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    Learn Then Burn: A Modern Poetry Anthology for the Classroom
    Learn Then Burn: A Modern Poetry Anthology for the Classroom
    Learn Then Burn: A Modern Poetry Anthology for the Classroom
    Ebook166 pages1 hour

    Learn Then Burn: A Modern Poetry Anthology for the Classroom

    By Derrick Brown

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Hello teachers! We know you work hard. Besides ninjas, you have the hardest job in the world. Between the teaching, the testing, the grading, and the nurturing it’s difficult to seek out new materials for your classroom. We are here to help. As poets and teachers, we know the power of the spoken word in the classroom. All you have to do is attend a youth slam or find a clip of one online and you will see the positive impact modern poetry has on our young people. It is able to engage students from any background in a way that classical poetry simply cannot touch. A complaint we’ve heard from many teachers is that they would love to use spoken word in their classrooms but they are afraid of getting in trouble with rough language and themes. So behold! We asked some of the best contemporary spoken word and slam poets to give us poems that would be appropriate for the classroom. This means you will not have to sift through this book with a highlighter to try and find the F’s and the S’s and the B’s and the Z’s. We’ve provided poems from national slam champs, world slam champs, fellow teachers, and poets we feel are the best of what’s around. We’ve also included some amazing lessons in its companion book for the teacher, sold separately.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWrite Bloody Publishing
    Release dateOct 1, 2018
    ISBN9781935904861
    Learn Then Burn: A Modern Poetry Anthology for the Classroom
    Author

    Derrick Brown

    DERRICK c. BROWN is the winner of the 2013 Texas Book of The Year award for Poetry. He is a former paratrooper for the 82nd airborne and is the president of one of what Forbes and Filter Magazine call "...one of the best independent presses in the country", Write Bloody Publishing. He is the author of four books of poetry

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      Book preview

      Learn Then Burn - Derrick Brown

      Title Page

      Learn Then Burn

      an anthology of poetry

      †

      edited by

      Derrick Brown and Tim Stafford

      Write Bloody Publishing

      America’s Independent Press

      Long Beach, CA

      writebloody.com

      Copyright Information

      Copyright © Write Bloody Publishing 2010

      No part of this book may be used or performed without written consent from the author, if living, except for critical articles or reviews.

      I. Brown, Derrick.

      II. Stafford, Tim.

      1st digital edition.

      ISBN: 978-1-935904-86-1

      Interior Layout by Lea C. Deschenes

      Cover Designed by Joshua Grieve

      Proofread by Jennifer Roach

      Edited by Derrick Brown and Tim Stafford

      Special thanks to Lightning Bolt Donor, Weston Renoud

      Printed in Tennessee, USA

      Write Bloody Publishing

      Long Beach, CA

      Support Independent Presses

      writebloody.com

      If you would like to bring Tim and Derrick to your school, they are available to facilitate writing workshops with your students and professional development with your colleagues.

      For booking information please contact us at: writebloody@gmail.com

      Dedication

      This book is dedicated to the staff and students

      at the Sherman School of Excellence

      Englewood, Chicago

      in front of the class

      by Bonafide Rojas

      i’m standing in front of a class

      society has deemed derelicts and hoodlums

      and i am their teacher

      i share with them the poem

      that will save the world

      and they say that it’s got to be as good

      as a nas rhyme and have more emotion

      than tupac did

      my class consisting

      of ex-gang bangers, drug dealers, graffiti writers

      and students who have traveled too much

      in the cracks of the public school system

      they are my students

      and as their teacher

      i have traveled as many roads

      as they have, and stand in front

      of them without fear

      because they can smell fear

      i am them eight years ahead

      with poetry being the left turn i made at 17

      i tell them that road is approaching

      all they have to do is take that road

      and run down it so fast that their past

      will never catch up to them

      i tell them in their metamorphosis

      they can change their name

      their place of rest, their life,

      their career, their goals

      and strive for that that has seemed

      unattainable for so many years

      one student says how

      it’s easy for you to say it now

      how the hell am i supposed to get there,

      i have one kid, one gang after me, and no job,

      how the hell am i supposed to go anywhere

      besides down.

      i ask him how bad do you want it?

      in the beginning all i had was poetry

      everything else took a back seat

      girls, family, and work was a part time

      that lasted 6 months with me getting

      fired for writing on the job

      i tell them to use their connections,

      intern somewhere,

      learn to live, live to write

      love to learn, write to love

      this is the last day of your life

      what are you going to leave behind?

      what will be your legacy?

      and they stare at me like

      a rabbit in the headlights

      and say they don’t know

      i tell them to open their chests

      and let whatever falls out

      let it fall on the page

      let the page be

      your doctor

      your therapist

      your lover

      let the page be

      your enemy, punch it in the face

      the best friend that’ll never stab you in the back

      your prozac

      let the page be

      your hip hop

      your rock and roll

      the fancy ride you’re always talking about

      let the page be

      the bling bling on your wrist

      the underground beat your about to rip

      your autobiography

      tell them who you are

      tell them they’re wrong for labeling you

      tell them your life may not be worth anything now

      but tomorrow gives you hope

      so you won’t take your life today or the next day

      tell them you will be here forever

      tell them you are the future your parents have been planning for

      tell them you are the ones who create beautiful art from stark realities

      tell them you are loved

      no matter what anyone says

      tell them you are loved

      and they write

      head down for fifteen minutes

      pen in hand

      never coming off the page

      no cares for grammar

      no cares for spelling

      no cares for structure

      never coming off the page

      and the first student gets up

      and his mouth open wide and says

      i want to live

      i want to love

      (repeated a hundred times over)

      i want to live

      i want to love

      and he asks me

      if that was any good

      and i tell him

      it’s the best poem

      i’ve ever heard.

      Ignition

      by Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz

      like the first time you step

      into the driveway and see no parents

      the first time you open that door

      and the sound it makes when you close it

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