All posts in Timothy David Rey

‘He’ll be safe in our land’: Poems inspired by ‘Pictures From Around The World…’

Students selected a picture that ‘spoke to them’ from a photo bank entitled: Pictures From Around The World That Will Make You Hopeful Again. The students were then led through a series of prompts […]

‘My grandfather says my name beautifully./ It almost sounds like a wind chime./’: A Name Game

Students explored their names through a series of writing prompts after reading My Name (from the poetic novel, The House on Mango Street) by Sandra Cisneros. What does your name mean? What is the […]

‘Lucy means light’: The Name Game

Students explored their own or other’s names through a series of prompts which began with a reading of Name That Means Holy in Greek by Kim Addonizio. What occurs in the naming of someone […]

‘Where did the time go?’: Question Poems

Students explored and discussed Tracy K. Smith’s question poem, The United States Welcomes You. Who is the speaker? Where is the speaker? What is at stake? What is the result of the telling? All […]

Worth Repeating

We explored the powerful device of Repetition in Phil Kaye’s poem of the same name. Some poems in our workshop are ‘after’ Kaye’s work. Lesson Note: Writer/Performer Anna Deavere Smith who interviews people and […]

‘eventually the river will stop flowing’: Meditation Poems

Students participated in a 10- minute creative writing meditation and breathing exercise. After the meditation, they were asked to write whatever came to mind. Classwork was conducted in silence. Daydreaming and even boredom were […]

‘even as life went sour’ : Food For Thought

Li -Young Lee’s poem, From Blossoms allows for exploration with food as cultural touchstone and a source for memory. Some examples of student work are below. Lesson Note: ‘John S. Allen’s The Omnivorous Mind […]

Put That On The List: List Poems

This lesson circulated around the concept of lists. Through Albert Goldbarth’s List Poem, ‘Library’ (truncated for our purposes in class). We began class by making lists of nouns that described memories. Anything was game. […]

Any Questions?

Students explored and discussed in groups, Tracy K. Smith’s question poem, The United States Welcomes You. Who is the speaker? Where is the speaker? What is at stake? What is the result of the […]

‘I want to stay in this moment.’ Words Worth…Repeating

We explored the powerful device of Repetition in Phil Kaye’s poem of the same name. Some poems in our workshop are ‘after’ Kaye’s work. Lesson Note: Writer/Performer Anna Deavere Smith who interviews people and […]

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I’M FROM THE CITY LIGHTS / STREAMING OUT IN THE NIGHT / AND HUGE SKYSCRAPERS / TOWERING OVER THE LAKE – MELISSA E., 7TH GRADE POET