Student verses

Last week we reached the poetry lesson in the 9th graders' textbook. This was one of my favorite lessons last year, as, despite the focus of teaching some grammar terms (by explaining the poem guidelines), the activity is quite communicative. Students are more expressive than usual, even if they only follow the model, and low level students seem to excel for reasons I'm not quite certain.

Students were allowed to write about anything, following the format of the examples in the textbook, and some from last year's 9th graders. Most of the poems are simple and clean, a few turn my head because of their topic and/or wording, and several are intricate enough to warrant several readings. Below are some of my favorites, and my own comments in brackets.


Notebook
Let's study
Writing, reading, learning
Let's get high grades
Fight
[A teacher's dream student]

Bee
Very work
Flying, flying, flying
Because they get honey
Busy
[This student seems to have a strong sense of the Japanese work ethic and duty]

Everyday
It's travel
Losing, searching, finding
It is like a treasure hunt
Very hard
[Ahh, the quest for answers at age 15]

A soap bubble
Beautiful sphere
Flying, wandering, disappearing
Soap bubble is flying
Envy.
[And the yearning to escape]

Hayasaka Sensei
Cute man
Teaching, laughing, smoking
But he is heavy smoker
Don't do it.
[Take that! Big Tobacco]

Meat
Delicious beef
Smelling, tasting, eating
Yakiniku is good
Wonderful
[My thoughts exactly. What's more poetic than meat?]

Mona Lisa
Strange picture
Smiling, terrifying, seeing
But very popular
Wonder

QUEEN
Nice band
Singing, playing, beating
They play very well, especially the chorus
Alive
[This kid also loves Deep Purple and the Sex Pistols. What generation gap?]

Hair
Forever friends
Falling, leaving, going out
Many people lose friends forever
Very poor
[Strangely, this was not the only poem about going bald]

Sky
Blue sandglass
Flowing, flowing, changing
Be not same anytime
Time

Flower
Bright colors
Looking, watching, touching
The cherry blossoms are gone
Sad
[This from one of the poorest and quietest students, who finished in mere minutes while some top students labored the entire class]

Pictures
What's this?
Crying, crying, crying
It is really sad
Strange
[The last line originally said 'Me", but he changed it just before turning it in]

[The Japanese have a keen sense of fleeting life, and I think these last three are good examples of that. They reminded me of a quote from Zora Neale Hurston's Dust Tracks On a Road, with which I will close]

"It was strictly a matter of time. It was true for the moment, but the next day of the next week, is not that moment. No two moments are anymore alike than two snowflakes. Like snowflakes, they get that look from being so plentiful and falling so close together.”