About Hands on Stanzas

Hands on Stanzas, the educational outreach program of the Poetry Center of Chicago places professional, teaching Poets in residence at Chicago Public Schools across the city. Poets teach the reading, discussion, and writing of poetry to 3 classes over the course of 20 classroom visits, typically from October through April. Students improve their reading, writing, and public speaking skills, and participating teachers report improved motivation and academic confidence. You can contact Cassie Sparkman, Director of the Hands on Stanzas program, by phone: 312.629.1665 or by email: csparkman(at)poetrycenter.org for more information.

Monday, March 24, 2008

European Poems

This week was somewhat unusual. Students were given a period to do free writing, while the teachers and I discussed options for poems to be read by students during Solomon's upcoming European cultural assembly.

I enjoyed this opportunity to reacquaint myself with well-known favorites, such as Lewis Carroll (England); Robert Desnos (France); Antonio Machado (Spain); Rainer Maria Rilke (Germany); Percy Bysshe Shelley (England); Dylan Thomas (Wales); Georg Trakl (Austria); Tomas Tranströmer (Sweden); W. B. Yeats (Ireland); Adam Zagajewski (Poland); and more so, to familiarize myself with many new voices, such as Ana Blandiana (Romania); Kristiina Ehin (Estonia); Fernando Pessoa (Portugal); Vladimir Vysotsky (Russia); and Dane Zajc (Slovenia).

Poems chosen for reading will be the subject of the next post.
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