April is National Poetry Month. The site below is a link to Poet.org. A wonderul site filled with information for all who are interested in poetry. Great links for teachers, too.
Below is a fun poem. Happy Poetry Month. (:
http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/41
Your Catfish Friend
by Richard Brautigan
If I were to live my life
in catfish forms
in scaffolds of skin and whiskers
at the bottom of a pond
and you were to come by
one evening
when the moon was shining
down into my dark home
and stand there at the edge
of my affection
and think, "It's beautiful
here by this pond. I wish
somebody loved me,"
I'd love you and be your catfish
friend and drive such lonely
thoughts from your mind
and suddenly you would be
at peace,
and ask yourself, "I wonder
if there are any catfish
in this pond? It seems like
a perfect place for them."
Wordsift
16 years ago
hey! why are we finding out about this with less than 10 days left in the month? :) who knows what wonderful prose i could have efforted to compose? not much i suppose.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder about NAtional Poetry Month. I always observed this as a teacher. Poetry was one of my most exciting genres to teach. I remember my class always did a project where the kids folded a manila piece of paper in half - then I squirted the colors of paint they liked on the paper - then the paper was folded in half. When it was opened - oh the beautiful designs! The kids hung them out to dry while they composed a poem about their masterpiece.
ReplyDeleteThe catfish poem you shared reminded me of a scene in the book "Boys Life" by R.,McCammon, first published in 1991, that I'm currently reading. This is the book recommended by the rep from Florida who was speaking to us at Cheryl's invitation from the Janet Allen reading series. Anyway, there's this gory scene during a flood in the 1960's where the town's very old, very large and famous catfish rises up with the river to snap a dog in half just as the boy hero is reaching to save it as it swam by him. Of course the catfish gobbled down that tidbit then came after the boy who was waist deep on the top of a cabinet trying to protect a younger boy who couldn't swim. Grabbing a floating broom, the hero shoved it down the throat of this leviathon and saved the day. Of course, no one believed his story, except the grandparents of the boy who he saved. Anyway, isn't this just what evey young boy dreams of doing? Fighting off a "dragon" to save the day. It's a gory scene, but I have to admit, I couldn't put the book down at that part. However, I think there's too much mature content in areas related to coming of age, racial issues, and violence for this book to be used in an elementary school classroom. Yet, it would really work in middle school.
ReplyDeleteLove the poem! Kind of makes me hungry for fried catfish though..
ReplyDelete