Springtime not only brings more poetry into our classroom, but it also ignites a desire for many middle school students to ask each other out. When I taught fifth grade, I noticed some of my students were often lovestruck during the final months of school, even though they were just little kids a few months earlier. A few of my former fifth graders even wrote love poems in their poetry notebooks, which also prompted a few quiet conversations. Seeing as I taught fifth grade, not eighth grade, I don’t think I would’ve encouraged teaching students how to write love poems. However, if I were a middle school teacher right now, I’d be reaching for Pat Mora‘s newest poetry book, Dizzy in Your Eyes: Poems About Love.
Dizzy is a collection of love poems, which include topics like crushes, the way families react to young relationships, love letters, and breakups. Some of the poems are infused with Spanish, while one “Ode to Teachers” appears in English and in Spanish (as “Oda a las maestras”). The poetry is written in the voice of boys and girls, which makes it feel incredibly authentic.
What I truly admired about Dizzy is its ability to be used as a mentor text. Many of the poems in this book contain footnotes about the poetic forms used. Mora describes each poetic form to the reader, so they can gain a better understanding of what it will take to try that form themselves. Dizzy has at least one poem that takes on each of the following forms:
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Acrostic
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Anaphora
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Blank verse
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Blues
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Cinquain
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Couplet
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Dialogue
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Haiku
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Letter poem
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List poem
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Lyric
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Ode
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Pantoum
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Sestina
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Song
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Sonnet
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Tanka
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Tercet
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Triolet
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Villanelle
Here is one of the many poems I admired from Mora’s book:
Kissing
When my dad saw us kissing
at the bus stop,
he just drove by.
At home, he said
nothing.
At dinner, he said
nothing.
so loud the room sounded
like my heart.
“What?” I snapped.
“What’s happening?”
Mom asked, reading me
like she did when
I was three,
finding
what I couldn’t hide.
Dad stared at me,
and I glared back,
our look-alike eyes
locked for days, it seemed–
maybe people had gone to bed
and gotten up, gone
to school —
while Dad and I tangled in silence.
I felt sleepy and worried.
What if
I dozed and fell of the chair, curled
into a nap right there
by the dining room table
like a child.
What if
my parents looked at one another,
and Dad gently picked me up
like in the old days,
carried me,
but now he can’t
carry me now.
Dad slapped
the table.
“Basta. Enough.”
We met halfway.
“Don’t embarrass yourself,”
he whispered into my hair
when we hugged, and I felt
the weight
of carrying me.
(Permission to publish this poem was provided by Random House. Taken from pgs. 49 – 53.)
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 
I’m always looking for new ways to engage students in the “love” of poetry. Thanks for sharing the great resource. Sounds like the perfect way to catch the attention of our “typical” Middle School students.
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I have a new poetry book by Brod Bagert (had the pleasure of meeting him and eating breakfast too – an author’s breakfast). It’s called Hormone Jungle and it carries the voice of the students as well as a story throughout it. Even though it rhymes…what I’ve read so far is really neat. Just thought I’d throw it towards you and let you decide.
Ruth, I’d love for you to take a look at it…I think you’ll like the scrapping effect of it.
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As a staff developer in my school district, I am always on the lookout for books that will support a teacher’s efforts toward making the reading/writing connection…especially with middle school students. Thank you for sharing Pat Mora’s book that speaks their language.
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I just saw this mentioned on another blog recently. Your post really caught my attention. I am adding it to my wish list right now so that I will remember to buy it eventually.
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this is some cool poetry you got here
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