I’m a confessed poetry hater.
Ok, hate is a strong word, but “poetry disliker” doesn’t quite capture the annoyance I feel towards poetry either. If you have the perfect word to convey my sentiments on this issue, please say so in the comments. I will steal it for a future post.
For now, we’ll just go with I hate poetry.
But I’m also stubborn. (Email me for a longer list of my wonderful qualities!) I can’t give up on this idea of finding a way to like poetry that doesn’t include me scowling.
So I keep trying.
Thinking back on last school year, we did do a spooky theme poetry tea time in October and I remember my boys liked Edgar Allan Poe. I also remember they enjoyed the few audio poems we listened to. I thought, hmmm, maybe there’s something to explore there. Why not combine the two and make it easy on me?
I purchased an audio collection of Poe’s works performed by Vincent Price. What a thrill(er)! (Get it? Come on, peeps of the 80s, you get it.) With the audio version, I’m not the one responsible for figuring out where to pause, which words to emphasize – the weight of bringing these words to life is off my shoulders. I just get to add in the fun, like a dessert tea party with spooky table decor & themed treats. A fabulously illustrated book or two. And a magnetic poetry kit.
Enter a new addiction
Yes, I finally ordered a magnetic poetry kit after thinking about them for five months. (Hi, my name is Heather and I’m an overthinker.) And now I’m addicted to poetry kits. I spent half my Monday playing with these words. Here’s the rest of that eery poem from the top picture. I made it to surprise my boys when we started school for the day.
In true teen fashion they pretended to be unimpressed by my poetic genius, but I’m sure they scribbled a note to the Pulitzer prize committee when I wasn’t looking.
Then I realized I could write an ode to Game of Thrones with the words from this Poe kit. Death, crypts, ravens, and more death – these two have a lot in common.
Do you guys want to know how hard I wished there was the word “three” in the tiles? I had raven, I had eye, I just needed a three! I probably spent thirty minutes trying to wish one into existence. (Spoiler: it didn’t work.)
I didn’t get to finish my Ode to GoT because I was pulled away to work out rational expressions, so that gem is now lost to the world. But speaking of a certain black crow’s kisses…death, ravens, and incest. Is George R.R. Martin stealing from Poe? I don’t know. What I do know is I want more of these magnetic poems. Lots more.
ALL THE KITS!
Seriously, I need to start a Go Fund Me account for all of the magnetic poetry kits I now want to buy & use in our homeschool. There’s a thankful kit (November theme, you guys!), A Fa La La kit and Mixed Up Carols, a geek kit, haiku kit, a cat lover’s kit, a mustache kit…I can’t keep track of all the ones I want. I even dream of ones I want that don’t exist. (Hint: Harry Potter. The Hobbit. Don’t forget Game of Thrones.)
My 14 year old son was finally drawn into my obsession and create a poem about a poet with no words.
He made me put the Trader Joe’s fruit loops behind it. Teenage brains are confusing sometimes. Also, was this a coded message for me to stop playing with these tiles?
Right now I want to stop writing this blog post and go play with the poetry tiles some more.
Weird.
Maybe I don’t hate poetry after all…
