I got many things to write about and keep the record of them such as the 5-time open ram course at some public high school and a new job at a clam school, but I tend to forget to write and time just goes by so quickly...
So, the other day I used a poem for my private lesson and luckily my student kind of liked the lesson with poetry. She's already a competent user of English, so after reading the poem once or twice without explaining language issues, we were able to dive into the discussion right away based on it.
That was great!
I was so thrilled that I decided to let my long holding idea come to life; a workshop of poetry reading.
I don't think there will be many people interested in the gathering, but it's okay that I can learn many things through preparing for the workshop.
Today, I tried to find an easy poem for adults, not like easy for kids, that I can use for the first lesson. People might feel poems are difficult if I use famous poems, so I wanted to find one which is written in easy English while holding some message adult audience are intrigued and moved.
So, I found one. It was good. But there is something I realized.
It doesn't necessarily mean that easy language is easy to digest...
Because the language is easy, there seems to be more room left to understand the poem.
I guess I need to think beforehand carefully where I'd like to take my students and how to develop the discussion without getting lost.
“This Is Just to Say” by William
Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
It was published in 1934. He was inspired by Walt Whitman,
who started a movement to write poetry that reflected the poet’s life and
didn’t follow strict rules; to write
poems about his everyday life.
His are about American suburbs.
The poem was based on a note that he left on
the refrigerator for his wife.
- Metapher?
The sweet fruit; talking about his affairs outside of his marriage??
- Lack of punctuation (a simple note on the fridge) ⇒ feel natural pauses in
English
