Horned Lizard Poems

 

During residencies I sometimes invite an artist to share their work with my students. While working in a rap music and break-dancing obsessed fifth grade classroom at Ochoa Elementary, I serendipitously met rapper Todd the Creator when he repaired my air-conditioner. His performance/ presentation left students electrified: suddenly they saw their poems as potential raps, and raps as poetry. A lot of energized writing resulted.

I recently invited a herpetologist to present to Grace Espinosa’s second grade class at White Elementary. Wade Sherbrooke literally wrote the book on horned lizards, copies of which he brought to the classroom along with a giant metal sculpture of a horned lizard, life-sized rubber casts and several jars of preserved specimens. Dr. Sherbrooke talked about this reptile’s defensive and parental behavior with rapt students, who then improvised horned lizard encounters with coyotes, rattlesnakes and whipsnakes. Afterwards I briefly introduced them to the concept of concrete poems, which are as much pieces of visual art as they are poems. The students drew wonderfully observed horned lizards and filled them with their impressions, some written from the point of view of reptiles.

Though we’d hoped to create a broadside of this work, the Covid crisis intervened. Instead here are some of the students’ words and images, plus one inspired performance:

Ethan T. Begay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alondra Verret

 

 

Elyse Richardson

 

Christian Paz Mendibles

 

Javier DeJesus Flores

Charlie Buck has published in The New Yorker and Story magazines, among others, and has work forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review. She's received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Yaddo, and MacDowell colonies. Charlie loves the lively exchange of words and feelings that happens in a classroom full of young writers. 

Category: 

Education