A Poem to a Student

Inspiration: A Poem to a Student

Hannah.
James.
Kenny.
May.

I recently wrote a sonnet about meeting a past student in the grocery store and forgetting her name. Like many of you, I have taught thousands of students over the years, and I cannot hold them all firmly in my memory while making the necessary space for my current (needy!) students.

But we also have students or student-moments that have left indelible memory marks. Today I invite you to write a poem about a student, past or present.

Consider this brilliant poem by Dorianne Laux:

The Student

She never spoke, which made her obvious,
the way death makes the air obvious
in an empty chair, the way sky compressed

between bare branches is more gray or blue,
the way a window is more apparent than a wall.
She held her silence to her breast like a worn coat,
smoke, an armful of roses. Her silence
colored the smaller silences that came and went,
that other students stood up and filled in.

I leaned near the window in my office. She sat
on the edge of a chair. Hips rigid, fidgeting
while I made my little speech…

(Read entire poem here.)

Process

This website is a public space. Please bear this in mind as you write, to respect students’ privacy by changing names or identifying details. You may also choose to write about students/teaching/school in a larger sense.

When I taught Creative Writing workshop-style three years ago, I gave myself the task of writing a poem to/for each of my students. This is one.

Poem for Austin (student in Creative Writing) Nov. 2018

Count syllables (3)
Astronomy (4)
He drums out each beat
Then counts it once more.

He picks up his pen
And he gives it a shot
His words are his rocket
He’s their astronaut.

The lines that he writes
Are electric, bizarre
They flash through the sky
Like his own shooting star.

So Austin, keep writing
Put black upon white.
The universe needs you
Keep writing tonight.

Your Turn

Use Laux’s poem as a mentor text for a free verse poem, or use my ABCB ditty to write something light. Or, of course, write what ever is in your head and heart at the moment. <3

Our Open Write Host

​​Allison Berryhill lives in Iowa where she advises the journalism program and teaches freshman English at Atlantic High School. She is active on boards for the Iowa Council of Teachers of English, the Iowa High School Press Association, and the Iowa Poetry Association where she serves as teacher liaison. She is also a member of the NCTE’s Public Language Awards Committee. Allison is also an accordion player and a wedding officiant. Follow her at @allisonberryhil for photos of #IowaSky and schoolblazing.blogspot.com for random musings.