Poem du Jour: Spring Oak Haiku

In recognition of this being National Poetry Month, my students and I are working with a variety of poetic formats in our writing journals. In an effort to model for them how to work the the process of writing and revising, I have found myself facilitating a sort of brainstormed poetry writing on a very regular basis... two or three times daily!

In the past I have attempted to be disciplined in staying with the practice of poetry writing, but(as often happens) I find myself getting side tracked. I'm hoping to get back on the path by posting a poem each day, at least during April (beginning, of course, today!).

In class I introduced the idea of writing Dueling Haikus. In doing so, I worked with one lad on writing one about Spring, leaving him to complete the opposing verse about the Fall season. Here's what I came up with:

sleeping oak trees wake,
blossoming buds bloom anew—
fresh hands wave “hello.”