Poems of delights and other things
WRITING CAN BE a good way into dialogue. I like a poem by Tachiba Akemi that I read in a collection of Japanese Poems. It was called: 'A Poem of Solitary Delights.' I wrote a couple of verses in a similar fashion to present to children. These are the verses I wrote.
A poem of delights
What a delight it is
When, of an afternoon,
A friend calls by
And we tell stories
To make each other chuckle.
What a delight it is
When, in the morning,
I complete a job
I thought would take
All day.
What a delight it is
When a sentence
I've been toiling over
Finally comes out
Right.
By Steve Williams
Inspired by Poem of Solitary Delights, Tachiba Akemi, 1812–68
I was doing some work on writing with a group of 10 to 11 year olds recently and asked I them to spot any patterns in the verses. They spoke about how the verses all start with the same line, how the second line starts with 'when'. Then they considered the length of the sentence that makes up each verse.
I suggested that they write a verse of their own and start with any of the following phrases.
What a delight it is ...
What a pain it is ...
What a wonder it is ...
How infuriating it is ...
How curious it is ...
What courage it is ...
How right it is ...
How unfair it is ...
How wrong it is ...
They worked on their verses and read them to a partner. I had prepared some notes telling them to:
'Read your verse out loud to one or two other people. If you have just listened to another person read their verse, say: ‘thanks for letting me hear that.’ If you have just read your poem to someone else, say: ‘What do you think? Do you agree? Ask what things they think are a delight, a pain, curious or whatever you have written about.'
You can see, and download, the little book of notes I made for them HERE.
Listen to the sound file below to hear some of them reading their verses.
Poems and p4c
In relation to philosophy for children, poems like these could act like examples children might raise in a dialogue about 'courage' or 'fairness' or 'pleasure and pain'. They could be become a focus for exploring concepts. For example, the child's verse about 'courage' you heard above could become a starting point for dialogue. One might use it without necessarily inviting the children to ask questions; just discuss whether they agree with the idea in the verse. On the other hand, you could give ask them to write verses with the same starting line such as 'What courage it is ...' and make some of their verses into a collection. Use the collection as a starting text and invite pupils to ask questions.
How unfair it is ...
I notice that when young people think about 'unfairness', they often offer as examples those situations that give them pain or those when they feel someone is just having a better time than them. So, delving into verses about unfairness with provide some good opportunities to explore and clarify the concept with the children.
Depending on what children come up with in their verses, you could design some 'concept-stretchers' to keep the discussion going. For example, you could invite children to agree or disagree with the following statements and make up some more.
- If someone is taller than me, if isn't fair.
- If everyone is taller than me it isn't fair.
- If everyone else is allowed to go out at playtime and I am kept behind, it isn't fair.
- If my sister has friends over and I feel lonely, it isn't fair.
- If I need help to do my homework and don't get help, it isn't fair?
After you have explored the concepts of fairness and unfairness, you could ask the children to have another go at writing a verse. See what you get.