During 5th period of Symposium Day today, I went to the session, "What I Should've Said: Poetry Collections," of which Mr. Garces Kiley was the faculty advisor. Six Year 2 girls, who had all both taken Mr. Kiley's poetry workshop and/or did poetry with him as their independent study this semester, read a collection of their poems aloud, and briefly explained their motives and feelings behind each poem.
But to be honest, what interested me more then the poetry itself was the panel discussion that the girls had after presenting. It was wonderful to hear about how much poetry meant to each of them even beyond it being initiated in the realm of school and required work. One girl, I remember, mentioned how poetry is sort of "theraputic" for her, which I've felt before and I think is such a wonderful idea. It almost matters less what the poem is actually saying, but how the poem is a particular way of channelling and expressing emotions, and how each girl used their poems as outlets of expression. Often students do work for school because it's required, but it was so refreshing to see the genuine interest that all these girls had in poetry and in learning more about themselves through writing poetry.
What's special about a poem is that it's often very vague. And because us readers often don't know what's really going on, or what exact experience the poet is honing in too, the poem actually says more about the poet him/her self that about the actual content. This was really evident in the presentation because we got to here from six very different poets. The girls mentioned how when workshopping with each other, they really noticed how they each had really distinct styles, more so then they would've expected. And that was even clear when they were presenting. They each used the poetic form to express something different, to channel in on their own feelings, to explore the past, the present, and a year of nostalgia.
It was really a great presentation, and I would love to take the poetry course that they all did when I'm a Year 1/2.
