April is National Poetry Month

[Vikki 0]

Since April is National Poetry Month and one of our residents is a published poet, we are going to have a few poetry-related activities next month.

 

There is a game we're going to play and normally it goes by the term "Exquisite Corpse", but I think that's a bit morose for our residents, so I'm trying to think of a different name.

 

The way it works is that everyone sits in a circle and the first person writes two lines to a poem, folds the paper over so only the second line is showing and hands it to the next person who, in turn, also contributes two lines. It continues around the circle this way until it gets back to the beginning and then you read the poem aloud. It's really interesting because each time you obscure part of the writing so things can change up really fast. Many of our residents are very much able to do their own correspondence and don't have a problem writing, but there might be a couple of people who will need assistance. It's a neat game, though. You can also do it with a story instead of a poem.

 

The other things we'll do is a "Fill In The Blank" poem where we sit in a group and residents call out various adjectives, nouns and verbs and the group leader plugs them in to a poem that's been partially written. (There's a cool template for how to do this here- http://www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/Lang...ng/WCP0200.pdf)

 

We're also going to have a poetry reading where participants will bring a copy of their favorite poem (or they can tell me their favorite poem title or name of a poet and I'll get copies of the work) and we'll read them aloud in a group setting. Classic stuff to read include works by Longfellow, Rumi, Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allen Poe, Tennyson, Robert Frost, e.e. cummings, Dorothy Parker, the Bronte sisters, etc.

 

Another idea was to do a "beat poet" social where we'd have fancy coffee, have everybody dress in black, wear berets and read poetry by people like Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg and Charles Bukowski with some Bebop jazz music set in the background by people like Dexter Gordon or Sonny Rollins. Then everybody would do the finger snaps instead of applause after each reading. I think they would get a kick out of it.

[Guest Tinki]

We had a silly/funny poetry contest with the staff. I had all the staff create silly poems and read them to the group of residents and other staff. We voted on the winner and gave a prize.

 

Karen

[Guest Tinki]

Anyone doing anything interesting for Poetry Month?