PORT TOWNSEND — After this week, there are 300 newly published poets in Port Townsend.
A copy of Colors of My Journey, a 150-page spiral-bound book that has been given to each of the students at Grant Street Elementary School, contains one poem from each of them.
Peter Braden, the teacher who serves as the book’s editor, said it has taught the kids about publishing and expression while becoming a way for them to interact with each other and judge their own growth.
“Kids are proud to see their own writing published and curious about seeing someone else’s,” Braden said.
“And they look back at the poems they wrote just a few years ago and see how much they have grown.”
Braden said the book cost $3,153 to produce and was financed by a grant from the local parent-teacher association along with donations from Realtor Holley Carlson, a School Board member, the Mount Townsend Creamery, Henerey’s Hardware and Jean Hawkins, who has three grandchildren in the school.
The Port Townsend Educational Foundation subsidized the presence of poet Christine Hemp, who taught students poetry fundamentals and helped tap their expressive streak.
“This book is cool because you get to see yourself published and can see other people’s stuff, too,” said second-grader Strider Moegling.
Students learned how to use a poetry toolbox that included alliteration, similes, personification and onomatopoeia.
Braden said the book was edited for spelling, but the writing is all the students’ own, especially their use of line spacing, boldface, punctuation and italics.
The book is indexed by first names, so students can easily locate their poems and those of their friends.
There are no last names included to protect kids’ privacy, Principal Steve Finch said.
The book is divided into several loose sections encompassing food, nature, animals and combinations thereof.
Second-grader Tyler N. wrote this eulogy to his fish, Fred: “Red, Nice, Cool, Best fish to have. Fred. P.S. Rest in Peace.”
Kindergartner Ricky V. wrote about jeeps: “I went to the mud bogs/and saw these big jeeps/The tires were bigger than me.”
And second-grader Owen S. turned an apparent reluctance to complete the assignment into profound reflection: “So ordinary, so regular poem, not interesting at all worth nothing, why should it be written/ Not good enough to be published, good enough to be recycled just a waste of paper, graphite should never be written again.”
This year’s poetry book was the second to include contributions from the whole school, and Braden, who has been teaching at Grant Street for 21 years, hopes it will become a tradition.
He currently does the design and layout on his Mac using Microsoft Word but would like to procure a more sophisticated desktop publishing package before assembling next year’s edition.
“Kids get really excited to see their work in print,” Braden said.
“There is an ‘oooh, ahhh’ moment when they realize ‘This is mine.’”
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
