Reading and writing poetry are powerful ways to share your voice. April was National Poetry Month, thirty days set aside to celebrate the joy, expressiveness and pure delight of words and how they can capture the human experience. But why confine poetry to just 30 days of celebrations?
Poems can be structured or unstructured, curve in ribbons of rhyme or bumble across the page. They can be epic or short, ridiculous or realistic, captivating and cathartic.
We at youthLEADarts challenge you to a quest throughout the month of May to collect and share original poems written by youth (or others) that are inspired by one of two things:
–a leader whom you respect, admire and celebrate (this could be a world leader or someone in your community or family)
or
-a poem about one of the youthLEADarts values: Listen, Empathize, Act or Drive.
Why stop at poetry? If you have paint, paint…if you have materials…sculpt…if you have a camera…capture an image…then add words!
One of my favourite poems to write are haiku, a simple kind poem styled in Japan. Haiku says so much in so few words. A Haiku can take minutes or hours to write and gives you plenty of opportunity to play with words. Why not write one for our quest?
Haikus do not need to rhyme and are three lines long. The biggest challenge is filtering your thoughts and experiences into the 5-7-5 syllabic pattern. You get 5 syllables for your first line, 7 for your second and 5 again for the third.
Here’s my attempt at one. Can you guess who inspired me?
Circle of wonder
An open book casts a spell
Student’s minds open.
Please scroll down to the “Ask Your Questions” section at the bottom to submit and we will post your poems within a week of receiving them. Consider sending photos and artwork as well.
Enjoy the quest!