Poetry

It is said poetry is the way into your soul. You can write about anything and express any emotion in any form you want. It provides a freedom from specific structure and leaves lots of writing room to roam. It allows you to learn the language and build your writing skills to express your deepest emotions without fear. Poetry allows us to feel and share those feelings through creative writing alone and together.

MAPS Poetry is all about:

• Students strengthening their writing skills through poetry.
• Students gaining command of language, cultivating a robust vocabulary, mastering literary devices and learning how to work in imagery.
• Students studying college-level poetry and all forms of poetry from a variety of cultural backgrounds; discussing and analyzing the poems, relating the student’s life experiences to the subject.
• Students writing poems that emulate the style, meter and form of the poetry the students read.
• Students discussing and gearing their new poems towards their personal truths, memories and dreams.
• Students sharing their poems in small-group to large-class settings.
• Students workshopping their poems through various protocols.
• Students learning literary techniques that guide them in analysis of one another’s work and other published poets.
• Students coming together with the MAPS musicians and sharing how the music and songs were created in order to express the written word.
• Learning how to collaborate with students from different and diverse background to accomplish a finished work of art together.
• Learning to have a better understanding of what other students from different backgrounds and geography think about, how they live their lives, and express themselves.
• Preparing and performing the poems in a professional theater in front of a live audience.