Written Pages
By Melissa Couch
Your story is written day by day.
It is written with things that you do and say.
Daily you start with a page that is blank.
The emptiness fills throughout the day.
By nightfall your page is complete, and it turns
to a blank one again, just waiting for words.
These pages you fill, and the chapters go by
with memories of good times and reasons to cry.
Some chapters you wish you could rip up and shred.
Some things you regret to have said.
There are chapters of wonderful times that you knew,
things to praise God for, the blessings that grew.
Suddenly without notice, these pages are none.
Not by your choice but because His will be done.
Then you will take this book up to the sky,
to hand over to God of your life that went by.
This book should be special; it's all about you.
It is written by all that you say and you do.
"Awakening the Heart" by Georgia Heard is a great resource for teachers to utilize during poetry instruction. Throughout the text, Heard offers insight on poetry, tools and methods to attempt during instruction, and various examples.
Heard encourages readers to use these three layers of poetry to guide and help create a connection between students and poetry.
Layer 1: Choose poems to read that are immediately accessible, nonthreatening, and relevant to students lives--encourage reading projects that will invite all students to enjoy poetry.
Layer 2: Help students connect personally to a poem by guiding them toward finding themselves and their lives inside a poem.
Layer 3: Guide students toward analyzing the craft of a poem, figuring out how a poem is built, interpreting what a poem means, or unlocking the puzzle of a difficult poem.
Today, I am going to use layers two and three with the poem I have chosen above by Melissa Couch.
2.) Why did I chose this poem? Is it relevant to my life?
I chose this poem because I feel like it summarizes life. Specifically, my life. When you wake up every morning you have the choice and control to write that page like you want. That page is written throughout the day without any thought given to it, it just happens- just like life. You go to sleep and then next day is a whole new page. No page is the same, they are all unique. Some pages are longer than others. Some you wish could last for forever and others feel like they are lasting too long.
When I think about the chapters, I think about the major events in my life: elementary, middle, high school, and college. Death. Celebrations. Vacations. Just anything that differs from and ordinary day.
But one day, your going to write that last page in that last chapter. And that will be it. Your book will be done. The book is then carried with you, in a religious aspect, to the heaven above, where you answer for all that you have done.
I can relate in every aspect of this poem. I loved it from the beginning and even more when I reached the religious aspect.
3.) Craft and interpretation:
The poem reads similarly to a chapter book. In the beginning of the poem she addresses the blank beginning pages, then the chapters that occur throughout your life, and lastly, the fact that one day you will reach the end.
The author uses rhyming at the end of most lines.
The poem is discussing life and how over time you are writing your own books by your actions and choices that you make. But one day you are going to have to answer for everything you have done.
I really enjoyed this poem and how personal/meaningful it was to me. It is important for students to be able to build that same connection with poetry.
Couch, M. (2016, July). Written Pages. Retrieved from https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/written-pages
Heard, G. (1999). Awakening the heart: Exploring poetry in elementary and middle school. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.