19. Publish a collective poem.

500 Creative Classroom Techniques for Teachers and Trainers

232

19.

ublish a collective poem.

Poet William Carlos Williams once observed, “It is difficult to get the news from poems, yet

men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.” Poems have power. And

companies like AT&T, Boeing, and Kodak are hiring poets to help employees find that power.

Collective poems can be written in several ways. One of the simplest requires each person to

draw an image of the workplace or school and then to add words to describe that image.

Another technique is to have one person start the learning-related poem and to pass his line to

another participant, who adds one more line before turning the versatile verse to yet another

participant.

A third possibility is to take the first word or two from each line of a given poem and have

would-be poets add their own words to complete each line. Some very interesting results can be

produced in this way.

Example (words taken from Calvin C. Hernton’s “Madhouse”)

Here is ____________________

And here is ____________________

A ____________________

And beyond ____________________

Bring ____________________

Yet ____________________

And ____________________

In ____________________

From ____________________

And those ____________________

Once the poem is complete, use the Internet to find the places and people seeking poems to

publish. When the poem appears in cyberspace or in print, be sure to notify the training

administrators and others interested in the progress participants are making.

Brainteaser:

What four-letter word, ending in “t,” completes the analogy?

“Penultimate” is to “ultimate” as “next-to-the-last” is to __________.

Answer: Last.

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Table of Contents for 19. Publish a collective poem.