I received a belated Valentine this week from the kids at Wellwood Middle School, where I had done some poetry workshops this past fall. The teacher explained that it was late because of snow days and February vacation days. I say it’s never too late for a Valentine, or any kind of remembrance for that matter, and I was touched by their thoughtfulness.

But what really impressed me was that their Valentine included poetry. While I was at Wellwood, we talked about different poetry forms including the couplet, the limerick and the cinquain. Most people are familiar with the first two, but let me explain the cinquain. The prefix “cin” is a clue that the poem has 5 lines. This is a non-rhyming poem. The form comes in counting the syllables. The first line has 2 syllables, the second line, 4, the third line, 6, the fourth line, 8, and the fifth line, 2 again. It looks like this:

2 syllables
4 syllables
6 syllables
8 syllables
2 syllables

So these are the poems the kids sent me. Did I mention that they’re all about me?

Sally Valentine

Sally Valentine likes to write
about everything in her sight.

Where she’s been, is reflected.
No meanness is ever detected.

The kids say she’s a fashionista
and wonder if she likes pizza.

Her teaching of poetry was a pleasure.
She taught us much, without a lecture.

Teaching Poetry

There once was a poet named Sally.
Who helped us not to dilly-dally.
         At first we were naïve.
         had too many pet peeves.
Then she got the whole class to rally.

Farewell

We had
a guest poet,
Ms. Sally Valentine.
too soon, we had to say farewell,
sadly.

Thank you Wellwood Middle School kids and teachers. I love you!