Larry Levis, "In a Country"

I am the poet-in-residence in two Hands on Stanzas schools this year. So far, work by students (grades 3-5 in one school, all 5th grade in the other, representing a rather wide demographic overall) has been pretty amazing.

I'll try to post their poems here regularly. In the meanwhile, take a gander at Shields and Solomon student work regarding Larry Levis' "In a Country." The prompt's genesis was Election Day this past week, and by its title you can see how this poem might apply. But it goes much further than that, and I was especially pleased by how readily and eagerly students responded to the poem, as well as to each other in our discussion of it. I always come well-prepared with questions and particulars to help them navigate the poem in question, but here they dove right in. Enjoy!