Last week I was very excited to run a workshop with a small group of Year 9 students at JCoSS (Jewish Community Secondary School) in East Barnet. I was a bit nervous about this one, because it was an idea I'd only very recently devised, so I was curious to see how it would go. Thankfully, it seemed to go well! The idea was this. I asked everyone to pick an emotion, and I then asked to following question: if your emotion was an animal, which animal would it be? I gave the students ten minutes or so to describe their animal in as much detail as possible, using interesting descriptions and vocabulary, along with their five senses. Once they had this bank of ideas, I then shared my poem The Tiger with them, which you can read here. The challenge was then to write the first draft of a poem, about their own animal. I am delighted to be able to share with you three poems. Two were written by students (who has only about ten to fifteen minutes to complete this task), and the third was written by their teacher, Miss Williams. (I love it when teachers get involved!). Feast your eyes on these beauties:
The Leopard of Fury by Daniel
Take one more step
The leopard of fury will chase after you
From the morning to the night
From the darkness to the light
Take one more glance
The leopard of fury will stare deeply
Into your eyes looking for fury
The fury within you
The leopard of fury will never hesitate
To unleash her fury
The leopard of fury will never hesitate
To make you vanish truly
For there is fury in everyone
Me
The leopard
And you
The Snake of Fear by Harry
Slithering through the blades of grass
She stares at you
She seeks fear among you
Her scaly back sharpens
As she comes closer
Nearer to your face
Her evil jaws open wide
Her venomous tongue reaches out
And she gives you
A kiss
The Swan of Love by Miss Williams (teacher)
Smooth
Curve of the feather...
