Last week was a journey with my favorite poetic form: odes. Students began the day with check-ins before we watched and read some poetry together. First we read “Ode To People Who Hate Me” and talked about the directness of the poem’s tone. Then we watched “Ode to Cardi B” and students enjoyed the poet’s performance style. Our session ended with some writing time where we wrote odes to people or things that misunderstand us. Check out a student poem below:
Oh brain, why couldn’t you let the feeling out
the feeling of being lonely while I lay sleepless
The things you let me do to fill my cold body with warmth
so artificial my teeth hurt
Oh brain, why did you let younger me do
the things I did to fill the void of a heart?
Handmade to fit the key all the wrong people have.
Giving things to make me feel
the warmth that was so artificial.
