National Poetry Month: Poem #8

i carry your heart with me  

by E. E. Cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart) 

E. E. Cummings

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/e-e-cummings

National Poetry Month: Whoa, Dude!

Would be a 'whoa, dude!' experience

That's awesome! Not exactly what Wordsworth said, but almost. This is a very famous poem with lots of mixed metaphors, but still great for this time of year with all the tulips and daffodils popping up.

The serendipity (happy surprise) expressed in this poem is like the opposite of PTSD--the memory of the experience brings refreshing joy and satisfying peace, as experiences in nature often do.

  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Wandered_Lonely_as_a_Cloud
The theme of feeling a part of nature and having joy in reflecting back on a beautiful experience is worth reading this poem with kids. Plus, they will meet 'I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud'  many times in English literature class. I do like the daffodils dancing spritely. Personification does it for me every time.

in Just
by e e cumming

http://www.poetry-archive.com/c/in_just.html
Springtime is an excellent time for teaching poetry because it seems poets get very inspired during this season. e. e. cummings even made up new words for spring--mudluscious (You can hear your galoshes go schluppp as you try to extract them out of the newly melted snow/mud. Like hot fudge being pulled out of a sundae. That's mudluscious.) And everyone knows what puddlewonderful is; none of us resist splashing in a puddle. Of course, we in SoCal can't fully appreciate the ecstacy that the folks Back East experience having a puddle to splash after everything freezes for half the year--but we sort of empathize.

That's not eddieandbill or bettyandisbel. Maybe its bettyandeddie or isbelandbill; or bettyandbill or isbelandeddie.

 Kids also love music. So it is no surprise that Spring from Vivaldi would really tickle them with the marvelous sounds of a  spring day--that they can identify on their walk to and from school. The music even sounds like flowers burst-blooming in the sun.

Spring by Vivaldi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRxofEmo3HA
Performed by the Budapest Strings.