Poetry Session in class, Arushi Lakhanpal – 6

On Monday, 24th August, Ms Sanjula Sharma of ‘Happy Minds’ came to teach us more about poetry.

Along with us, there were a few students from Salaam Baalak Trust, and Ms. Pooja was accompanying them. We first started with an introduction, where we were told what the company is for, and a little bit about Ms Sharma. She revealed that she was actually a poet, and she wrote a book full of poems called ‘For Rhyme or Reason’ which comes from the phrase ‘for no rhyme or reason’.

After that, we started with an activity, in which everybody was shown a card with ‘Constantinople’ (a city in Turkey) written on it. We had to make as many words we could using only those letters. Most people didn’t get more than 30 and at the most, 40, but it was a fun activity to show how many words can be made from only one word.

Next, we tried to read a poem and feel it. We held our palm out in front of us while Miss read out a poem. We had to imagine the picture in our minds and feel as if we were there. It takes practice though, we have to read many poems until we can actually feel it.

Another topic we discussed were the different forms and poetic devices such as couplets, alliteration etc. We all passed the microphone to each other and told everyone what our favourite poem was and why we liked it. After that, we worked in our groups and made some sentences using only the words written on the card we were given. The group leader read out the sentences and we demonstrated how many different sentences can be made from the same words.

The last and most exciting activity was writing a poem on our own. We were shown 4 pictures labelled a, b, c and d.

The first one was a scenery of a mountain and a few houses,

The next was a picture of a beach

After that, came a picture of a girl sitting on a hill

Lastly, was a picture of an old man sitting on a bench holding flowers.

We could write a poem about any one of the pictures and describe what we were feeling, what the picture was about and anything we could think of when we looked at the picture. We could use any of the devices and methods that we wanted, and many variations of the same picture came up.

Before, nobody read many poems, but now, we will because we received a reading list of many poems we might enjoy, and I’m sure we will try to read them all.

I really loved everything and there wasn’t a thing I didn’t enjoy! I didn’t expect it to be this good! “A happy mind leads to a happy life”(Happy Minds’ slogan)