As I wrote in an earlier post, I have been taking a continuing education class in order to be able to renew my teaching license. I have been taking a course titled “Awakening the Poet Within,” which is teaching me techniques for how to use poetry to teach writing skills, and to see the importance of poetry in the lives of children.
One of the assignments was to actually craft a poem using one of the techniques that I would teach to my students. Here is what I came up with:
My Sun
My son and I
played in the fountains.
The sun made us
squint our eyes
and warmed our skin like an oven.
It brought out the color
in the flowers
and in all the swimsuits.
It made the laughter
sound more jolly,
and the splish splash of feet
sound more squishy.
It made the sky so blue
that it seemed you could dive right in
and never reach the bottom.
But it was
dull, dull, dull
compared to his smile.
Radiant beams of joy
hitting me
straight in my heart.