But almost no one wants to write. Even writers don't always want to. Let's define a writer, shall we? Because I've met people who write my socks off, yet they don't consider themselves "writers" because they've never been published. (Nevermind the fact that they've not actually submitted anything!) Any person who writes regularly is a …
Tag: poetry
What You Get When You Flood Your Mind With Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven”
Lenore’s Reprisal (inspired by “The Raven”) January is a dangerous month. January is deadly. Don’t believe me? January. killed. my. Lenore. Ok truth. A-steering-wheel-through-the-heart killed Lenore, but it was January’s fault. Lenore’ll tell it was the road, slick with ice and a blanket of snow. She’ll tell it was the brakes on the Volkswagon—that’s what …
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Christmas. Finished.
On linen and straw lay a birth and a death. God hedged by flesh shepherds, magi. ∞ It pleases us to imagine God just born, vulnerable delivery's slick dross clings the ache of mortality. ∞ It's comfortable: God on bovine-scented straw held in woman's arms and a lowly one at that. ∞ It's Christmas: …
Considering Death This Christmas? Read T.S. Eliot’s “Journey of the Magi”
I'll never forget the first time I read "The Journey of the Magi" by T.S. Elliot. Think: Passion of the Christ, sub magi. This poem is deep and dark and human, revealing the grit that's glossed over by art and centuries. All I knew of the magi is they were funny-looking little men-dolls we set …
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5000 Words Poetry Lesson, 10-13 Year-Olds
I nearly jump out of my seat when students come up with bold, fresh images that sound like something out of open mic night. A year ago I decided to teach them simile. "A cat is like a kitten," someone offered. Now I have them churning out similes like: disappointment tastes like rocks. Fourteen tweens gather …
I is for Invictus
The first words ever to move me were penned by William Earnest Henley just after his leg was amputated. "Invictus" was put on a screen in my 8th grade English classroom for a rhyme scheme lesson. I furiously copied every word, oblivious. Henley's words challenged my view of myself as a leaf in the wind. It …
Via Non Facta: Everest
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood... To understand humility as more than a theoretical concept, to be dethroned, struggle in a wilderness, to cry out for God's strong arm, to not feel like the beautiful one, the popular one, to …
Timothy McVeigh & I Agree on One Thing
My favorite poem was basically written by the one-legged pirate, Long John Silver. What's worse, my favorite poem was also the favorite of Timothy McVeigh, infamous building-bomber-baby-killer, who went so far as to quote it just before leaving this world by lethal injection in June, 2001. I remember thinking that McVeigh was about to meet …
Nothing’s More Fun Than Doing The Assignments I Give My Students
The Assignment: A 10 line iambic pentameter conceit poem. His Favorite Pair of Jeans He once compared me to a pair of jeans, Velveteen-threadbare, torn, and faded jeans. We were as close as clothing then, denim Dressed and pressed against each other. Thirteen Years my best friend. So best he could forget The holes, the …
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KL Griffiths 