Poetry Friday: A Ring, A Drum, and A Blanket Poem

Last month Elaine at Wild Rose Reader suggested writing a poem with the words “blanket, drum, and ring” as a result of an interview with Janet Wong.  It was an assignment given by  the late Myra Cohn Livingston to her students (JW was one of them) in a master poetry class at UCLA. 

This poetry prompt eluded me all month!  I left a comment on Elaine’s blog and Janet Wong responded with a suggestion to have the students draw before writing.  So I did with Mrs. Fisher’s 4th grade class two weeks ago.  I brought in my mother’s Navajo story ring which she gave me months before her passing, a swatch of a Pendleton wool blanket and my father’s drumsticks as a visuals. They  drew and wrote.

This week, rather than me play editor, I took the class to the computer lab and they played with the line breaks.  Samples are here and others are on Mrs. Fisher’s Class Page.
I have to point out Kymberlee’s poem.  She sat for most of the time and felt stuck, “I don’t know what to write”. We chatted and then she wrote. Wow!

Outside a thin
Blanket
Of snow
Lays upon
The ground.
I look at my ring.
The snow so cold,
My ring looking so warm.
Then I look at the pattern
in the snow
then the pattern on my ring
so alike almost the exact same.
I couldn’t keep it off my
Mind until
My mom’s homemade soup
The same golden color as my ring. 
By: Alicia

Loud drums beating
in the park awaking
people with every beat. But
there is no drummer to this
drum. It is the spirit of the
tribes long ago.
People hear the drummer but
there is no site to see.
by Jacey

Heard in the distant,
The drum gets louder
And louder
get closer to the drum beat
When I get to it.
It was my
Heart that is making
The drum beat.
 by Kymberlee

Ring of fire surrounds the valley,
a black angel rises from the ground,
a white angel comes from the glistening heavens, and a voice as loud as 100 bombs exploding shouts go get him, Zinkof,
and the 2 angels start fighting.
Zinkof gets hurt
but has enough strength
to overcome his enemy.
by Tim

Personally, I still haven’t captured the poem for this prompt.  But wow, wow, wow to these fourth graders. Wow to the experience of bringing them into the computer lab and having them play with the line breaks.

Poetry Friday Roundup can be found at writer2b.

Happy Reading.

MsMac