About Hands on Stanzas

Hands on Stanzas, the educational outreach program of the Poetry Center of Chicago places professional, teaching Poets in residence at Chicago Public Schools across the city. Poets teach the reading, discussion, and writing of poetry to 3 classes over the course of 20 classroom visits, typically from October through April. Students improve their reading, writing, and public speaking skills, and participating teachers report improved motivation and academic confidence. You can contact Cassie Sparkman, Director of the Hands on Stanzas program, by phone: 312.629.1665 or by email: csparkman(at)poetrycenter.org for more information.

Monday, March 31, 2008

There Once Was a Guy Named Rorschach

Last Wednesday, the poets at Bell marveled over Ink Blots! With the help of the classroom teachers, I created colored ink blots for them in stages -- first black, then blue, then deep pink, and the students wrote about what they saw after each addition of color. We will be putting this up as a big gallery soon -- check out the 4th grade hallway to get the whole group! Enjoy the small sampling below...



















Untitled
by Julia R.

A two headed Hercules with invisible legs
hating its Junior and when he’s down below,
crying for help, he don’t care.
A girl insect, with so many eyes, bothering the man
by floating above his head. He has arms
that are blue, and eyes that glow and give
you chills. It is raining while the junior is
sinking in wet quicksand between 2 puddles.
Everybody’s morale is falling apart, and so
they hallucinate, big footsteps start to appear.
A bug, a pair of lungs? Still more rain appears.















Imagination
by Magdelene T.

Two eyes on a face. The two letters V and
W. Worms squirming around in the
dirt. A zig zag like a zipper.
A lip with blue lipstick
and two evil eyes with two polk-a-dots.
The river flowing through sand
or a snake slithering across
the jungle ground.
A bridge on top of
a lake, or a ramp. The
head of a goat,
or a baby mouse swinging.
















Untitled
by Jack S.

The skeleton of a ladybug.
An elaborate garbage chute leading
to nowhere. Atlantis without
people. My thoughts when I do
my homework. A planet with
1,000,000 moons. A bird with
only wings. An ocean
in the night sky. 10,000
bugs farting under water.
Black ice with veins.
A headless woman wearing
a see-through dress. My hair
at six in the morning. My
dad when I broke his prize possession.














Animals
by Bella N.

A dark black bear
Smiling,
Bearing rotten, blackened teeth
Paws outstretched to hug me,
Its black nose cleaved in the middle,
A rumbling laugh emerges from its lips.

Wait! Now it’s Mighty Mouse!
Defender of the blue cheese!
Strong little arms encircling the bear,
Tail lashing from side to side,
His bright fur splashed on the bear.

What a sight!
The red horse has joined the fray!
Hooves of the horse trample
Upon paws of bear and mouse alike!
Bear squeezing horse,
Mouse riding it.

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