Sort of.
I do a different sort of running at work. I am constantly craving and constantly chasing ways to instruct better.
I'm tired of the same tired writing assignment which are easily faked and terribly predictable. I'm lucky to belong to a network of writing teachers who love to share their best practices with one another. This summer during the UC Merced Writing Project, I was fortunate to meet an elementary school teacher who presented her best practice on free verse poetry.
So in an effort to challenge myself and mis estudiantes, we will be writing poems that are crafted in order to help teach others a particular rhetorical or literary concept.
- I wrote an example for zeugma below.
- I've never thought so much about zeugma before.
- I understand zeugma in a new way.
I hope that my students will find that this way of writing to learn is powerful and memorable.
Please comment if you felt you learned what zeugma is from my poem. Please comment and make this blogger feel like there is someone out there.
Zeugma
O! Efficient multi-tasking zeugma,
You don’t waste words.
One verb bonds to two different nouns.
One word governing two.
Zeugma lets one word show its
figurative and its literal
sides.
Zeugma allows a newspaper
flying
through the air
to break window
panes
and
the morning’s peace.
Zeugma reveals the multiple
meanings
of certain words
because you can blow
your nose,
a fuse,
and
three circuit breakers.
Zeugma reveals
the corners of words.
Instruction shines
through those bonded words.
For a woman can arrive
in a taxi
and
in a flaming rage.
Taxi and emotions are both
vehicular,
transporting,
and
vessels.
Zeugma can also pull back
symbolism.
When the woman throws
her
ring
and
her
security
into the river.
We know that the ring is more
than a ring.
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