Brain Burgers & Poetry

1. Brain Burgers & Poetry An introduction to poetry guts

2. Dream Deferred What happens to a dream deferred?Does it dry upLike a raisin in the sun?Or fester like a sore--And then run?Does it stink like rotten meat?Or crust and sugar over--like a syrupy sweet?Maybe it just sagslike a heavy load.Or does it explode? By Langston Hughes Both are quite alike! A poem and a brain burger give us an image – a picture to put in our head

3. Angel in Blue Jeans I saw an angel in blue jeans todayI felt that she melted all my bitterness awayYou always tried so hard to hide your wings behind your coatSo let it be and let them free So you can't hoover low above the groundYou look so tired you've got moonbeams in your eyes And if I believed I know you'd be the first to flyYou always tried so hard to hide your wings behind your coatSo let it be and let them free So you can't hoover low above the groundI'll find sunshine sometime soonHow can I miss anything about youWhen I don't even know what your name isI feel like I know you as well as I know the sun So please tell me where is my sunshine nowI'll find sunshine sometime soonHow can I miss anything about youWhen I don't even know what your name isI feel like I know you as well as I know the sunSo please tell me where is my sunshine nowHow can I miss anything about youWhen I don't even know what your name isI feel like I know youAs well as I know the sunAnd I wonder where is my sunshine now By Maroon 5 Stanzas Every burger has sections that make it up. Bread, vegetables, meat, cheese, condiments. All of these add up to make a burger. {Stanzas} are like burger ingredients. They group the lines of the poem. This poem is written in free verse. Not every stanza has a matching pattern of sounds or rhymes.

4. FAST FOOD Some witches by the roadside are selling fast-food snacks,big bubbling warthog pizzasand dumplings filled with tacks. They stir things in a caldronand slap them on a dish,hot pimple-breaded lizardsand moldy cactus fish, Some gooey red-eyed frittersall rolled in spider dough,some slippery dragon molars,and boiled fish bones to go. They're cooking up some frecklesand bats they plucked from caves.They're using giant caldrons, they're using microwaves. They're giving plastic chopsticks,and you don't have to wait.They're serving green slime gravyon worms that palpitate. And if you're really lucky,they'll serve you some dessert.It's something cold and oozy,on squirming bug-filled dirt. Rhythm Repetition of sounds produces a musical quality or beat in a poem that we call rhythm. Meter Measures the number of syllables in a poem. Some poems have rules and can only have a certain number. What is the meter structure of this poem? 7 6 7 6 Rhyme Poems include words that end the same or start the same to help create a rhythm Task: Let’s find the rhythm, meter & rhyme in a poem you choose.

5. Poems use similes to compare two things that are not alike – using “like” or “as” & Metaphors that compare two things using the verb “to be”. Task: Can you find more? We are the time. We are the famous metaphorfrom Heraclitus the Obscure. We are the water, not the hard diamond, the one that is lost, not the one that stands still. We are the river and we are that greekthat looks himself into the river. His reflection changes into the waters of the changing mirror, into thecrystal that changes like the fire. We are the vain predetermined river,in his travel to his sea. The shadows have surrounded him. Everything said goodbye to us, everything goes away. Memory does not stamp his own coin. However, there is something that stays however, there is something that bemoans. Making poems come alive!

6. MirrorI am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.Whatever I see, I swallow immediately.Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislikeI am not cruel, only truthful –The eye of a little god, four-cornered.Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so longI think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.Faces and darkness separate us over and over.Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me.Searching my reaches for what she really is.Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.I see her back, and reflect it faithfullyShe rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.I am important to her. She comes and goes.Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old womanRises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish. By Sylvia Plath Personification In a poem, this makes inanimate objects (things that are not alive) seem real. Who is talking in this poem?

7. The Mission: You will write a poem of your own. The journey will begin with your fellowship to help you compile ideas. This is a brainstorming fellowship to help each of you think about what your journey will look like. Before we set off into the journey, Let’s look at some more examples of other poetry. Quickly preview 5 poems of your choice in your fellowship group. Why do you like these? What stands out?

8. The Journey Begins…

9. The Process Start with….. One Idea One thought One emotion A portrait of a day in the life of __________________

10. One image One vision What does it look like? Does it look scary? Does it look calm? Is it beautiful? Is it crazy?

11. What does it feel like? What does it sound like?

12. What would you compare it too? What is it like? What is it not like?

13. Young Jedis, You are now ready to take the rest of this journey on your own.

14. Don’t forget your ultimate ingredients! Images Metaphors Similes Rhyme Meter Rhythm Personification

15. Homework Begin writing your poem. If you are feeling stuck… Write down the following website http://teenpoetry.studentcenter.org/ This website includes poems by other students. Check it out.

16. Final Steps Organizing Polishing Clarifying Sharing