Poetry on Fire: Igniting Students' Passion for Poetry and Creative Writing (2020)

Students need to understand the power of poetry, the way it can crack issues wide open and start discussions or help a writer address personal problems that can be reflected in a universal way, so they not only help themselves, their poetry may actually help others as well. That's the power of poetry: to give voice to the voiceless, to give power to the pen, and to allow students to write freely. But this takes bravery both from the student writers and from the teachers themselves. When asked about themselves, students absolutely want to write. They want to share their pain and their triumphs. They want to explore emotions, imagery, and word play. They want to write, but they have not been given the tools, the platform, or the permission to write freely. In other words, the fire has not yet been lit, but our hope is that this program will help ignite your students' passion for writing. When students are given the tools and the permission to be poets, the results blow our minds. And once that happens, they might actually want to Shakespeare next.