poem is cathartic, and to read one that speaks to you and your experiences is to know that you are not alone. The diversity of modern poetry is a wondrous thing, and with so many lives and experiences represented, young people are able to see themselves in it. Sharing poems about the things children and young adults experience, poems written by people they recognise as like them, in a vernacular they recognise as theirs, can change a young person’s life. Poetry is able to engage with difficult topics in ways that other forms of writing can’t, reaching deep into the heart of things, and pulling up emotion, honesty, and perspective. This is the power of poetry. This is why it has been carried with us for thousands of years. It can be funny, it can be angry, it can be heartfelt, or irreverent, or sad. Poetry speaks to our souls in a way no other art or literature does, and that means it even speaks to the ‘naughty kids’. It’s also, generally, short – meaning it appeals to reluctant readers, or those often overwhelmed by pages and pages of text. The fact that you can open a book of poetry, find a page you like, read just that page, or maybe two, and consume a complete, self-contained piece of writing, is often a revelation to struggling readers. It’s a very different experience to the embarrassment and dissatisfaction that occurs when they’re only able to read a short section of a novel in their allotted reading time. The brevity of poetry allows them to feel the full emotional impact of the writing, instead of just a random fragment that wasn’t designed to be cut off at the point they stopped reading.
There’s also the fact that poetry, even poetry not explicitly written to be performed comes alive when spoken. After all, poetry was born out of speech, thousands of years ago, long before writing was invented, and it continues to be performed to this day, with videos of performance poetry and poetry slams spreading across the internet. This also appeals to reluctant readers. Taking the words of a poem off of the page and giving them a home on a stage, on video, in audio recordings, or even just at the front of the classroom, gives them another dimension. Words on a piece of paper can, for many, be
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uninspiring – but when spoken, they are given a whole new depth of meaning, and spark excitement and confidence in those engaging with them.
Share – don’t teach
The truth is that poetry doesn’t do well in schools, because it defies things such as tests and “correct answers” – things that teachers are forced to focus on, often against their better judgement. Poetry, when taught as a tick-box exercise will never enthuse a class, because it is the freedom, the emotion, and the lack of rules, that engage students. I know it’s controversial, but possibly the best way to teach poetry, is not to “teach” it at all, but to share it. To share a poem to open the lesson. To share a poem in those rare spare few minutes. To post it on a noticeboard, or on the wall of a classroom. To play poetry videos in tutor periods and assemblies. To have discussions about poems far removed from any academic jargon or restrictive syllabus. To process the words without fear of being “wrong”. Let young people speak about how poems feel, and what they think they mean. I can guarantee that almost nobody actually cares about the concepts of stanzas, assonance, alliteration, or metaphor – people care about how those things make them feel. Kids care about how those things make them feel. Make space for them to care. Make space for them to experience and feel poetry again, the way it’s been experienced and felt for millennia.
Poetry is art, poetry is ancient, poetry is ours – all of ours. It belongs to everybody, it always has. It’s only in the past few decades that it’s become seen as some kind of elitist form; as something that confuses and excludes. That’s not on poetry, that’s on us. In trying to define the indefinable, and make things easier, all we’ve done is remove the bits that matter. The magic. The emotion. The connection. The poetry. You see, everyone, absolutely everyone, loves poetry. They just don’t know it yet. PEN&INC.
l Clouds Cannot Cover Us 9781912745104, by Jay Hulme is available from Troika Books
www.Troikabooks.com
Autumn-Winter 2020
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