A Humanizing Approach Using Living, Open-Access Poems
Each March, many classrooms fill with brackets.
Inspired by the energy of the basketball tournament, teachers invite students to read poems head-to-head and vote for their favorites. The structure is familiar and playful. It gives shape to the month and often brings a welcome spark of anticipation to reading.
And yet, poetry asks something slightly different of us.
Poems are not trying to defeat other poems. Poets are not writing to outscore one another. A poem is an offering of attention—of language shaped by someone’s interior life, their memories, their questions, their ways of noticing the world. When we frame poetry primarily as competition, we risk narrowing the reasons we read.
But the structure of March Madness does not have to disappear. Instead, we can soften it. We can keep the energy and curiosity of the bracket while inviting students into a more humanizing way of reading.
In this approach, the bracket becomes less about elimination and more about encounter.
Each poem becomes an invitation to pause, to listen, and to ask what a poet might be revealing about the world—or about themselves.
One way to do this is to center living poets and open-access texts, such as the poems in Just YA, the open-access anthology published through Oklahoma State University. When students read poems written by living authors—poets whose work exists in the same present moment they inhabit—it becomes easier to recognize poetry as something alive and ongoing.
The goal is not to crown the “best” poem. The goal is to cultivate attention, curiosity, and interiority—to help students notice what a poem opens within them.
Below is one way teachers might structure a humanizing March poetry bracket.
Step 1: Begin with Sixteen Poems
Sixteen poems mirrors the familiar tournament bracket while remaining manageable for classroom reading. The poems below come from the free, open-access anthology Just YA and represent a range of voices and themes that often resonate with young readers. There are many other options and ways of organizing the poems; this is just one way.
Identity & Self
- “A Place to Breathe” — Christine Hartman Derr
- “Zit Ode” — Stefani Boutelier
- “My Voice” — Melissa Heaton
- “Wounded Healer” — Darius Phelps
School & Adolescence
- “High School” — Joe Bisicchia
- “Reality Bites” — Rachel Toalson
- “Bill-Bored” — Glenda Funk
- “North Dakota Snow Angels” — Samuel Stinson
Justice & Community
- “Juneteenth Is Not Freedom” — Stacey Joy
- “Belonging” — Joe Bisicchia
- “Peace Play” — Linda Mitchell
- “We Gather Here Together” — Rachel Toalson
Futures & Technology
- “Don’t Call Me a Robot” — Laura Shovan
- “Word of the Day: Techwright” — Stefani Boutelier
- “Chasing the American Dream” — Laura Zucca-Scott
- “Star Gatherers” — Jennifer Guyor Jowett
Grouping poems by theme reminds students that poems are connected through shared ideas and human concerns rather than rivalry.
Step 2: First Round — Encounter the Poems
Students read poems in pairs, but the question shifts away from judgment. Instead of asking Which poem wins?, invite students to reflect:
- Which poem stayed with you today?
- Which poem made you pause or reread a line?
- Which poem opened a feeling or memory for you?
Students vote based on connection, and the poem with the most responses moves forward. Importantly, the other poem is not treated as a loss. Instead, students might:
- Choose a favorite line to add to a classroom “line wall”
- Write a brief response poem
- Save the poem in a class collection to revisit later
In this way, the poem remains part of the shared reading experience.
Step 3: Invite Writing Alongside Reading
To keep the bracket rooted in literacy rather than ranking, each round can include a small writing invitation inspired by the poems.
Students might:
- Write four lines about a place that shaped them
- Try a poem built on repetition or rhythm
- Write about movement in their daily lives
- Respond to a single line that lingered with them
Writing alongside poets helps students shift from evaluating poetry to entering the creative space themselves.
Step 4: Quarterfinals — Noticing Craft
When the bracket narrows to eight poems, students can begin looking more closely at how the poems work.
Questions might include:
- What image stays with you?
- Where do you hear rhythm or repetition?
- What emotional space does the poem create?
Reading the poems aloud becomes especially powerful here. Hearing language spoken often reveals layers of sound and meaning that quiet reading may miss.
Step 5: Semifinals — Meeting the Poets
With four poems remaining, students can learn more about the poets themselves. Because these writers are living poets, students may discover:
- where the poet lives or writes
- what themes they explore
- other poems they have published
This moment often shifts the atmosphere in the room. The poems are no longer anonymous texts but expressions of real people living and writing in the world. Many of the authors interviewed with Sarah to read and discuss their writing.
Step 6: The Final Round — A Poem We Carry Forward
Instead of declaring a champion poem, consider naming the final selection in a more reflective way:
- The Poem We Want to Carry Forward
- The Poem That Stayed With Us
- The Poem We Want to Share
Students might end the month with a short reflection:
The poem that stayed with me this March…
Often, the reflections reveal that many poems—not just one—have shaped their thinking.
Poetry Is Not a Sport, But It Can Be Playful
March Madness brings energy and anticipation, and there is nothing wrong with playful structures that invite students to read more.
But poetry ultimately asks us to slow down.
It asks us to listen for another person’s voice.
To notice what language can hold.
To sit for a moment inside someone else’s experience.
If we let the bracket serve that deeper purpose, the activity becomes something more than a contest.
It becomes a way of cultivating attention—of helping students recognize that poems are not objects to rank but human expressions that invite us into reflection, empathy, and interior life.
And that may be the most meaningful kind of victory a classroom can experience.
Interested in learning more about poetry? Join us for the Open Write every month and for Verselove in April.