This past summer I was invited to facilitate a series of writing workshops for enthusiastic young writers at a local library. As befits a picture book writer, I decided to focus my workshops on poetry. As part of the series, we looked at song lyrics as examples of poetry, which I find is a great way to engage kids who might think that poetry isn’t for them. To start things off (and before revealing the theme of the workshop), I shared the following “poem”, reading it in my most “profound” and “serious” poetry voice.
I don’t know where I’m going
But I sure know where I’ve been
Hanging on the promises in songs of yesterday
And I’ve made up my mind
I ain’t wasting no more time
Here I go again, here I go again
Though I keep searching for an answer
I never seem to find what I’m looking for
Oh, Lord, I pray you give me strength to carry on
‘Cause I know what it means
To walk along the lonely street of dreams
We talked a bit about what we thought the poem might mean, or what the poet might be saying. Some thought it might be someone moving on after a broken heart, or maybe someone searching for stardom or following a dream that never full comes to be. They agreed that it felt like quite a sad poem, though perhaps also a bit hopeful, as the speaker has decided not to waste any more time and to move on to hopefully better and brighter things.
I then revealed the identity of the “poet” – which, as some of you might have already noticed, is the one and only WHITESNAKE! Of course I had to play the song, too, for the full effect.
We all had a good laugh (though, honestly, this is actually an amazing song, and one of my all-time favourite karaoke picks), because apparently “old stuff” is hilarious when you’re 14. My point, though, was that we are surrounded by poetry, all the time, but most of us the time we don’t even realize it. Every song is a poem – not necessarily a good poem (whatever that means), but a poem nonetheless. And even the most poetry-averse among us has a favourite poem or two in the form of songs we can’t stop singing in the shower. We can all appreciate poetry – and be poets – because if those guys can create poetry, hey, anyone can! There shouldn’t be any gate-keeping in poetry – we can all create it, enjoy it, and share it, in whatever form we like – even if that means blasting eighties hair metal ballads to a group of confused Gen Z’ers.
Have a great week, poetry friends!
This week’s host is Janice at Salt City Verse.
Clever idea! I love that song. I was singing it as I read your poem, and it made me smile!
What a great way to engage kids and show them that art (poetry) is already in their life. I enjoyed hearing about your experience. It sounds like it was fun.
I love that song! And this lesson. One of the things on my Christmas list last year was a collection of song lyrics (I listed a few artists whose lyrics are poetry and who I’d love to ponder more deeply). My husband created a book for me with dozens of Tears for Fears lyrics. One of our favorite bands. So much to learn from lyrics. Thanks, Jane!
Absolutely! I picked the old Whitesnake song for giggles, but some of my favourite “poems” are actually songs – Gordon Lightfoot will always have a special place in my Canadian heart – “does anyone know where the love of God goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours” will forever give me chills!
Hmm…I’ve never heard of Whitesnake, nor that song. So maybe song lyrics aren’t the “in” for poetry writing for me that they are for others!
Oh, I can assure you that none of the students in the class had heard of them, either 🤣 But we had a lovely chat afterwards about songwriters they had heard of, like Taylor Swift and some others that I’ve never heard of, but who they assure me are just the coolest right now 😉 Apparently they could have talked about Taylor Swift’s songwriting all day. 🤣
Oh I love this! Kids definitely need to see the connection between lyrics and poetry–it makes poety so much more accessible to them!
Once they realized that songs “counted” as poetry, they all had favourite song lyrics to share! And while a lot of songs do sound the same after a while (lots of variations of “I love you” and “he broke my heart” ha ha), there are still some quite moving poems to found! I honestly know nothing about Taylor Swift, and my students were very happy to fill me in on her poetry. 😉
Songwriters ARE poets! Thanks for this enjoyable post. What a great way to pull in a group of students who may be unsure about poetry.
There’s a lot of inimidation around the entire subject, when really, so much of poetry is accessible, just alas not the material they’re often reading in school! I still remember being terrified, having to analyze Byron on a test, ugh! And once we started talking about songwriting, the flood gates opened, and they all had favourite songs to talk about! Especially the ones that loved Taylor Swift, boy did they have some favourite lyrics to share. 😉
Jane, I often enjoy looking back at some of oldie favorites for the lyrics. Sometimes, the words spark a thought that could turn into a poem. Your post concurs that I am on the right tracks. Thanks for this song that I don’t think I ever heard. Off I go to listen to the song.
Poetry is everywhere! I agree that poetry exists in songs – we just think of the words in a different way ( as lyrics when really, they could be and are poems). I envy your work with students and offering them a poetry workshop. I did that some years ago and the library (unbelievably) had a problem with me using their space. It took the joy out of it for me, but I miss working with students. Happy to know you are involved this way.
What a terrific lesson, Jane.
And oh, that hair — so late 70s! 🙂