Poetry Break #3- A Poem by NCTE Award Winning Poet

Introduction –
The poem is simple and easy to read, and wonderfully humorous. The author uses colorful words, which help transcend beautiful pictures in a readers mind. In reading this poem to your students you can invite them to bite, touch, lick—to make the poem part of themselves.


How To Eat a Poem
by Eve Merriam

Don't be polite.
Bite in.
Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that
may run down your chin.
It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.

You do not need a knife or fork or spoon
or plate or napkin or tablecloth.

For there is no core
or stem
or rind
or pit
or seed
or skin
to throw away.

Extension –
Students and teacher will read aloud; the emphasis at this point is on the poem as a work of art meant to be heard. Several readings will allow the students to get the sense of the poem as a whole; the reading done by students will be a quick gauge on understanding.

Following the readings a lesson on metaphors and non-literal language can be introduced using a chart. Different fruit containing pits can be used as examples to differentiate between the metaphors in the poem and literal language.

Cullinan, Bernice E. 1996. A Jar of Tiny Stars, Poems by NCTE Award-Winning Poets. Illus. Andi MacLeod. Boyds Mills Press.