Poetry by any other name

I have degrees in English and taught it for many years.   Bri had an assignment to do--she had to write a "Bio-Poem" to show that she recognized parts of speech.  I said, "huh?"   Never heard of a Bio-poem before.

Before she let me read the assignment, she just told me she had to write a poem (from where I come from in the Boston area, that's pronounced "poam").  Then she told me she didn't know how to write one---hmmm...teacher in me kicked in and I was telling her a step by step way to write one---then she hit me with the Bio-poem stuff.

Well, it turns out a Bio-Poem is an eleven line poem with a specific formula:

(First name)-

(Four adjectives that describe the person)

Son or Daughter of (your parents names)

Lover of (three different things that the person loves)

Who feels (three different feelings and when or where they are felt)

Who gives (three different things the person gives)

Who fears (three different fears the person has)

Who would like to see (three different things the person would like to see)

Who lives (a brief description of where the person lives)

-(last name) 

Who knew?  But the funny thing is that it wasn't that much different than what I was going to tell her to do, I just didn't know it had a name.   Here's my bio poem:

Larry

Short, grey-haired, smiling, and exciteable

Son of Americo and Eleanor

Lover of stars, muted colors, and friendly faces

Who feels weary right now, scatter-brained very often and optimistic about the future.

Who would like to see the ocean soon, the Greek Isles someday, and Peace, just peace.

Who lives on a ranch in Powell Butte, OR

Cerullo

Pretty elementary and simple to do.   I was going to have Bri build a poem based on just words but in a similar form:

one

two words

three words now

now write four words

back to three

then two

one

I often had freshmen students write a poem such as the above--here's an example.

Larry

Getting older

Still has horses
Looking forward to babies
coming in April.
They are
FUN.


There was no specific formula for that obviously.  I had many excited kids AND adults, when I taught adult classes, who were able to produce a poem and it had visual appeal.  Try these with your kids or even your friends.  They might roll their eyes when you introduce it but that will change, I almost guarantee it.