Joseph Coelho:
Writing a poem is like taking a photo with words. When you take a photo, you find something that looks interesting, find the best angle, frame it up in the viewfinder, hold your breath and…click!
It’s the same with a poem. You see or hear something of interest. Like this statue. You think about the best way to approach this statue. Which angle to take.
Do I imagine the statue is alive?
Do I write a poem form the point of view of the sculptor?
Or a child passing by?
Or a drop of rain falling on its surface?
You frame up your angle and start making notes. Let’s imagine the statue is alive. What is it thinking? How is it feeling? What does it want to do? Where does it want to go?
Carved out of molten rocks.
It is cold to the touch but he feels warm inside.
Everyday I sit and stare
At the people passing me by.
The cold wind wants to erode me,
The rain wants to rust me,
Children climb up on me.
I want to be left alone
Where the elements can’t get me.
Take me away from the cold, cold, cold wet outdoors.
Now that the statue is alive with thoughts and feelings, we can underline the bits we like.
Carved out of molten rocks.
Cold to the touch, warm inside.
I sit and stare.
People pass.
The cold wind wants to erode.
The rain wants to rust.
Children climb up on me.
I want to be left alone
Where the elements can’t get me.
Take me away from the cold, cold, cold wet outdoors.
Some descriptive words can help make the meaning of a poem clear. Words that will help those listening to my poem know exactly what I mean.
I am carved out of molten rock.
Frost-bitten to the touch,
But toast-warm inside.
I sit and stare.
People pass me by.
The wind is desperate to erode me.
The rain, excited to rust me.
Children clamber up me
With sticky fingers and muddy shoes.
I want to be left alone
Where the weather can’t get me.
Take me away
From the cold, cold, cold wet outdoors.
Using frost-bitten instead of cold gets across the idea that the statue is very, very cold to the touch. So cold, you may get frostbite. We could’ve used other words like as cold as ice. That’s a simile because we’re comparing the statue’s temperature to ice. Or we could’ve said snowman frosty.
Adding more detail to how the children clamber up the statue gives a sense as to why the statue might not like that. I wouldn’t want anyone climbing up me with muddy shoes or sticky fingers!
Every time I write a poem, I imagine I’m taking a photo with words. What words will best put the image that’s in my head, into the head of the person reading or hearing my poem. How can I take a photo with words.
Video summary
Poet Joseph Coelho explores how figurative and descriptive language encourages imaginative writing and creative exploration.
He shows us that poems can be a snapshot of a particular moment and that we can express the thoughts and feelings of these moments through imaginative writing.
Outlining the importance of expanding your vocabulary through investigating and experimenting with language, he highlights how the writing process (drafting and redrafting) can help you achieve precision of language when using descriptive words.
He shows us how this process can be likened to exploring the scene of a potential photograph and how you can edit your language to create a stronger visual image.
Teacher notes
Ideas for the classroom
Key Stage 1 (age 5-7):
Before watching:
Share with the children This is the City by Kathy Henderson.
Ask the class to make initial responses to the poem, expressing likes and dislikes, asking questions, including clarifying unknown vocabulary and connecting with real life experiences. Ask the children if they have been to a city before? What was it like for them?
Now read the poem a second time, this time sharing the words as you read. What do you find out about the city from reading the poem? How do you think it looks? Sounds? What do you think it would feel like to be there? Mark words or phrases in the text that children identify as helping them to build a picture. Give the children a range of art materials, this could include magazines or newspapers for collage, charcoal, soft drawing pencils, brush pens, coloured pencils, pastels and allow the children to draw what they think the city looks like. What was it about the poem that allowed them to create this picture?
After watching:
Provide the children with small, handmade notebooks and cameras and take them out into the local environment. Allow them to sketch, take photographs and note down words and phrases about things in the local environment that inspire them. It may be a building or man-made object, an element of the natural environment, or a moment in time that they happen to capture as they are out.
As they come back, help them to pick out the ideas they liked best by looking back at the photos, sketches and notes and working these up into individual, paired or group poems, choosing words carefully to allow another person reading it to picture being there in that moment as they were able to do with This is the City.
Key Stage 2 (age 7-11):
Before watching:
Read aloud the poem Halloween’s crumble by Joseph Coelho. Ask the class to make initial responses to the poem, expressing likes and dislikes, asking questions, including clarifying unknown vocabulary and connecting with real life experiences.
Read the poem again, this time sharing the words as you read. Mark words or phrases in the text that children identify as helping them to build a picture or allow them to do this by giving them a copy of the text for themselves, or in mixed pairs or small groups. Describe the experiences using all the senses.
After watching:
Come back to Joe’s description that ‘Writing a poem is like taking a photo with words.’ Go back to the effective imagery used in Halloween’s crumble and how it allowed us to really be in the moment of blackberry picking alongside the poet. Provide the children with small, handmade notebooks and cameras and take them out into the local environment. Allow them to sketch, take photographs and note down words and phrases about things in the local environment to see and hear things that could inspire them to write.
Help them to pick out the ideas they liked best by looking back at the photos, sketches and notes and working these up into individual, paired or group poems, choosing words carefully to allow another person reading it to picture being there in that moment as they were able to do with Halloween’s Crumble.
Create response partners to read each other’s’ poems looking at where the language was most effective and where it might be improved to ‘sharpen the focus’ for the reader.
This short film will be relevant for teaching English at primary school.
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