I just wrote a poem in class today in order to model to my fifth grade students how they can borrow the forms and structures of one poem and adapt it to their own purpose. The poem I wrote was excerpted from this one which I really liked and thought I’d share.
The original excerpt follows:
When clustered sparks
Of many-colored fire
Appear at night
In ordinary windows
We hear and sing
The customary carols
They bring us ragged miracles
And hay and candles
And flowering weeds of poetry
That are loved all the more
Because they are so common
—from “Noël”
by Anne Porter
—
My poem: “Visions Of”
They sprinkled down
Red-green sugar twinkled sweet
On dough that was
Shaped by old cookie cutters
In the oven
Traditions baked through down deep
Oft’ eaten with milk before sleep
Little feet that creep
And hands that sneak one more frosted treat
Memories rekindled
With each familiar taste
m e a n d e r s 