Kid's Poetry

This short video pays homage to the creative imagination of young children--which will often flourish if given half a chance. Half a chance and more is what teacher Harvey Edwards gives the elementary school children featured in this program. Explaining to the children that writing is "playing with language" and that poetry is a series of "clear, strong word pictures," Edwards exhorts his young pupils to write a poem called "When I'm Asleep..." The conditions are simple: it can be real, it can be make-believe; either way it needs clear, strong images (or word pictures). Much of the tape is given over to the children reading their poems--poems about wish fulfillment, family relations, and fears. Yet they use concrete images: malevolent or simply impish toys, animals gone amok on the streets outside their bedroom windows, etc. Unfortunately, there probably aren't enough Harvey Edwards's to go around--if there were, kids would be looking forward to reading and writing poetry in ninth grade, rather than generally loathing the idea. This is a perfect tape for elementary school libraries, and public libraries might want to consider it also. (See A DIFFERENT TWIST for availability.)