Miracles: a Poetry Workshop for Kids Sun, Sun do you know You are beams in the flames, With glowworms in the light And bright yellow red Sharp silver flames Spinning up, Like a big block of gold The sun is a very magic fellow. —from “The Sunbeams,” by Linda Pidgeon, age 7 Children understand play better than anyone else. They play artfully. They play unselfconsciously, with confidence in their creativity and an ever-flowing river of ideas, insights, and feelings. When they play with words, they’re using language like it’s still elastic, like there is so much still to discover. And of course there is! Language, however limited, is amazing! In this special poetry workshop just for kids, we’ll practice the play and the joy of writing together. I’ll talk to them a little bit about poetry and read a few fun examples. We’ll talk about how they might already feel about poetry, and what their thoughts are on what poetry can be. I’ll give each participating kid their own small notebook, which we’ll call Miracle Book. Then we’ll take a nice peaceful walk and I’ll ask them to pay special attention to all the little things happening around them. A bug on a leaf, a leaf in the creek, a bird on a branch, the way the sun falls on the mountain, etc. We’ll stop at different destinations along our walk and the kids will use their Miracle Books to write down (or draw) some thoughts. Then, we’ll sit in a circle and spend a few minutes just free-writing, free-drawing, and/or free-thinking, in silence. (This might be difficult! But I plan to insist that sometimes it’s only in silence that we can hear the magic language of the wind!!) For kids who aren’t yet writing words, they’ll have the opportunity to explain their scribbles and speak their ideas for poems aloud. We’ll try our best to take turns, and everyone will express a short poem. The results, however ridiculous, are bound to be miraculous.