Poetry Slam?

I have always enjoyed poetry, so I especially took interest in chapter 5. I can recall studying poetry in the fifth grade and having to create a poem for each type: Limerick, Hiku, Free Verse, Acrostic, and others. Even as an adult, I really relate to poetry and enjoy reading it as well as writing it. I feel as though it is an opportunity for the author to express and share their feelings about whatever it is they feel. I think that it is great that poetry can be about anything imaginable. This gives students the ability to enjoy it as well, as long as they are given a topic they like. I can remember reading (as mentioned before) reading Shel Silverstein's books over and over again. Poetry has to be my favorite genre to read for pleasure. I can also recall reading The Random House Book of Poetry.

Poetry allows the author to be creative and experiment with word and shapes, for instance, shaping poems into forms that represent what it is they are about. I think alot of people relate as well as students to poetry because poems can be songs. They can be sung as well, or they started out as a poem and then turned into a song. And we all are familiar with music being the universal language.

Here is another Children's Poet that I came across:

Roald Dahl

http://www.poetryarchive.org/childrensarchive/singlePoet.do?poetId=7177

This website is full of information as well as a biography about the poet/storywriter. But it not only contains information about this poet, but many other notable poets. Roald did all his writing in a little hut at the bottom of his garden. It was rather shabby, with an old armchair and photos stuck to the walls, but he liked the peace and retreated there for four hours every day. Roald used a particular brand of pencil and wrote on special yellow (his favorite color) paper which he ordered from America. He carried on writing right up until he died in 1990 and you can still see the last notes he made in his wastepaper basket if you visit his hut which is now part of the Roald Dahl Museum.

Other books and Poetry by Roald Dahl:

James and the Giant Peach

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

The Big Friendly Giant

Danny and the Champion of the World

We can see through his writings the creativity that he embellished on to write such fantastic stories that children will love. His stories are also filled with such adventure that students have a hard time putting down.