Poetry
Children's Resources
Teaching The Mystery Of God To Children
A Book Of Clues
For some people poetry is a clue to the mystery of God. Just what is poetry? Before looking the word up in a dictionary try for your own definition. One of the best definitions I have ever read is "when words pause." Poetry is just prose broken up in lines so that you will pause as you read it and wonder. Poetry is perhaps, more than anything else, the communication of amazement before the fact of this phenomenal world. Something catches our attention. We pause and in expressing it -- poetry is born.
As we think about the nature of God, poetry helps us ask the right questions. Questions about God are not scientific questions. They are not questions of logic and rationality. They are questions of wonder. One of the earliest poems a child learns is:
Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are.
That is one way we know God exists, not by the fact that we wonder but by the way of wondering. This is one of the great lesson children have to teach adults -- to wonder.
Just last week I saw an example. At a health club, a little boy around four years of age was standing at the drinking fountain while his mother waited impatiently. As she urged him to hurry he looked up with wonder in his eyes and said, "But the water goes up -- and then down -- up and down." What a wonderful thing and all the adults had missed it.
Moments of wonder occur when with the openness of a child we see -- as if for the first time.
Children are natural poets because they look. As adults we glance. Have you ever seen a young child enter a room of strangers and just look at everyone? No need to smile or be charming or say the right thing -- just look, long and hard. Secretly, I have wished I could do the same. But a look makes us vulnerable. It opens us up. It is so intimate. We recognize looks of hate and they are frightening. On television we see faces full of hate, yelling, screaming, looking so ugly. A look of love softens the face. Looks of love are so affirming. We recognize goodness in the face of others.
I know a man who has made fifteen trips to the South Pole to "winter-over" and work sometimes three months and sometimes as long as a year. He says he has seen incredible sights there, and there is something in his mien -- a look deep in his eyes of strength and a great inner stillness.
I knew a woman with compelling eyes who taught music. Her inner eye had seen something of infinite beauty through music. The expression from those azure eyes were unlike anything I had ever seen. Their visions have changed these persons. How blest they are.
As adults we seldom look at anyone. Children and poets look. In the same way God is saying to us: "Please look at me. I am all around you. Look at me and you will see so much love looking back at you. It is a precious thing."
God's presence is in all things and in every place. Wherever we go or wherever we are, God is present. The fact that we cannot see God causes us to forget this. Children teach us the sacred is right here and now. Through their wonder they help us see this sacred in the world.
Play A Game
Most children know the simple game "Where is Thumbkin?" Using that chanting rhythm, play "Where is God?"
Teacher:
Where is ___________? (name of child, such as Sarah)
Where is Sarah?
Child:
Here I am. (child stands)
Here I am.
Teacher:
Have you seen the Lord?
Child:
Yes, I've seen the Lord.
Teacher:
Where was that?
Child:
In the ________ (example: flowers, smiles of friends)
Give the students a few minutes to think about these answers before beginning the game. Where might we see God all around us? Have them think about the seasons or their favorite nature object. Anything can become a touchstone for utter delight in the fact of being alive in the physical world. Participating in this game they are already thinking like poets.
Continue this game until the students are thinking "outside the box." The purpose here is broadening, not merely reshuffling stale ideas and clichﾎ answers. Conclude this game by reading the story of Joseph and the ladder to heaven (Genesis 28:10-17). Memorize verse 16: "Surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware of it."
Continue to develop this ability to pause and look and wonder.
Encourage your students' awareness through journaling. This can work for children as young as third grade but works best with older elementary or junior high students. As a Lenten discipline give each student a small notebook or journal and instruct him/her to record these two items every day:
ï¾¥
Something that surprises you
ï¾¥
Something that inspires you
Knowing you are going to write makes you more observant. There is an added acuteness to vision.
The goal is for each student to discover these surprises and inspiration individually but if keeping a journal is a new experience for your class, you may have to give them a jump start.
One way to do this is to divide the class into small groups and send them outdoors with the challenge of seeing which team can discover the most surprises and inspiration in fifteen minutes. While the hope is that the students will find surprises and inspiration in many places, nature is always a fertile field for ideas and a good place to begin.
After this scavenger hunt, the teams share their findings. In one fourth-grade class, for example, one team saw the surprise of a hawk trying to pick up a large limb and the inspiration of early spring flowers pushing up through frozen ground. Another team saw something that reminded them of the magic and fantasy they had seen in the movie Lord of the Rings: The Twin Towers. "It looked just like that -- but tiny." And they were inspired by an unusual color in the sky that was "yellow like candles."
Students are encouraged to continue with their journals at home. The season of Lent is a time for turning inward and personal, spiritual growth. A private, unshared journal may serve best.
If students choose to share their journal they can report each Sunday during Lent.
In the following weeks, surprises were discovered by the same fourth-grade class by such things as seeing an old friend unexpectedly and finding inspiration in daily Bible reading. Nature continued to be a source of inspiration. The volatile weather at this time of year was the source of some surprises and inspiration. One student even found inspiration in spring mud, remembering the Genesis story that Adam was formed from clay.
Since writing is a catalyst for sharper self-observation and reflection, older students may wish to take their journals a step further by studying them for individual spiritual understanding. Ask them to look for answers to these questions:
ï¾¥
Is there a pattern in your discoveries?
ï¾¥
Where do you most often find surprises?
ï¾¥
Where do you most often find inspiration?
Understanding this about themselves they can return to these sources and choose to accent them. What we choose to see says a lot about who we are.
An old name for Lent is "enlightenment" and that is what we seek. As a teacher consider enriching your own spiritual life by also keeping such a journal.
The book of Psalms, which is a book of poetry, can help children look afresh. It can connect the mundane and holy in their everyday lives.
The British Benedictine, Sebastian Moore, is quoted in Christianity Today as saying, "God behaves in the psalms in ways he is not allowed to behave in systematic theology." This is good advice for us as we seek to move beyond a logical learning about God to an encounter with God.
Psalms do not deny our earthy feelings but allow us to reflect on them, right in front of God and everyone. This is especially good for young boys who are often turned off by constant cloying sweetness and a trouble-free view of life. By fifth or sixth grade, religion and poetry may seem sissified, silly, and unrelated to the world in which they live.
The psalms defeat our tendencies to try to be holy without being human first.
Try having your class write their own poem using examples from the book of Psalms. Don't be put off by unfamiliar words and allusions to unfamiliar things. The meaning and sound of strange words are often what makes it poetry. Because of the length of some psalms it is all right to only look at part of a psalm.
First find an idea in the psalm with which children can identify. Give the children a way to experience the main idea and feelings the psalm is expressing. Once they see what it is about they can write their own. You may need to give children some of the main ideas and feelings in the psalm. Try to connect to the children's feelings. Concentrate on that feeling -- even magnify it. Don't rush. I found it took twice as long as I anticipated, but they were pondering. Surprisingly, the most active children took to this eagerly.
Here are three suggestions.
ï¾¥
Children enjoy thinking about God and how they can know God exists. A good place to begin is with Psalm 136. Repetition is natural to children's speech and much easier for them to use in expressing their feelings than meter and rhyme. After reading the psalm, discuss it with your class. The events listed are mighty and awesome in verses 1-9. Beginning with verses 10 through 22 it continues as an effusion of praise to God's presence throughout history. But look now at verses 23-26. The psalm becomes more personal. Ask the class to think back over the last 24 hours and list twelve events from their life ending with the refrain "His love endures forever" or, to bring it into the present moment use the refrain "God loves me." Perhaps an experience of God in the mundane of their lives will surface.
ï¾¥
Children know there is evil in the world and that it has power. Ask the children who the bad guys are in their computer games, on television, or in the movies. Ask: What makes them evil? Read Psalm 55:1-11. Talk about any words they do not understand. Ask: What images of terror and war have you seen? What thoughts trouble you? Ask them to list their thoughts using words they really use when they speak. Do they understand the psalm and connection to themselves? Talk about it. Honor their questions, responses, and experiences with integrity. Lift up common threads in their lives and this psalm. Does it remind them of anything they have seen on the news or experiences from their own lives? If the children have difficulty, beginning prompts may be necessary. Suggest: Things that scare me are __________________. When I see gore and horror I _____________________.
One eleven-year-old child said, "Things that scare me are movies or games with violence or graphic showings of blood. When I see gore my heart rate goes up and I close my eyes and wish the movie or show to end in happiness." These high-tech images are so riveting. They may penetrate and sear into the mind. Shocking, invasive material can over stimulate a young mind without a child having the ability to process and integrate it. Look with the class at how the psalmist concludes. Read verses 22 and 23. The recognition that God surrounds creation and that we are in God's hands is reassuring and comforting to children of all ages. Ask them to write their own poem.
ï¾¥
Children are aware and often have knowledge about other religious traditions. They live in a pluralistic world. Read Psalm 133. Allow questions about any strange custom or unfamiliar location here. As they write about a situation when everyone gets along, encourage metaphors they can come up with. One child wrote, "When everyone gets along it is like having a load of steel lifted off your head because you are not worried about being mad or getting even with someone."
Have they seen examples of children from different cultures getting along together or not getting along? One child shared with me a memory of a cruel racial slur she had heard one classmate make to another in second grade. When I expressed strong negative reaction, the child, now eleven said, "It wasn't her fault. She was too young. She was expressing her parent's feelings." Once again I learned wisdom from a child.
Limericks
Before we leave poetry, just for the fun of it, consider limericks. If methods don't work for you -- if formulas fail -- just how does a person become transformed internally?
Think about biblical visions and listen to children's insight about God.
Then instruct children to write a limerick. The playful attitude unlocks deep thinking. The rhythm carries the thought.
Explain the limerick formula: It is a poem of five lines. Lines one and two rhyme; lines three and four rhyme and line five rhymes with lines one and two. These were written by a group of teachers:
Limericks On Transformation
There was a young lady from here,
Who knew her Bible quite clear.
Till zapped by the Spirit,
(She trembled to hear it)
Not words but grace brought God near.
There was a young man from this nation
Who sought inner transformation.
But try as he might
He was losing the fight
Till God's presence brought his inspiration.
"I'll be spiritual" the young man swore.
He tried methods and methods and more.
But alas he was miffed
To find Grace was a gift
Not a record of things tried before.
A Time To Reflect
Consider poetry in your life and your class.
1.
What sparks your interest and causes you to pause and wonder? Think of one thing you have seen today.
2.
Have you ever written a poem? Try using this method: First write a paragraph describing one or more of the students in your class. Write about the ones that matter most to you. Use language that is natural to you. Then break the paragraph up into poetry by arranging your sentences in different line formation. Can breaking a sentence in the middle enhance the meaning of both lines? Read it aloud. Look at the visual shape of the poem on the page. Create words that rhyme or not. You have just written a poem.
3.
When have you experienced sudden unexplained epiphanies -- little bubbles of joy that surface and disappear? Try to hold on to these sudden moments.
4.
As you read the limericks, consider the transforming moments of your life. Consider writing a limerick. Here's a prompt -- three words that might get you started: uncover, discover, recover.
As we think about the nature of God, poetry helps us ask the right questions. Questions about God are not scientific questions. They are not questions of logic and rationality. They are questions of wonder. One of the earliest poems a child learns is:
Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are.
That is one way we know God exists, not by the fact that we wonder but by the way of wondering. This is one of the great lesson children have to teach adults -- to wonder.
Just last week I saw an example. At a health club, a little boy around four years of age was standing at the drinking fountain while his mother waited impatiently. As she urged him to hurry he looked up with wonder in his eyes and said, "But the water goes up -- and then down -- up and down." What a wonderful thing and all the adults had missed it.
Moments of wonder occur when with the openness of a child we see -- as if for the first time.
Children are natural poets because they look. As adults we glance. Have you ever seen a young child enter a room of strangers and just look at everyone? No need to smile or be charming or say the right thing -- just look, long and hard. Secretly, I have wished I could do the same. But a look makes us vulnerable. It opens us up. It is so intimate. We recognize looks of hate and they are frightening. On television we see faces full of hate, yelling, screaming, looking so ugly. A look of love softens the face. Looks of love are so affirming. We recognize goodness in the face of others.
I know a man who has made fifteen trips to the South Pole to "winter-over" and work sometimes three months and sometimes as long as a year. He says he has seen incredible sights there, and there is something in his mien -- a look deep in his eyes of strength and a great inner stillness.
I knew a woman with compelling eyes who taught music. Her inner eye had seen something of infinite beauty through music. The expression from those azure eyes were unlike anything I had ever seen. Their visions have changed these persons. How blest they are.
As adults we seldom look at anyone. Children and poets look. In the same way God is saying to us: "Please look at me. I am all around you. Look at me and you will see so much love looking back at you. It is a precious thing."
God's presence is in all things and in every place. Wherever we go or wherever we are, God is present. The fact that we cannot see God causes us to forget this. Children teach us the sacred is right here and now. Through their wonder they help us see this sacred in the world.
Play A Game
Most children know the simple game "Where is Thumbkin?" Using that chanting rhythm, play "Where is God?"
Teacher:
Where is ___________? (name of child, such as Sarah)
Where is Sarah?
Child:
Here I am. (child stands)
Here I am.
Teacher:
Have you seen the Lord?
Child:
Yes, I've seen the Lord.
Teacher:
Where was that?
Child:
In the ________ (example: flowers, smiles of friends)
Give the students a few minutes to think about these answers before beginning the game. Where might we see God all around us? Have them think about the seasons or their favorite nature object. Anything can become a touchstone for utter delight in the fact of being alive in the physical world. Participating in this game they are already thinking like poets.
Continue this game until the students are thinking "outside the box." The purpose here is broadening, not merely reshuffling stale ideas and clichﾎ answers. Conclude this game by reading the story of Joseph and the ladder to heaven (Genesis 28:10-17). Memorize verse 16: "Surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware of it."
Continue to develop this ability to pause and look and wonder.
Encourage your students' awareness through journaling. This can work for children as young as third grade but works best with older elementary or junior high students. As a Lenten discipline give each student a small notebook or journal and instruct him/her to record these two items every day:
ï¾¥
Something that surprises you
ï¾¥
Something that inspires you
Knowing you are going to write makes you more observant. There is an added acuteness to vision.
The goal is for each student to discover these surprises and inspiration individually but if keeping a journal is a new experience for your class, you may have to give them a jump start.
One way to do this is to divide the class into small groups and send them outdoors with the challenge of seeing which team can discover the most surprises and inspiration in fifteen minutes. While the hope is that the students will find surprises and inspiration in many places, nature is always a fertile field for ideas and a good place to begin.
After this scavenger hunt, the teams share their findings. In one fourth-grade class, for example, one team saw the surprise of a hawk trying to pick up a large limb and the inspiration of early spring flowers pushing up through frozen ground. Another team saw something that reminded them of the magic and fantasy they had seen in the movie Lord of the Rings: The Twin Towers. "It looked just like that -- but tiny." And they were inspired by an unusual color in the sky that was "yellow like candles."
Students are encouraged to continue with their journals at home. The season of Lent is a time for turning inward and personal, spiritual growth. A private, unshared journal may serve best.
If students choose to share their journal they can report each Sunday during Lent.
In the following weeks, surprises were discovered by the same fourth-grade class by such things as seeing an old friend unexpectedly and finding inspiration in daily Bible reading. Nature continued to be a source of inspiration. The volatile weather at this time of year was the source of some surprises and inspiration. One student even found inspiration in spring mud, remembering the Genesis story that Adam was formed from clay.
Since writing is a catalyst for sharper self-observation and reflection, older students may wish to take their journals a step further by studying them for individual spiritual understanding. Ask them to look for answers to these questions:
ï¾¥
Is there a pattern in your discoveries?
ï¾¥
Where do you most often find surprises?
ï¾¥
Where do you most often find inspiration?
Understanding this about themselves they can return to these sources and choose to accent them. What we choose to see says a lot about who we are.
An old name for Lent is "enlightenment" and that is what we seek. As a teacher consider enriching your own spiritual life by also keeping such a journal.
The book of Psalms, which is a book of poetry, can help children look afresh. It can connect the mundane and holy in their everyday lives.
The British Benedictine, Sebastian Moore, is quoted in Christianity Today as saying, "God behaves in the psalms in ways he is not allowed to behave in systematic theology." This is good advice for us as we seek to move beyond a logical learning about God to an encounter with God.
Psalms do not deny our earthy feelings but allow us to reflect on them, right in front of God and everyone. This is especially good for young boys who are often turned off by constant cloying sweetness and a trouble-free view of life. By fifth or sixth grade, religion and poetry may seem sissified, silly, and unrelated to the world in which they live.
The psalms defeat our tendencies to try to be holy without being human first.
Try having your class write their own poem using examples from the book of Psalms. Don't be put off by unfamiliar words and allusions to unfamiliar things. The meaning and sound of strange words are often what makes it poetry. Because of the length of some psalms it is all right to only look at part of a psalm.
First find an idea in the psalm with which children can identify. Give the children a way to experience the main idea and feelings the psalm is expressing. Once they see what it is about they can write their own. You may need to give children some of the main ideas and feelings in the psalm. Try to connect to the children's feelings. Concentrate on that feeling -- even magnify it. Don't rush. I found it took twice as long as I anticipated, but they were pondering. Surprisingly, the most active children took to this eagerly.
Here are three suggestions.
ï¾¥
Children enjoy thinking about God and how they can know God exists. A good place to begin is with Psalm 136. Repetition is natural to children's speech and much easier for them to use in expressing their feelings than meter and rhyme. After reading the psalm, discuss it with your class. The events listed are mighty and awesome in verses 1-9. Beginning with verses 10 through 22 it continues as an effusion of praise to God's presence throughout history. But look now at verses 23-26. The psalm becomes more personal. Ask the class to think back over the last 24 hours and list twelve events from their life ending with the refrain "His love endures forever" or, to bring it into the present moment use the refrain "God loves me." Perhaps an experience of God in the mundane of their lives will surface.
ï¾¥
Children know there is evil in the world and that it has power. Ask the children who the bad guys are in their computer games, on television, or in the movies. Ask: What makes them evil? Read Psalm 55:1-11. Talk about any words they do not understand. Ask: What images of terror and war have you seen? What thoughts trouble you? Ask them to list their thoughts using words they really use when they speak. Do they understand the psalm and connection to themselves? Talk about it. Honor their questions, responses, and experiences with integrity. Lift up common threads in their lives and this psalm. Does it remind them of anything they have seen on the news or experiences from their own lives? If the children have difficulty, beginning prompts may be necessary. Suggest: Things that scare me are __________________. When I see gore and horror I _____________________.
One eleven-year-old child said, "Things that scare me are movies or games with violence or graphic showings of blood. When I see gore my heart rate goes up and I close my eyes and wish the movie or show to end in happiness." These high-tech images are so riveting. They may penetrate and sear into the mind. Shocking, invasive material can over stimulate a young mind without a child having the ability to process and integrate it. Look with the class at how the psalmist concludes. Read verses 22 and 23. The recognition that God surrounds creation and that we are in God's hands is reassuring and comforting to children of all ages. Ask them to write their own poem.
ï¾¥
Children are aware and often have knowledge about other religious traditions. They live in a pluralistic world. Read Psalm 133. Allow questions about any strange custom or unfamiliar location here. As they write about a situation when everyone gets along, encourage metaphors they can come up with. One child wrote, "When everyone gets along it is like having a load of steel lifted off your head because you are not worried about being mad or getting even with someone."
Have they seen examples of children from different cultures getting along together or not getting along? One child shared with me a memory of a cruel racial slur she had heard one classmate make to another in second grade. When I expressed strong negative reaction, the child, now eleven said, "It wasn't her fault. She was too young. She was expressing her parent's feelings." Once again I learned wisdom from a child.
Limericks
Before we leave poetry, just for the fun of it, consider limericks. If methods don't work for you -- if formulas fail -- just how does a person become transformed internally?
Think about biblical visions and listen to children's insight about God.
Then instruct children to write a limerick. The playful attitude unlocks deep thinking. The rhythm carries the thought.
Explain the limerick formula: It is a poem of five lines. Lines one and two rhyme; lines three and four rhyme and line five rhymes with lines one and two. These were written by a group of teachers:
Limericks On Transformation
There was a young lady from here,
Who knew her Bible quite clear.
Till zapped by the Spirit,
(She trembled to hear it)
Not words but grace brought God near.
There was a young man from this nation
Who sought inner transformation.
But try as he might
He was losing the fight
Till God's presence brought his inspiration.
"I'll be spiritual" the young man swore.
He tried methods and methods and more.
But alas he was miffed
To find Grace was a gift
Not a record of things tried before.
A Time To Reflect
Consider poetry in your life and your class.
1.
What sparks your interest and causes you to pause and wonder? Think of one thing you have seen today.
2.
Have you ever written a poem? Try using this method: First write a paragraph describing one or more of the students in your class. Write about the ones that matter most to you. Use language that is natural to you. Then break the paragraph up into poetry by arranging your sentences in different line formation. Can breaking a sentence in the middle enhance the meaning of both lines? Read it aloud. Look at the visual shape of the poem on the page. Create words that rhyme or not. You have just written a poem.
3.
When have you experienced sudden unexplained epiphanies -- little bubbles of joy that surface and disappear? Try to hold on to these sudden moments.
4.
As you read the limericks, consider the transforming moments of your life. Consider writing a limerick. Here's a prompt -- three words that might get you started: uncover, discover, recover.
