Sunday, January 31, 2010

Day #24 — Required Reading

Here's a poem for you. My initial reaction to this writing prompt ("Required Reading")  was to do a rant about the stupid Accelerated Reading program and why it makes children hate reading. But instead, here is my feeble attempt at a poem, inspired by the continuing news from Haiti.

Prompt: Required Reading

Required reading
Bodies bleeding
People pleading

Required reading
Children needing
Love and feeding

Required reading
Hope receding
Helpful heeding

Required reading
Some still breathing
Not conceding

Required reading
Plans proceeding
Time impeding

Required reading
New news leading
Superseding

Time: 14 minutes

As I say, I'm not a poet. I'm immature when it comes to using the tools of poetry, but this was an exciting exercise in that it reminded me again how just a few words can tell a story with great impact. It took much longer to write this way than when I follow my usual path. It certainly stretched me more than my typical response pattern would have done.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Actually it was very thought provoking. I hated required reading and because of the stupid SRA program I was put in the poor reader category even though I was reading 8 to 10 books a week on my own. Funny, how we dis-phonetics never quite fit the mold of the phonic driven world of reading.