When students in Reading for the Logic Stage III were reading Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, they responded to the various poems they were reading through one creative assignment. Students were asked to create well-trained mind poetry in a “poetry collage” and were given the following prompt: 

Think about the poems you have read this week. Go back and re-read some of your favorites. Pick at least six of your favorite lines from various poems and type them out. Be sure to write down the poem’s title (remember that poem titles are enclosed in quotation marks) and the poet’s name. Arrange your selected lines into an order that creates a pleasing poetic “flow.” Then, assemble these lines into a linguistic collage. The result may end up sounding like a grouping of powerful lines, or it might sound more like a brand-new poem. The next step is to pair your selected words with visuals that will increase their impact. The final collage you create should feature images that emphasize the significance of the lines you have selected. Describe how your artistic choices are an extension of the selected poetry lines in a paragraph. 

Student Parker J. created the following collage:

Parker’s chosen lines all referenced the natural world, and his well-trained mind poetry collage reinforced those natural themes. By painting his background by hand and collecting natural elements, Parker added texture and visual interest to his collage. Parker’s selected lines have been arranged so as to make a new narrative out of the original poems’ segments, as the collaged poem now reads: 

Walking through a field

With all the leaves almost gone from the trees

tumbled nest in the grass

The Day is blue with one high white cloud like a pilgrim going to Canterbury

Upon the path soon lost in dark

When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular.

When it’s over I want to think someone else shall love my meadow. 

Another student, Charli, approached the assignment with a different intention, collecting lines that she found particularly memorable and arranging them so as not to create a narrative but to celebrate the language of each poem itself. Charli’s art was hand-drawn and painted to reflect the subject matter of each of the selected lines.

This assignment allowed students to appreciate poetry in a different way. We love how their projects turned out, and we are, as always, amazed by the creativity of Well-Trained Mind Academy students.

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