Poetry Friday :: Sally Thomas
Looking for a little company in the kitchen while I made dinner, I happened upon a podcast interview with the poet Sally Thomas. In the interview at The Mason Jar, Sally talks about introducing children to poetry–how it can happen and what it’s good for.
It’s a terrific treat to hear how poetry works at her house and the inspiration for her latest collection, Richeldis of Walsingham. At the end of the interview, she reads two poems. The second one is just a show stopper!
She also mentions the poet Dana Gioia and his essay “Poetry as Enchantment.” This was the second time in a week that some one had mentioned this new-to-me poet. Guess I need to pay attention. From the looks of it, Gioia is active on Twitter–a perfect platform for poetry! It’s also where I first happened upon Sally Thomas! One morning I opened up Twitter and found this question:
Question that struck me today: if you can have a Latin-centered curriculum, why couldn’t you have a poetry-centered one? How wd it look?
— Sally Thomas (@SallyThomasNC) September 18, 2014
Just about one of the most intriguing ideas ever! Melissa Wiley, Sally, Lisa Toth Salinas, and I ended up talking about it for quite a while. There are some excellent book recommendations included. You can read the whole exchange right here. And there’s more poetry goodness at Teacher Dance.
Poetry centered curriculum–sounds extremely interesting.
Oh yes it does. I’m very intrigued by the idea of poetry centered curriculum. That’s a rabbit hole I can get lost in. I’ll have to go follow that conversation now.
It’s so rich! I’d love to hear your recommended resources for teaching poetry too, Melanie…
Alice–we are about to embark on the second term of our humanities co-op based on ideas from Haystack Full of Needles. Your book has been such a blessing to our community!
A poetry centered curriculum is one I could get behind. Would it be structured around theme, form, classics, modern? Such fun to think of it.
Organizing by theme seems a little more straightforward to me…and I’d want both classics and contemporary.
I got side-tracked by Dana Gioia’s twitter there for a second. (He’s very nice — I interviewed him a while back). A poetry-centered curriculum sounds fascinating. I’ll bet Lissa would have thoughts on that.
Poetry and Twitter are just made for each other!
I like the idea of a poetry centered education. Thank you for introducing me to two new poets.
So glad you stopped by, Kay!
I don’t know if you could call my curriculum, but I did include a lot in all aspects. I had an assistant tears ago who loved Gioia so I know some of his writing. Thanks for the links!
That’s certainly the boat we’re in too, Linda.
Oh, how I wish poetry had been introduced into my classrooms in such a vibrant way! When I was a student, poetry was all about long-dead Englishmen and assignments with right or wrong answers, which sadly left such a bad taste in my mouth that I’m only just starting to explore poetry again!
My experience mirrors yours, Jane. I’m playing catch up now!
Poetry-centered curriculum….
This post leaves me giddy. 🙂
I have a feeling that, like Lissa, your homeschool has been nearly poetry centered…
Love the photo collage, Kortney. Leaves are some of my favorite things. You keep me open to poetry- something I will find more time for soon. Thanks for that, too!
Thanks, Missy. The pictures are from a cold, clear walk I took last year. But just this week we went out and saw the same red door + wreath. Keeping open to poetry? That’s a pretty good place to be. What’s been happening with your art explorations?
I was just thinking today about how I am enjoying loads of art, but my own projects (oh, there are a few!) are waiting for me to get back to them. Thanks for asking- a good push for me. I am doing a month of photo challenge and posting that on FB.
Always much thanks to you, my inspirational friend!