Poetry Index

Week1

How to eat a poem

Don’t be polite.

Bite in.

Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that runs

   may run down your chin.

It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.

You do not need a knife or fork or spoon

or plate or napkin or tablecloth.

For there is no core

or stem

or rind

or pit

or seed

or skin

to throw away.

by Eve Merriam

Week 2

Description of a winter morning:
An Early Start in Midwinter
by Robyn Sarah
—————————
Poem about home if you are from a snowy country —
Snow and Spruce Forest
by Tarjei Vessas

Poem about dreaming of home if you are from a warm country —
Land of Promise
by Gloria Davis
—a poet who is to be a learner in a literacy program

Week 3

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
by Robert Frost

Listen Robert Frost read one of his poems —
The Road Not Taken

Week 4

Dreams
by Langston Hughes

Midsummer, Queen and Sherbourne
by Raymond Souster.

We Real Cool
by Gwendolyn Brooks

Listen to Langston Hughes
read one of his poems —
The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Read about Langston Hughes.

Read about Gwendolyn Brooks.

Read about the Harlem Renaissance.

More poems

A poem that has a funny shape:
Rain
by Spike Milligan

A poem about driving:
A bit of a thrill
from A Hat to Stop a Train
by Sheila Stewart
— a poet who used to be a staff person in a literacy program

Description of a poet's mother:
Mother
by Mario Pietrantoni
—a poet who used to be a learner in a literacy program