Poems of a Teenage Girl

Last year, I spied a book in the window of my local bookshop, How to Grown your own Poem by Kate Clanchy.

I loved the cover and the title and often use poetry to help my students with creative literacy, so decided to treat myself to the book. I haven’t looked back. This is a treasure trove and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anybody who either teaches or who simply wants a bit more poetry in their lives but needs some inspiration (and frankly, who doesn’t need more poetry in their lives, particularly right now?)

In the words of Dylan Thomas, ‘A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it. A good poem helps to change the shape of the universe, helps to extend everyone’s knowledge of himself and the world around him.’

I have been using Kate Clanchy’s book in particular with one of my students, Cece from Hong Kong. She was twelve when we started working together with poetry and is now thirteen and had not written her own poetry previously. I wanted to share some of her creations as an encouragement to others. We all have poetry inside us and Kate Clanchy’s fabulous book helps by providing frames and inspiring confidence. By reading the poetry of others and using Clanchy’s helpful and effective framework, we can all access our inner poets.

With thanks to Cece for letting me share her poems.