repeatedly like Dimitrov.
After inviting a few quick share, I tell them one last gem from those two words. When resolving conflict, "I need" statements are generally productive, so much better than telling someone "you should." So these words not only help you know what brings you calm, but help others know it as well.
Further Reading:
Brett Vogelsinger is a ninth grade English teacher and NBCT at Holicong Middle School in Doylestown, PA. He is the founding editor of Go Poems, facilitates his school's literary magazine, Sevenatenine, and contributes monthly posts at Moving Writers. Follow him on Twitter @theVogelman.
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