Request for poems

[stephantom.livejournal.com]

Hi, folks. I'd like to ask for some help, if I could. I'm a student teacher and I'm starting a unit on Monday... basically on the why behind this whole reading and writing thing. The need for communication, the power of written word to express one's perspective, experiences, identity, as well as to learn about other people's perspectives, experiences, etc... This is 7th grade, by the way. And the point is, I'm looking for poems that could be used to talk/think about how difficult it can be for people to really understand each other. People trying to understand each other, struggling, maybe failing...

I offer you one poem I've got so far:


A Single Slice Reveals Them
by Naomi Shihab Nye

An apple on the table

hides its seeds

so neatly

under seamless skin.


But we talk and talk and talk

to let somebody

in.

Comments

[icarusblood.livejournal.com]

hi, not sure if this would help but I think Mark Strand's Eating Poetry might be useful.

Eating Poetry
by Mark Strand

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.

The librarian does not believe what she sees.
Her eyes are sad
and she walks with her hands in her dress.

The poems are gone.
The light is dim.
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.

Their eyeballs roll,
their blond legs burn like brush.
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.

She does not understand.
When I get on my knees and lick her hand,
she screams.

I am a new man.
I snarl at her and bark.
I romp with joy in the bookish dark.