Feral Fridays: Poetry Adventures

This post is written by our special guest, Wanda Vesana, guru of the Feral Homeschooling craze that is on everybody's mind these days.  Wanda is mom to two delightful and inspiring children, son Silas and daughter Verna.  You can read our interview with her here.  Wanda shares her inspiring words of wisdom and answers questions here on "Feral Fridays".  

Dear Wanda, I appreciate your post about making poetry appreciation more engaging for our kids.  I know how much poetry reading is vital to preparing our children for their future! As a Feral Homeschooler, I'd like to find the best way to incorporate "direct experience" into this whole poetry thing.  Don't suggest they write their own, for God's sake, because my kids' poetry really stinks.  And please don't suggest going to a poetry reading!  They say they'll only agree to go if they can bring rotten vegetables to hurl during the dull parts.  What else can I do?-- Demenshia

Well, I'm not sure what you've got against rotten vegetable hurling, but nevertheless, I do indeed have an awesome idea!  I am so excited about this one, oh my gosh!  What if you could do a poetry unit that would emphasize how important poetry is in everyday life, as well as the idea that the arts are  everywhere around us?  What if you could make the lesson kinetic and tactile,  and reinforce your family's connection with your community?  And what if the lesson also happened to remind them of our natural life processes, namely, the digestive process?  And what if your kids could help document the poetry they find around them, and share it with the world?

I am talking, of course, about the amazing poetry one finds on bathroom walls!  Any time you are out and about, you can look for it.  It's like finding a lovely flower growing out of  a crack in the sidewalk, finding beauty unexpectedly in the urban environment.  Be sure to bring a camera with you, to document the best examples you find.  You will find inspiration and a worldwide community of poetry lovers with which to share your best finds here and here.  And you can read more about the subject in this scholarly book: Bathroom Graffiti by Mark Ferem.  

There are two places that generally have the best bathroom graffiti.  The most obvious place would be a musical venue, which has the added benefit of exposing your children to yet more of the arts!  This does however present some drawbacks.  Cameras might be prohibited at such venues, and certainly bringing cameras into public bathrooms tends to unnerve some people and attract unwanted attention.  Also the best places for graffiti are generally limited to a 21+ crowd.  So you would most likely have to disguise your children. Possibly as dwarfs.  Or train them to walk in stilts.  Not that I'm against that, but it's getting kind of complicated. I'd actually suggest the direct approach- just walk straight up to the bar, and politely explain to the bartender that your kids desperately need a bathroom (here you should gesture at your kids) and you desperately need a drink (here you should once again gesture at your kids). If the bartender happens to have kids of their own, you may just get what you ask for.

The very best locations for prime graffiti are actually port-a-potties on construction sites! These are a bit easier to handle, especially if you are handy with a pair of lock cutters for those off-hours at closed sites.  This graffiti can be somewhat ephemeral.   Construction is rarely permanent, and the best port-a-potties may be here one day and gone the next!  So you will have to be on your toes and vigilant.  But the quality of the verse you can find there are well worth the effort.

Just to inspire you, I'd like to share a few of the classics of bathroom verse.  You may get lucky and find them written somewhere yourself!  How about this one:

"If you sprinkle

When you tinkle

Please be neat

And wipe the seat."

Isn't that cute?  And  it helps kids to remember their good manners! If you are helping them learn the Victorian art of embroidering samplers, that may be just the thing!  Or how about this classic:

"Here I sit all broken hearted.

Tried to sh*t but only farted.

Then one day I took a chance;

Tried to fart and sh*t my pants."

This is such a sensitive tribute to the unpredictable nature of life.  And here's one oft repeated by fellow bathroom poetry enthusiasts: 

"Some come here to sit and think,

Some come here to sh*t and stink.

I came here to scratch my balls,

And read the writing on the walls."

So get your cameras and get going!  Good luck finding some amazing verse!  And stay feral, everyone!

Wanda loves to answer questions from readers!!!  You can email her at feralwanda1 at gmail dot com.