Poetry doesn’t have to suck. Who knew?

If I made a list of the Top 10 Most Inefficient Ways to Spend my Summer Vacation, attending a poetry reading would probably sit somewhere around #2.

Followed by #1: Watching every single episode of Corner Gas in a row. With my eyes open.

Either way, I recently found myself in my younger brother’s school, listening to his grade five class use words like “Haiku,” and “Iambic pentameter.”

And I actually enjoyed it.

When a grade five class reads poetry, there isn’t anything contrived or pretentious about it. For instance, my favourite poem, by Jake:

Related Posts

Campus life at Canadian universities during the second pandemic school year

Canadian universities are welcoming students back to class, residence and even karaoke events. But there’s still plenty of online instruction, and some schools have vaccine mandates.

The grassroots food insecurity initiatives putting an end to the ’starving student’

Student and admin-led efforts are leading the charge to stop food insecurity on Canadian university campuses

“He took a dump. It was a clump.”

Some students had a lot to say about their siblings. Alex’s poem was about his younger brother: “...Got angry at me, and then he kicked me in the knee.” Kenan’s was about his, “...crazy little sister... like a living twister.”

Abdul poetically described his entire family: “My brother is a weird kid,” and “My father’s name is Bigfoot, my sister’s name is Yeti.”

Other favourites include:

“Once I saw a person with a bat, hitting a cat.”

“I’d rather be one than none.”

“...don’t change a thing, except your clothes.”

“If I eat chocolate, I lose a little hair. It’s just unfair.”

“I once knew a boy, he liked eating rats. His name was Roy, he also ate cats.”

“I’m not dumb, I’m definitely not a hairy bum.”

Their teacher, Mrs. Cain, says she gave the students free rein over the poetry. I believe her.

After listening to the entire class’s poetry, and the other grade five class as well, I was really impressed. It inspired me to write my own haiku, which I dedicate to all the grade five students of Williamsburg Public School:

Lift one sneaky cheek,
an odour quickly escapes.
Silent, but deadly.

[caption id="attachment_3573" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Grade five student Kenan"][/caption]