Monday, November 15, 2010

A Poem about Trees
Julie Brown teaches English 11 AP, Journalism, Cinema Study, and Creative Writing at Bolingbrook High School, Bolingbrook, Illinois. I matched her untitled poem with one of my photos to create a page from my upcoming work, Reflections: A Collection of Poems, Photos, and More. I added the quotation that precedes the poem.
        This book is designed to inspire class discussion that leads to written compositions. Feel free to download  this combination for use in your classroom. By the way, you can click on the photo to enlarge it.

"I like trees because they seem to be more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do."                       Willa Cather
 
                                             every year, it's always the same
                                             the brown, rough statues stand tall
                                             feet firmly planted in the ground
                                             hoping to grow, reaching the sky
                                             just out of grasp
                                             then come the pesky green dots
                                             spots of color--until mid-spring
                                             then they are in full force
                                             waving, swinging, attracting attention
                                             the trees just sigh and stand
                                             by autumn, they've had enough
                                             they start to burn the leaves off
                                             slowly, one by one
                                             green to yellow to red to brown
                                             as they fall, the trees regret
                                             winter's here and they've lost their coats.
 
Photo Copyright © 2010 by Hank Kellner      
Poem Copyright © 2010 by Julie Brown

Write What You See and Prufrock Press

Published by Cottonwood Press in 2009, Write What You See: 99 Photos To Inspire Writing by Hank Kellner is now marketed by Prufrock Press, http://www.prufrock.com.  This thought-provoking collection contains photographs and a wide variety of inventive writing prompts to motivate students.
     Written by a veteran of the Korean War and retired educator who has served as an English Department supervisor and adjunct associate professor of English at the community college level, Write What you See includes a CD-Rom and a special section telling how teachers nationwide use photos to inspire writing. 118 pages, 8 1/2 X 11, Softbound, ISBN 978-1-877673-83-2, Grades 7-12, $24.95

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