Yawp your verse!

I’m teaching poetry to my 11C students and the way I began the lesson was with watching “Dead Poet’s Society.” In the movie, Robin Williams’s character has the boys “yawp” to assert their power. He reads them a poem by Walt Whitman that was later used in a MacAir commercial. I showed them the commercial and put the words “The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse!” on the board. As an exemplar, I stood on a chair and yawped my verse. Here it is.

I’m going to be published.

I’m going to be published.

After all these years

–all these years–

It’s finally happening.

I’m going to be published.

I’m going to be published.

I’ll sell a thousand…

Ten thousand…

A million books…

Be on every best seller list.

I’m going to be published.

I’ll be interviewed for the papers–

The CBC…

Jimmy Fallon…

I could be famous!

I’m going to be published

And the world will read

–the whole wide world!–

What I’ve written

…oh my God!

I can’t believe I’m going to be published!

What’s your verse?

Look for The Revenant to be released on 10 July 2014!