If you truly want to know someone you should walk a mile in their shoes.
This saying is used to promote empathy, but what if it could inspire creativity and poetry. During April, National Poetry Month, my class is going to embark on a poetry challenge inspired by this quote. Influenced by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Irene Latham, and other poet mentors we will be writing a poem each day throughout the month of April.
How do poetry and this quote connect? Each day we will see a picture of a shoe. The shoe may be old or new, belong to a woman or a man, it may even be a child’s or toy shoe, but our job will be to examine the picture closely. We will decide who the owner of this shoe is. We will determine what his or her life is like and what obstacles he or she may have faced. We will share what this shoe has to tell the world. Each day we will write a poem about the new shoe. We may write it a class poem, poems in partners, as small groups, or even individually. Our poems will be posted on www.teachingtalesandlitlove.blogspot.com every day for all to see. We hope that you will join us in our poetry adventure. Feel free to comment on our poems, we would love your thoughts. Get inspired to write and add your own poems about the shoes we post too, we would love to read them. Help us celebrate National Poetry Month as we explore poetry and tell the stories that are waiting to be told.
Poems will start Sunday, April 1st! We hope to have you join the fun!
