2. National Poetry Month
As a preface to the next few weeks, take minute to share a page reflection on your thoughts on poetry. Much as we do for our articles of the week, these are open-ended responses; however, if you need prompting: do you read/write poetry, why or why not? if so…how often, any favorites/genres, likes/dislikes, etc? if not… what holds you back? how do you think poetry is viewed by your peers or culturally?

3. Poem in a Pocket Choose a poem (no song lyrics) of your liking.
Copy by hand the poem into your Writer’s Notebook.
Make sure to indicate the author and title (as well as the source).
Read it over several times to yourself and aloud, trying to capture its tone and pacing.
Think about why you chose it, but do not prepare any “formal” explanation.
Bring the poem in your pocket (as well as your composition book) for May 5th.

4. In you Writer’s Notebook, compose at least 6 unique lines that we could add to this poem, keeping the same upbeat, admirable tone.

5. FACING IT by Yusef Komunyakaa On my first read… One line I liked is…
One idea I had/line I noticed is…
One thing I don’t get is…
After reading the analysis, I think the poem…

6. How does the rest of the poem end
How does the rest of the poem end? In no less than three sentences, but no more than ten, predict the mood and conclusion of the story. Try to identify why you believe it to end that way.

7. We made our way along the hallway to a room full of sun, where people were gathered to talk a little, though she had nothing to say. There was a stereo playing music, and once in a while someone sang the lyrics, which had returned from some dim region — a man seated in an easy chair had wanted, years ago, "a girl just like the girl who married dear old Dad."
We went to dinner. Someone poured her a glass of juice. She ate, spilling food, with a sudden hunger. Afterward we sat on some couches. Someone asked her to dance. The music played. She danced with slight, tentative steps, a tulip too heavy for its stem. When we had to go we kissed goodnight, and left her to lie down in her soft bed, her head on her pillow, to slip into sleep.

8. POEMS IN ADVERTISING
Jot down a response to the following q’s in your composition book before the poem(s) of the day: What are your thoughts on using poetry for the purpose of advertising? Can it be effective? Can you recall any of note? Does it devalue the poem that someone besides the author is using it to make money? Or does it bring poetry, framed professionally with images and music, to a vast audience, making poetry more approachable?
As you watch, consider the following: what does the company seek to communicate about their brand using this poem?  What associations do they want you, the audience, to make with their product(s)?  What connotations are they developing for their brand? Which ad is more effective?

11. Poem of the day Edward Lear
'There was an old man with a beard Who said, 'It is just as I feared, Two owls and a hen A lark and a wren Have all built their nests in my beard!'
Copy this poem into your writer’s notebook.
Determine the poem’s rhyme pattern.

12. Reader (Neil) submitted limerick published May 2014, on FamilyFriendPoems.com
[As an ode] to Lou Costello There once was a man called Costello A silly Vaudevillian fellow He expired this day So this tribute we pay To a man who was shaped like a cello He quit high school and moved to L.A. Found some work and decided to stay Soon he carved out a niche With a chance to get rich From the comedy roles he could play He teamed up with a comic named Bud Who up until then was a dud They created some skits With their wiles and their wits That were funny, just like Elmer Fudd "Who's on First" was a great bit of jest That many still think was the best That has ever been done In the annals of fun And can still make us laugh when we're stressed Lou Costello showed wonder and glee When we saw him each week on TV With his deviant mind He was one of a kind Such a jolly good fellow was he

13. “An ode to…” limerick homework
A literary figure from this year
One of the Holicong teachers
A well known celebrity
Someone in this class
A historical figure of note
3 stanzas
Do not include his/her name, other than the title
Keep it light-hearted and positive (and appropriate)

14. SONNET 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Copy this poem into your Notebook so that we can annotate the mechanics of Shakespeare’s most famous sonnet.

15. An Interruption by Robert Foote
A boy had stopped his car To save a turtle in the road; I was not far Behind, and slowed, And stopped to watch as he began To shoo it off into the undergrowth— This wild reminder of an ancient past, Lumbering to some Late Triassic bog, Till it was just a rustle in the grass, Till it was gone. I hope I told him with a look As I passed by, How I was glad he'd stopped me there, And what I felt for both Of them, something I took To be a kind of love, And of a troubled thought I had, for man, Of how we ought To let life go on where And when it can.
An Interruption by Robert Foote
In your Writer’s Notebook, summarize this poem using three vocab words from our current vocab unit.