The One With "The Rain"

Hi, friend! It’s a rainy Monday here in the High Country, and I’ve enjoyed the most glorious day of rest as I prepare for a busy weekend in the nation’s Capital with some of the sophomore students I work with in the College of Education. Today, I took the time to slowly sip my coffee, dive into our assigned reading from Georgia Heard’s text, and explore one of her strategies for developing an idea into poetry. You can read more about my own experience using the “Six Room-Poem” strategy below.

#1: Start by dividing your paper into six boxes. Actually, no. Maybe you’ll want eight boxes because you did just light a really good smelling candle. Your seventh and eighth boxes could be for “smell” and “taste” respectively. Okay, now proceed.

#2: Label each box based on Georgia Heard’s directions found on pages 69 and 70 of her book Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School. You should use the following labels: image, light, sound, questions, feelings, and repeating words. Then, add the two final labels: smell and taste.

Rainer Maria Rilke was once quoted comparing process of writing poetry to “venturing into hitherto unexplained rooms” (Heard, 1999, p. 67). This statement alone is beautiful and poetic, but maybe more importantly, it is also a metaphor that our students deserve to understand and uncover as they become writers of verse. In this week’s reading, Heard describes one particular experience she had while using the “Six-Room-Poem” strategy with fourth graders in Hawaii. She recounts the way that these students clearly took themselves seriously as writers, and thus, used this strategy to develop meaningful poetry writing through the use of multiple senses and perspectives.

#3: Choose an image of something outside that you want to write about. Maybe the rain? Yes, the rain. Okay. Now, fill each box with the first thing that comes to your mind as you think about the rain falling outside your window. Don’t try to write a poem yet- that part will come later. Try to notice all the details, especially the small things, and write everything down as accurately as possible. This will probably mean that you use lots of descriptions.

#4: Did you fill the page? That wasn’t too hard. Look at all that brainstorming you just did for your poem! I bet you didn’t even realize you had that many ideas about rain. Read back over what you wrote now. Notice what sticks out to you as a reader.

#5: Use your “Six-Room-Poem” brainstorming page to write a poem about the rain. I think you should start by writing, “The rain…”. You should definitely include the verb “bounce” and repeat the word “falling”. Maybe stagger it on the page? Then, it sort of looks like it’s falling. You should repeat that same phrase. This will help remind your reader of the image you are trying to convey. You should use your light reference here because this will connect you and your reader as they have likely noticed these same colors when it rains. I like the fact that rainy weather makes for the perfect afternoon nap, but I don’t want to say “Napping weather.” What about the word “rest”? “A time to rest”? Yes! I like that. Repeat “The rain…” again. Now, refer to the sound of rain, but not in a cheesy way. Don’t say “pitter patter”. Use the sound of cars in the rain. You could maybe even write about how frustrating it is to drive in the rain because the person in front of you keeps constantly spraying water onto your windshield. Yes, I like that because then I can tie it back into myself. Where am I? What am I doing while it is raining? Repeat “the rain” on last time.

#6: Read your poem.

“The Rain”

By: Jessica Krpejs

The rain comes

down from the sky

falling,

falling,

falling.

It steadily bounces

off of a rooftop below.

The rain casts

everything in hues

of grayish-blue.

It blankets

the world in a sleepy haze

as if to say,

“Now is the perfect time

to rest.”

The rain leaves

puddles of water

which cars spray up

behind them.

It frustrates

drivers below,

but me?

I’m safe and dry

inside, tucked up

under a blanket,

sipping coffee,

and thinking about

the rain.

I found the “Six-Room-Poem” strategy to be useful in creating my own poem around an image, and because of this, I plan to use a version of this in my own future classroom. I believe that by using this strategy, students will better be able to examine the world around them with a poetic eye and greater confidence. I hope that you will consider learning more about Georgia Heard’s “Six-Room-Poem” strategy and the ways that you can include it in your own classroom.

Heard, G. (1999). Awakening the heart: Exploring poetry in elementary and middle school. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.