The Power of Poetry, by Peter W. Cookson, Jr.

The music of our beautiful language will guide your students on the journey to find a voice of their own

In today's world of the Internet and e-mail, the poetic sensibility seems to be the reserve of a small group of people. In reality, our first and best public and communal language is poetry. If you read the Bible, or any early religious text, it is filled with metaphor, simile, rhyme and images that are not only poetic, but speak powerfully to our innermost selves and our shared life. I remember how some of my teachers read poems at the beginning or at the end of class, quoting poets at some length if they were English teachers and holding out the poetic impulse as something to which to aspire. The poet Emily Dickinson wrote, "If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that it is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that it is poetry. These are the only way I know it. Is there any other way?"

Talking about feelings
I am sure that we are by nature poetic and that children, given a chance, can write and understand poetry and think in poetic images. As a first-year teacher going over your lesson plans, I suspect you seldom think of poetry. Consider the following: Poetry is a direct expression of inner feelings; how often do children in our classrooms get the chance to talk about their own feelings?

Imagine the possibilities
Recently, my grandson, who is in the sixth grade, was asked by his teacher to write a series of poems based on a theme. The explosion of words that came out on paper was truly impressive, and far different than the skateboarding pre-adolescent that is his public image. His private world is full of wonder, hope, doubt and possibility. By writing poems, he was able to discover possibilities he would never have imagined in his daily routine. He is proud of his poems and I think a little surprised that he wrote them. What could be more important in our life's journeys than to find our own voice?

Here are a couple of ideas about how you can help your students find their own voice:

• Begin and/or end each day with a poem read by one of your students. It need not be long, but what a wonderful way to enhance each day with the music of language!

• At least 2-3 times a semester, ask each student to write a poem about something he or she feels and post those poems around the class. The students might write a poem about anger, happiness, sadness, joyfulness. What they are likely to discover if you use a thematic approach is how they share many of the same feelings; this is one sure way to build authentic community.

• Part of our cultural heritage is the rich history of poetry throughout the world. It would be a genuine lesson in tolerance and global understanding if children compared poems on similar themes or topics written in different cultures. Ideally, these cross-cultural poems would be written by students of their own age. I can imagine, for example, a lesson plan where students' poetry from the United States, South America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, South Asia and Asia could all be pulled together either on the computer or in the traditional paste-and-paper technique and used as a way of teaching geography, history, culture and language. Our students today are woefully ignorant about the world. Poetry is an embracing and wondrous way of learning about worlds other than our own.

• Reading poetry should be a lot of fun. Too often poetry is taught as a technical subject when, in fact, if we go back to Emily Dickinson's quote, it is a deeply emotional experience. We should consider reintroducing poetry into the study of language, history and even science and mathematics. Is there anything more poetic than the mystery of the cosmos? Or the eloquence of geometry? Poetry helps us to synthesize feelings, things and experiences that are otherwise separated; to integrate these feelings on a systematic basis results in a very high level of cognitive function. The poet Carl Sandburg once wrote, "poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits." I think what he means is that poetry is the coming together of all that is beautiful and dreamlike and all that is nourishing and practical. A poem is a shock of discovery; a kind of bolt from out of the blue that opens our eyes to see the world in a new, fresh way.

An inner world
As a new teacher, you have no higher task than to open your students' hearts and minds. As you know from reading this column, I do not subscribe to the "banking" model of education where knowledge is poured into a head. I subscribe to a theory of learning where knowledge emerges from the individual and becomes deeper and more complex as it engages with facts, people and challenges. Poetry is the royal road to the inner world that is not only private but is also public. If our students are deprived of the opportunity, their life's journey will be less beautiful, less wondrous and less passionate. Remember that poetry can be found in everyday life; the uncovering of this everyday poetry is a gift that as a first-year teacher, you can make to your students each and every day.

Peter W. Cookson, Jr. is the founder of TCinnovations and the Dean of the Graduate School of Education of Lewis & Clark College. He is also founder of the Center for Educational Outreach & Innovation at Teachers College at Columbia University.