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Saying It More Intensely: Using Sensory Experience to Teach Poetry WritingAuthor(s): Nicole BaartSource: The English Journal, Vol. 91, No. 3, Teaching and Writing Poetry (Jan., 2002), pp. 98-103Published by: National Council of Teachers of EnglishStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/821520 .

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T e a c h i n g an d W r i t in g P o e t r y

Saying ItMore Intensely: U s i n gSensoryExperienceo T e a c hPoetry Writing

NICOLE BAART

k l i l lhen I announced a poetryunit a few monthsago to my favoritegroupof animat-edlymischievousninthgradestudents,I was more thanpreparedforthe barrageof groans hataccompaniedmyproclamation.Hands shotup allaround he roomas I waded througha steadily growingsea of questionsand complaints, replete

with the ever-originalndunexpected,"Whydo we have to learn his stuff?"Equipped orsucharesponse, called or silenceandquotedwithgreatdignity few linesfromaleftovercollegeessential,Soundand Senseby LaurencePerrine:"[Poetrys] central o eachman'sexistence, omething aving niquevalue othefullyrealized ife, somethingwhich he isbetter off forhav-ing and which he is spiritually mpoverishedwithout"(3). With the unswerving ideology of any first yearteacher,I watched my students'faces in anticipationof the awe and understandingthat I would find un-folding in their blankgazes. It never came.

Teachingpoetryto high school students is anarduous,thankless task.I remember my own night-marishexperiences with the odes of JohnKeats andthe sonnets of William Shakespeare.To a fourteen-year-old, nothing could seem as impossibly boringand irrelevant as Dylan Thomas's:

Do notgogentle nto hatgoodnight,Oldageshouldbumandraveatthe closeofday;At fourteen you are still the invincible center ofyour own universe, and stultifying poetry by "olddead guys" is about as exciting as watching grassgrow.While I prepared to teach my poetry unit forthe very first time, I tried to keep this outlook inmind. And so, afterenticing my students into poetryby offering them spiritual wealth and a fully real-ized life, I ended up reading them Oh, the PlacesYou'llGo! by Dr. Seuss. The famous line, "Youhavebrainsin your head, You have feet in your shoes,"if

not a pillarof poeticexcellence, s at leastappeal-ingatany age.It is no surprise hatmanyEnglish eachersstrugglewiththisage-oldquandary henpreparingtheirpoetryunits:How canI makepoetryrelevantandinteresting? recentlyhad a conversationwitha coworkerduringwhich we lamented the di-chotomybetweenthe poetrywe should teachourstudentsandthepoetry heywant o be taught.Ob-viously,we cannot toss out the classicsentirely nsomeployto be considered he "cool"eacher,butnew trailsarebeingblazedaswe implementevery-thing fromcontemporarymusiclyricsto modernpoetsinto the poetryclassroom.The real dilemmaof teachingpoetry s notdecipheringwhichpoemsto teachandhow to teach hem,butunraveling owwe can best teach studentsto write their ownpo-etry.How canI makewritingpoetryrelevant,nter-esting,andpossible?MimickingDr.Seuss sequallyasimpossibleaspullingoffa decentsonnet.Afterstudying oetry orfourweekswithmyninthgradeclassofenergeticandsomewhathallowbut well-intentionedhinkers, spentmanysleep-less nights ponderinghow to create lessons thatwouldbringout the writers n myuninspired tu-dents.Throughouthe poetrycoursewe had tried

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the traditional"writeyour own poem" formats,andalthoughmy students hadwritten something akintopoetry, t was stilted anddevoid of anyemotion.Theyspat out poetry as if it were a recipe to be followed.A little alliteration here, an ABAB rhyme patternthere, and voila!-a meaningless, one-dimensionalpoem that had as much personality as a cardboardcutout. I pored over poems that made absolutelynosense whatsoever but thatwere shining examples ofthe use of personification. I cringed when my stu-dents learned alliteration;every line of their poetrycontained at least three words beginning with thesame letter ("the marvelous, munching moon" wasmy favorite).Although I praisedtheir efforts, I con-tinually encouraged them to dig deeper and writepoetry from their soul. They rolled their eyes at thisflaky English teacher.In a last ditch effort to conjure up some in-spiration, I returned to the book that had moldedme personally as a poet and found a definition forpoetry that stirred me: "Poetrymight be defined asakind of languagethat saysmore andsaysitmorein-tensely than does ordinary language" (Perrine 3).The keywasmoreintensely;I had to get my studentsto grow from simply saying it to saying it more in-tensely. What they were articulatingwas fine; theyjust needed to kick it up a notch.

Poetry is the reflection of experience, and asI looked backon how I hadpromptedmy studentstowrite their own poems, I realizedthat I was creatingan artificial nvironment thatwas doomed to producethe cheap, thoughtless poetry that limited what theywere attempting to express. Since I cannot realisti-callygenerate a setting in which my students can en-counter the highs andlows andin-betweens of life, Idecided the best wayto help themwritepoetrywouldbe to bring them to memories that would stimulatethe expressionof everythingmore intensely.The seed for my four writing workshopswasthe resultof a lessonplansharedin my college Meth-ods of Teaching English course. The lesson used thesense of smell as alaunching point forpoetrywriting.At the time, I considered it a cute and somewhat triteidea but never imagined that I would use it in myown teaching. Two and a half years later,I dredgedup the memory, tossed in a handful of partiallytransformed ideas, and developed a set of writingworkshops designed to facilitate poetry writing byappealingto the senses. These workshopsteach stu-dents to lookpast the ordinary,be awareof the worldaround them, and find inspirationin perfectly nor-

mal, uninspiringplaces. The result is often a mixtureof personalenlightenment andthe expressionof self.When I presented my workshops to myguinea-pig class, I was surprised by the response.The kids loved every workshop, and although notevery student got something out of every session,they all got something out of at least one workshop.The poetry that emerged as a result of our in-classexperiences was sometimes sad, funny, touching,sweet, or disturbing, but it was also multidimen-sional, and my students were expressing things inways that continually surprisedme.I have discovered that the workshops yieldthe best results when used sporadically.Too muchworkshoppingcan cause sensory overload. In addi-tion, it is necessary to have a clear set of rules andregulations,or students maytreat the workshops asa slack day. Before every workshop I clearly printthe Rules for WritingWorkshops(see Figure 1) onthe board. Students must adhere to the rules com-pletely, or they are asked to leave the classroom. Toassist students with the "no talking"rule, I usuallyplaymusic softlyin the background.I find thatplay-ing classicalmusic onlyirritates hem, so I tryto stickto instrumental soundtracks.ScentWritingWorkshopThe Scent Writing Workshopis designed to evokememory through scent. It also exercises the dexter-ity of describing something in a creative and unex-pected way.Since students do not usuallyknow whatthey are smelling, they have to rely on their gut in-stinct and let the scent take them to a memory.For thisworkshopI use sixteen identicalminiplastic containers. The sides and lids must beopaque; students should only be able to smell theitem, not see it. First, I poke holes in the lids of thecontainers, making sure they are big enough to let

FIGURE .RULES FOR WRITING WORKSHOPS

1. Yourdesk must be clear of everythingbut a fewsheets of cleanpaperandsomethingto write with.2. No talking.Allowyour imagination o absorbwhatyou areexperiencingand do not interferewith anotherperson'sprogress.3. Do not limityourselfin your brainstorming.Write down whatever comes to mind,even if itdoesn'tseem to makeanysense. No erasing!

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scentthrough,but smallenough hat f tippedoverthe contentswill notspilleverywhere.Next,I use apermanentmarker o numberthe containersonethrough ixteen.I place a heavilyscentedproduct nside ofeachcontainer,pooningapproximatelyne table-spoonof the dryproducts nto the containersandsoakingone or two cottonballswiththe wet prod-ucts. I vary he scents;not everythinghasto smellgood or be a "kitchen" mell. I also organizethescents n suchawaythateach newsmell is distinctfrom the one beforeandafter t. It'simportantnotto groupthe sweet or floweryscentstogetherbe-cause the nose becomes numb to the smell and it'shard to distinguishdifferences.The sixteenscentsthat I use for theworkshop re

coffeegroundswomen'sperfume(something trong)garlic afreshlycrushedclove isparticu-larlypungent)cinnamonlaundrydetergentorangepekoetea leavesonion(freshly hopped)shampoolemon(afreshtriangleor lemonjuice)mixedherbs(Mrs.Dashorsomethingsimilar)peanutbutterwhitevinegarmen'scologne (something trong)groundblackpeppercornsmouthwash rtoothpasteheavy-duty ouseholdcleanerInclass,studentspassaround hecontainersandexperienceeachscent,writingdownwhatevercomes to mind as they smell it. I try to direct their

encounter by encouraging them to close their eyesand breathe in the scent. If a particularmemory orimage pops into their mind, fantastic. If not, I askthem to explorewhat each scent makes them thinkof. Maybe a specific place, person, color, or feelingis associated with the smell. Students record all oftheirthoughts, matching up the numbers of the con-tainer with the numbers on their paper, and I thenallowthem to record a guess about what is enclosed

in the container.As a fun bonus at the end of theclassperiod,I revealwhat eachscent wasandgivea smalltreatto the studentwhohad the most cor-rectguesses.After the ScentWritingWorkshop, assignstudents o writea"memory oem"basedonsome-thingthatthey experiencedduring he workshop.On the firstrun-through, receivedpoems abouteverythingromcinnamon ollsonSundaymorningto the death of a grandfatherndhow the scent ofdeath s"notasominousasIhadhoped... likeplas-tic, stalepaint,andmymother'sperfume."TasteWritingWorkshopThe TasteWritingWorkshops anexercise n dis-coveringheimportancefdetail.This s not awork-shopdesignedto cultivatespecific deasfortopicsandthemes nwritingpoetry. nstead, tspurpose sto equipstudents o writedescriptively, ayingat-tentionto detail andapproaching ommontopicsfrom an uncommonangle.Althoughhisworkshopis a"taste est" orstudents, t doesnot focuson thespecific astespresented. handoutverysmallpor-tionsof sixteendifferent oods,and hestudents x-ercise their powers of observationand abilitytodescribesomethingnahighlydetailed,unique,andunexpectedway.Thispractice nables hemto findpoetry n anyexperience.Tocarry ut thisproject, gatheracollectionof tastes andtextures ntended o stimulateartistryinwriting.Eachstudentreceivesapaper owel thatI will gradually ill throughout he classperiod.Iwalkthrough he roomhandingoutsamplesone ata time anddirectingheflowof ideas f studentsbe-comehungupwith the fact that"it'sustchocolate,it doesn't make me thinkof anything." alsoen-couragestudents to try everything,not just thethings heylike,although do notrequire hattheyeat allof the samples.The sixteen astesI use are

chocolate chipslemon wedgedry rotini noodleswhite breadpeanut butteronionmustardCheeriosprocessed cheese

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coconutflakespepperoniDutch black icorice salted icorice)peppermintsbrownsugarbabycarrotsraisinsAs students areexposedto the various ex-turesand astes, require hattheyobserve hesam-

ple fromeveryangle,describingwhatit looks ike,feels like, smellslike,andeven sounds ikebeforetheytryto describewhatit tastes like.Whentheyeventuallyaste hesample, allow hemto illustratethe experienceusinganything ut "tastewords"ikesweet,salty,bitter,our,etc. Insteadofrelying n es-tablishedconventions orcharacterizingood, stu-dents are forcedto expandtheirexperiencesandrelate heir deas nways hatareuniqueandimagi-native.The result s anunorthodox,more ntensede-scription f somethinghat s ordinary.

Instead of relyingon sighttodescribeher color,she explainedpinkas the colorof "amother's

goodnightwhisper"and "the feelof night on yourskin"along

with a number of otherimagesthat evokedpinkwithout

comparing t to anythingvisual.Oneparticularlynthusiastic oyin myclassbroke he codeof silenceduring hisworkshop ndblurtedoutto the entireclassthatthe rotininoodlecrunched ike"the kullof akitten!"We hadrecentlyreadBecause NeverLearnedbyPatrickLane,andtheimageofayoungboycrushinghe skullofadying

kittenwithhisbareheel hadjarredandshockedmystudents.Across heroomI heardkidscrunching ntheirnoodlesto mimicwhattheyconsidered o bethe soundofbonescracking.A numberof studentsused the workshopas a launchingpointto rewritethepoemfroma moresensualperspective, escrib-ing the sounds of the kittendying, alongwiththesplinteringf the skulland heheartbeat, heavynddeep,"of theboywhokills hekitten.The assignmenthatflows out of thiswork-shop s apoembasedon alternativeperspectives-seeing somethingcommon n an unexpectedway.Studentsarerequired o completeapoemthatad-dressesaneveryday ccurrenceor commonmatterin a newandsurprisingmanner.Themost nterest-ing poemI received rom hisassignmentwaswrit-tenbyagirlwho asked hequestion,"Whats Pink?"Insteadofrelyingonsight o describehercolor, heexplainedpinkas the colorof"amother'sgoodnightwhisper" nd"the eel ofnightonyourskin"alongwith a number of other imagesthatevokedpinkwithoutcomparingt to anything isual.MusicWritingWorkshopFor lackof a decent sounding"sense"word, thethirdworkshops titledafterwhatwe listen ointheworkshopnsteadof what we do. Thisworkshopsaimeddirectlyatemotion; tspurpose s to aid stu-dents in identifyingandemployingdifferentfeel-ings in their poetry. Often students revert topredictableexpressionswhen trying o communi-cate howtheyarefeeling n apoem.We knowthattheyaresadorhappyorscared,butthis shallownessleaves ittleroom ortrulyunderstandinghedepthof emotiontheyareenduring.To effectivelycompletethe MusicWritingWorkshop,t is necessary o have access to a CDplayerand anassortment f songs.I tryto startoffwithdark,heavymusicandgraduallyonedown hesongsuntil we end with one of Beethoven'ssym-phonies. By the end of the classperiod,studentshave a betterunderstandingf howmusiccananddoes affect their mood. It is alsoimportant o in-cludesomesongs hatstudentsare amiliarwithandsomesongs hat heyhaveneverheardbefore.Uponhearingsomethingrecognizable,t is obviousthatstudents will automaticallythink of particularpeople,places,andemotions.Thiscanbe avaluableexercisefstudentsdig nto those emotionsand ookbeneath hesurface f what heyareassociating ith

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the song. It is equally useful to expose students tothings they are not acquainted with. This allowsthem to focus on the music instead of the words andattach meaning to sound. A list of songs that I haveused in the past follows (in no particularorder):

"Enter Sandman"(Metallica)"Thief" (Our Lady Peace)"AmericanPsycho"(Treble Charger)"Wonderful" Everclear)"IWant to Know You"(Sonic Flood)"Angel" SarahMcLachlan)"Dive"(Steven Curtis Chapman)"SymphonyNo. 5" (Beethoven)This classperiodis dedicated to nonstopwrit-

ing.I tell studentsthattheymustkeepwritingno mat-ter what, and if they cannot think of actual words towrite, they should doodle or sketch. Some studentsbecome really nvolved n the process,andI have hada few show me up to six solid pages of writing-sixpagesof emotion, experience,and ideas thatprovetobe anexcellentoriginformeaningfulpoetry.In somecases the music hada much greatereffect on mystu-dents than I expected. One student actuallyhad toleave the room when I played "Wonderful,"a songabout a child strugglingwith the divorce of his par-ents. I wondered if the music hadbeen manipulative,but the studentproducedaheartbreakingly owerfulpoem. It was addressedto her father,and it accusedhim andloved him in a singularvoice.At the end of the MusicWritingWorkshop,Iassign my students to write a poem based on an ex-perienceormemorythat movedthem to an acute andpotent emotion. This workshop produced the mostseriousand honestpoetryfrommystudents.I learneda lot aboutthem aspeople and even found anew per-spective on their personalitiesand motivations.SightWritingWorkshopThe purposeof the fourthworkshop s to aid studentsin writing poetry from an outsider's perspective.Sometimes our experience is the result of mere ob-servation and vicarious encounters. When we can-not find inspiration n our own lives, it certainlydoesnot hurt to look forour muse in the worldaroundus.Thisworkshop requiresalittlehelp fromstudents.Atleast a week before the workshop, I ask students tofind a favoritephotographandbringit alongto class.

Students love to take their most impressive pictures,so if the picture is a precious family heirloom, theyshould make sure that it is protected in a slipcoverormaybe even choose anotherpicture.The photos canfeature any subject-landscapes are as desirable asportraits.However, I prefer that the pictures do notinclude any recognizable people who will distractstudents as they are studyingthe photos.For this workshop I divide the class intogroupsof five. The studentsplace theirdesksin acir-cle so they are all facing each other and can easilyshare photographs. Students are then instructed topasstheirphotos to the right.This is a timed exercise,and students areallowedthree minutes to view eachpicture. In the first minute they must write downverbs, action words that describe what is happeningin the photo. Some students havea difficult ime withthis step if they are faced with a landscape,but afterI remindthem that almosteverything ives andgrowsthey areusuallyable to continue independently.Thesecond minute is devoted to adjectivesand descrip-tion:what in thispicture leaps out atyou?Finally,wedevote a minute to filling in the emotional storyofthe photo. During this time I askstudents to quicklywrite the story behind the picture. Since they onlyhave a minute, students must be spontaneous andwrite whatever comes to mind. Young adults areamazinglyadept at readingbetween the lines, espe-ciallywhen the photograph ncludesa numberof dif-ferentpeople. The following s a sampleof a student'sinterpretationof aphoto containingayoung couple,obviouslyromantic:

Action-smile, sit, look, feel, wonder,touch, love, think, live, breathe, plan, hopeDescription-blue, sunshine, soft, happy,content, close, white, new, cleanStory-This is a firstdate. Youcan tell be-cause the girl looks shy and is looking kindof down instead of at the camera. The boyreallylikes her because he's leaning in andtouching her shoulder with his.The three-minute photo interpretationcon-tinues until all the pictureshave been passed aroundthe group. Since I do not require students to ana-

lyze theirownphoto, each studentwillhavefour setsof Action/Description/Story. The next step in theSight Writing Workshop is to allow students tochoose a picture that they found particularly in-triguingor personally appealing. I allowthree addi-

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tional minutes for the groupsto discuss each picturetogether,takingtime to share ideas andinsights.Theonly rule for this part of the exercise is that the stu-dent who knows the real story behind the picturecannot divulge any information to the group. Thepicture must remain mysterious!After all of the brainstorming, speculating,and imagining, I ask my students to write a poembased on the picturethatcaptivatedthem most. Thisis typicallya very easy assignment because parts ofthe poem are alreadywritten. In going through thethree steps of discovery, students have put downwords that might be meaningful in a poem aboutthe picture.ConcludinghoughtsThrough these workshops I have aspired to assiststudents in understanding the profundity of theirown imaginations. Poetry is inherently a part of us;it is identifying and conveying it that is so difficult.However, in attemptingto teach my students to findpoetry in any situation, I discovered that my "inno-vative" deas were merely a reminder to students ofthe things that they already knew. One studentshared that she read over her journaland found po-etry throughout the whole thing. Another boy com-mented that when he went skateboardingat a local

skatepark,he feltecstasyandfearandtriumph hatcould notbe explained y"completeentenceswithcapital ettersandperiodsandstuff."Teaching he art of writingpoetry s aseasyasexplaininghe brilliance f asnow-cappedmoun-tainon a luminousspringday oapersonblind rombirth. It is fraughtwith failurebut sprinkledwithsuccessandwortheveryminuteofclumsyexplana-tions andblank tares.Andwhilestudentsmay oveor hate it andchange heir mindsa million imesinbetween,at leastit is not anentirely hanklessjob.Everystudentwalksawaywith at leasta single inethatspeaks o the soulandsays t better hananyoneelse evercould. It is ourtaskasEnglish eachers ocontinue hequestfor essons hatwillbringout thepoetry n ourstudentsandhelpthemsaywhattheymean to say,more ntensely.Works CitedPerrine,Laurence.Soundand Sense:AnIntroduction o Po-

etry. New York:Harcourt,Brace&World,1956.Seuss, Dr. Oh, the Places You'll Go! New York:RandomHouse, 1990.

NICOLEBAARTeaches at the Mennonite EducationalIn-stitute, Abbotsford,BritishColumbia.

EJ 75 YearS AGOManyVoices,One Nation

"Ifthe songsof a nationwrittenby an idealistvoicing he best his peoplecanhope areanimportantnfluence,whatmustbe the influenceof the songsof a nationwrittenbythousands f highlyemotional,partiallyducated,ambitiousversifiers? Is it good or bad that poetry in America sounds like all the robins and blackbirds-and a thrush or two-inthe topsof all the treesin town on a springevening?"Alice Bidwell Wesenberg. "The American Public: Poetry."EJ 16.3 (1927): 212-18.

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