“Making Comparisons Makes Us See in New Ways”

After our first classes together in which we wrote “Wish Poems” and “Sound Poems,” I asked my Poetry Friends at Swift Elementary School what kinds of poems they thought would be next? Their voices sounded like colorful music in the air: “poems about smells!” someone suggested. “how about wish poems with sounds in them?” was another idea. These ideas were good ones and I felt a teeny bit sad to tell them no, instead, we were going to try something really challenging! A few worried looks crossed some faces. “Today we’re going to write “Comparison Poems.” I said. “Does anyone know what it means to compare things?” It impressed me when they said that they compare numbers in math. I shared that to compare is to notice how two different things are the same, and then we worked together to make our brains warm up to this idea. Even though it was challenging, I assured the students that making comparisons is one of those things that they can get better at doing over time! As you read these comparisons, notice that each LINE has “is like” in the middle.