Susan Taylor Brown

By the Light of a Hummingbird

Susan Taylor Brown — Wed, 02 May 2012 18:59:52 +0000

I am reading Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett. I do not know why I haven’t read it before unless it was because I knew that it would hurt me in the way that some beautiful writing does. Beautiful writing coupled with a powerful story that just happens to be true can bring me to my knees.… Read the rest

Kick the Poetry Can’ts #30

Susan Taylor Brown — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 08:55:32 +0000

Well we’ve made it though the month with daily poetry exercises that I hope will take some of the intimidation factor out of playing with poetry. For this last day, I’d like to share another poem modeling exercise that never fails to surprise me when I use it with a class.… Read the rest

Kick the Poetry Can’ts #29

Susan Taylor Brown — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:43:29 +0000

Another great poem to use as a model for a poem of your own it This Is Just To Say by William Carlos Williams.

It has also inspired a few books including the wonderful, This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness by Joyce Sidman and the equally fun, Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It: False Apology Poems by Gail Carson Levine.… Read the rest

Kick the Poetry Can’ts #28

Susan Taylor Brown — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:09:53 +0000

I usually introduce this form early on in my teaching sessions and I just realized I missed it. It’s called a cinquain, which like haiku, is a counted syllable form of poetry. A cinquain is 5 lines long and the syllable counts are as follows:

Line 1 = 2
Line 2 = 4
Line 3 = 6
Line 4 = 8
Line 5 = 2

Sometimes a cinquain helps me develop an idea further and it turns into a longer poem.… Read the rest

Kick the Poetry Can’ts #27

Susan Taylor Brown — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:01:42 +0000

It’s Poetry Friday and I decided this was a good day to introduce the concept of using a more well-known poem as model for a poem of your own. I have a selection of them that I like to use with my students and one of my favorites is Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens.… Read the rest

Kick the Poetry Can’ts #26

Susan Taylor Brown — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:14:44 +0000

It’s been a hard day today. If you’ve been following my posts on Facebook or on my garden blog about Lily, the hummingbird who built a nest in our backyard, you know what I mean. If not, here’s today’s installment.… Read the rest

Kick the Poetry Can’ts #25

Susan Taylor Brown — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 09:20:18 +0000

Ancient poets wrote many odes to celebrate great events in their lives and to pay homage to magnificent people. Many of the students I teach have difficulty believing that they are worthy of having an ode sung to them. So we write our own.… Read the rest

Kick the Poetry Can’ts #24

Susan Taylor Brown — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:50:26 +0000

When I work with incarcerated teens they are always talking about their girlfriends or boyfriends who are usually on the outside and who they usually don’t get to see very often. This inevitably leads to them wanting to write love poems.… Read the rest

Kick the Poetry Can’ts #23

Susan Taylor Brown — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:39:13 +0000

Last year, Laura Salas and I worked our way through the book WRITING THE LIFE POETIC by Sage Cohen. We took turns hosting the conversation on our blog and we shared some insights from a chapter we chose to read that week.… Read the rest

Kick the Poetry Can’ts #22

Susan Taylor Brown — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 09:46:59 +0000

It’s the weekend and I’m going easy on you today. I decided to go a little retro so this might look familiar to a few of you from last year. You already know I love saving phrases and words from magazine and then taping them on index cards to use as prompts.… Read the rest