Posted on by kimhaynesjohnson

Patriot Day Poetry

I was riding along Route 66 through Texas on vacation in June when the text came from my friend Melanie, who teaches in our Humanities pathway in our Ninth Grade Academy:

Actual text. I accidentally hit SEND too soon and had to finish in an unplanned bubble.

Those are the kinds of texts I love the most – when teachers invite me into classrooms to write alongside students. I met with Melanie when I returned, and we designed a plan. Our day was originally scheduled for yesterday, but we had to reschedule for today. We will write 9/11 Jenga block poems, and I will model a Nonet form to show how a poet might use visual shape to symbolize rebuilding and strengthening when all hope seemed lost.

A nonet is a poem with nine lines, containing each numbered line’s number of syllables on its line. It can be written in ascending or descending order – or both, and could even be read bottom to top if a poet decided to write it that way.

I got the idea for this form from Paul Hankins, who glues colorful letters of all different fonts onto different shapes of wooden blocks. He calls it Blockhead poetry when his students take the letters and arrange them into words, then put the words into poems.

I took the quicker way out and began purchasing sets of Jenga blocks and using whole words from magazines to put onto the blocks, and I’ve created sets on various themes such as Bloom! (gardening and growth words for National Poetry Month), poverty and genocide (two of our Humanities themes), and rural Georgia living, with words like pickup truck and dirt road. For today, I’ve created a set of 200 blocks to be used for 9/11 poetry. I’ve used them in all grades from Pre-K through 12, and with adults. Sometimes, we let a group of words inspire poems that take different forms. Sometimes, the words stand alone on lines as poems of their own. One time, we challenged ourselves to write Haiku with blocks alone and no added words.

I drafted a poem yesterday to show how students might select blocks as inspiration words. Here is my draft:

I spoke with Melanie yesterday. She was concerned that she hadn’t spent enough time building background knowledge on 9/11 to prepare for this writing but didn’t want to leave the task in the hands of a sub for such a sensitive topic. I think she made the right choice. I’m thinking that this may even have been a better approach – – because students will have seen the remembrance tributes yesterday and engaged in conversations with others. Perhaps in our initial disappointment that we’d had to reschedule the writing day, this blessing of time may have allowed students to gain greater awareness of the events in ways that laid a more meaningful foundation for us to begin.

I can’t wait to see what the students write, but more importantly, I can’t wait to write alongside them and watch their wheels turn as they make their block word choices. There’s something magical about writing, even in the midst of a topic of despair and pain.

That’s when the hope shines through.

12 Replies to “Patriot Day Poetry”

    1. Margaret, I’m cheering your return to the classroom and know that this will bring great joy as you reunite with your students. I hope they like the blocks. It’s actually a lot of fun to make them. I can’t wait to hear how they like them.

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  2. I cant believe that happened 22 years ago. Which of course means so many classes of students who grew up far away from that experience. It seems wise of the two of you to build background knowledge before this creative poetry lesson.
    Your piece also has me thinking about how teachers structure experiences and have a responsibility to not dictate thinking too much. For example, I love seeing your “one world” block, expanding thinking about this event beyond the wound and anger in our country.

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    1. Thanks so much, Fran. Yes, the concept of one world brings to mind the concept of one body – – we hurt ourselves when we hurt others, and so that is definitely a great point to consider thinking about where it would lead to have that discussion with students about the ripple effects of anger worldwide. I appreciate your reading today.

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  3. After 9/11 the first lesson I taught was on writing found poetry. We know poetry raises awareness and offers catharsis. I like thinking this delay offers a reminder that we should not treat 9/11 as a token remembrance. The class I subbed in yesterday had no provision for acknowledging 9/11. This is typical in our area. Even in 2001 there was a sense of being geographically removed from the tragedy. I know the lesson today will be amazing and look forward to hearing about it.

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    1. Thanks so much, Glenda! I appreciate your encouragement. I’m hoping to share some of their work next week if I’m given permission. I shared your Billy Collins post today, too, with the class when I arrived. What a powerful poem that was. I am so glad you shared it.

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    1. Yes, I will! Thank you for your kind comments. They are still working hard to finish, and I hope to share some next week. I asked them to put their first names only, and when they are finished, they will be adding them to their art journals. I think this group is highly creative, so I hope to get some amazing work in which they take great pride. Thanks so much for commenting today!

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  6. Wow, Kim, you are so creative with physical devices to encourage poetry writing. This post makes me want to go find some Jenga blocks and use them for poetry! What great helps to bring into a classroom to encourage poetry writing, without fear. Everyone would like the blocks, as you say K-12, and adults too. It helps, I would think as you write about this difficult topic. I haven’t taught lately in the U.S., so I don’t know how it is for students who were too young to have experienced 9/11, or at least had older siblings who vividly remembered. I will be interested to hear how your session goes.

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