I
want to write Page: 1, 2, 3
A
great deal of the writing we do in Sistahs is inspired by lines
or images in the poetry we read together and much of the writing
is done collaboratively. After reading this poem by Ruth Forman
entitled Poetry
Should Ride the Bus, we all wrote poems beginning with
the line "Poetry should…" Then we created a collaborative
group poem drawing on the lines from each person's poem. Forman's
poem and the poems we wrote in response suggest our emerging and
growing sense of literacy as an active social encounter with the
world.
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Poetry
Should Hop on to What You Want
(Group poem)
poetry
should whisper electric blue magic about your opinions,
both sweet and sour like starburst.
poetry should look you in the eye never forgettin' to look
you in the soul and make you see miracles right there.
poetry should listen to what you have to say and see your
pain.
poetry should be a twizzler in a merry go round.
poetry should be like a hill going up, up, up.
poetry should make "jump, jump" like Kriss Kross.
poetry should make you do the fun things like cartwheels
and flips.
poetry should be funny, riddle-like.
poetry
should be you!!!
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Poetry
should be about all of your feeling
Poetry should be about your opinions
Poetry should be sweet and sour like Starburst
Poetry should make you feel good about yourself
Poetry should make you and your family get together
Poetry should make all of the laughter come out of you.
By Sade Cohen
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Poetry
should wear the baggy jeans that hang below your knees with
a white shirt - whiter than my eyes can see
for you boy with those zig zag braids
twisting and turning different ways
Poetry
should go to school and stop actin gangsta.
Poetry should act like a young man and not a little boy.
Poetry
should grow up, up, up.
By
Shanté Johnson
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poetry
should sneak up behind you on a dark street
startle you and make you jump right out of your skin
and your old habits
look you in the eye and make you see miracles right there
growing out of the concrete
poetry
should follow you around all day
search for that curve right above your hip
hold you there with a hand as delicate and light as the wind
as you walk alone through a world of your own making
poetry
should go to women's shelters
and rape crisis centers and family clinics and then
poetry should tell you that poetry will not save your life
and then
poetry should show you that poetry may be your only path to
survival
poetry
should find its way to a roomful of sistahs
settle in and tune in to their rhythms and rhymes
wait for their words to carry you under and over and
wash over you something magic, something divine,
something breath-taking
yeah
poetry should give birth to you over and over again
remind you who you are, where you come from, why you matter
re-create you and re-create the world
By
Kelly Wissman
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