“I tell you it has taken me all my life
to arrive at the vision of gas lamps as angels,
to soften and blur and finally banish
the edges you regret I don’t see,”
Much of reading and reciting poetry lies in each individual performer’s interpretation of that poetry. Here is an animated interpretation of one of our POL poems, “Cartoon Physics, Part 1,” read by the author, Nick Flynn. This short video is part of a series of short poetry films on the Poetry Foundation website. After watching that poem, check out these other animated adaptations of POL poems:
On November 6, Minnesota Public Radio featured a story about Sadiya Mohamed, a young Somalian woman living in Minneapolis, and her challenges with living in a new culture. She discusses learning English and how that has changed her sense of home and freedom. One of her successes in learning the new language was winning her school Poetry Out Loud competition. Here is a quote:
Ms. Kelly was my favorite teacher. She taught English. Ms. Kelly convinced me to compete in Poetry Out Loud, a national poetry competition. We picked poems by famous poets and got up on stage to recite them.
I picked Stephen Donne’s poem, “Sweetness.” It’s about what it means to be alive — there is sadness, not only sweetness in life.
Click here to read or listen to this inspiring story.
Videos of select recitations from the 2009 National Finals are now available on the POL site. Click here to see the National Champion, Will Farley, perform Williams’ “Danse Russe” as well as 2nd Place Winner Barbara Gooding, and 3rd Place Winner Kareem Sayegh perform their poem selections. We have also posted the performances of two of our top 12 finishers, Kaleena Kovach and Stanley Jackson, as well as Oregon State Champion Tiffany Hill. At the bottom of the video page, we have singer/songwriter Natalie Merchant performing a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem, which is an eligible POL poem and is found here.
Watch and share with friends, family, teachers, students, anyone. We hope you enjoy these wonderful recitations!
If you will be attending the NCTE Annual Convention in Philadelphia this November, be sure to visit the Poetry Out Loud booth in the exhibitor hall. Come to booth # 728 to ask us questions and tell us how the program is working in your school and community.
The exhibit hall hours for the convention are: Friday, November 20, 12pm-6pm; Saturday, November 21, 9am-5pm; and Sunday, November 21, 9am-1pm. Please stop by and be sure to tell other teachers who are not involved in POL yet to come find out more about the program.
For more information on the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention, click here.
The Poetry Foundation has recently launched an amazing new teaching and learning resource. The Poetry Learning Lab was developed for teachers, students, and learners of every age, and encourages readers of all levels to immerse themselves in poetry. Visit this section of the Poetry Foundation website for all things educational: Continue reading »
Days are getting cooler, leaves are changing, autumn is everywhere and a new Poetry Out Loud season is off to a strong start. If our site traffic is any indication, more and more students are beginning their searches for those perfect poems. While you can look through the comprehensive alphabetical listings of poems or poets, we thought we’d highlight some of the other ways to search that the site offers. Continue reading »
In theaters today is Jane Campion’s new film, Bright Star, an account of John Keats’ young love affair with his neighbor and muse, Fanny Brawne. The title of the movie is taken from Keats’ poem, “Bright Star”, which was written for Fanny.
Here is one of the articles on this film, which received praise at the Cannes Film Festival. Below is a snippet from that article regarding the power of recitation:
At other stages of casting, Ms. Campion required every actor, including children, to deliver at least one poem, “Bright Star” or “Ode to a Nightingale,” by memory. What the director expected to be a dull series of recitations turned out to be the most revealing aspect of the auditions. As they got into the rhythms of the poem, “the person and the personality disappeared and the poem became present,” she says.
On September 13, CBS News Sunday Morning featured a segment on the 2009 Poetry Out Loud National Finals, which took place last April. Host (and poet) Charles Osgood visited Washington, DC, to tape interviews with various participants, including guest judge Garrison Keillor and state champions. CBS Sunday Morning is seen nationally by 4.9 million viewers each week.
Osgood also recorded a related audio segment for the September 11 edition of The Osgood File, a national radio feature that airs on more than 400 stations across the country.
The UK’s Telegraph has an excerpt from the new book, The American Civil War, by the military historian John Keegan. It speaks of the suffering of soldiers during the Civil War and Walt Whitman’s role in taking care of them. Continue reading »
The new school year is upon us: a fresh start for students, teachers and parents alike. A new start for us here at POL too. One exciting development is this blog-a place for you to exchange tips and ideas, get questions answered and have discussions about teaching and learning poetry.
NEW LESSON PLANS–We have heard your requests for more lesson plans and we’ve added links to two plans by Chicago author and teacher Eileen Murphy. Continue reading »
