By one of Jane's Students:
"It is fun to be a poet
it is fun.
I know it is just by looking at her,
so happy
that I want to be one too.
You know?
I want to be one like her."
- Jeanine
THE MOON AND THE EARTH
What am I doing leftover?
What am I doing here?
The birds flying outside.
and what am I doing all alone here?
The trees waving.
What am I doing here long and alone,
like the moon in space
and the Earth turning and turning
and I am here wherever I go
I go with the moon
the moon comes with me
I can be happy and like the universe.
- Anthony Quispe, 2nd grade
Please send an email to me at: jane@janelecroy.com with the request. You will receive invites to shows, news and new original poems with every mailing. I never share my list with anyone or use it to send out anything other than artistic endeavors of mine. You will not get tons of e-mails, only one or two a month.
Jane LeCroy is also an artist-in-residence at many public schools in New York City. Through Teachers & Writers Collaborative, she teaches poetry to kids and publishes their writings...
Examples of some of the students' work posted on the right.
A Note from Jane:
"I have an amazing time with the wonderful young thinkers I get to work with in the public schools of NYC. I work with kindergartners all the way through the grades up to high school.
We genuinely have deep thought provoking conversations at each of our meetings together, usually my residencies consist of 10 to 15 visits. I go once or twice a week to the school and get to spend around an hour presenting poetry and art. I then create writing exercises that generate creative, self exploratory finished pieces of work. We share with each other in class, including the regular classroom teacher. We talk about what makes writing good and we challenge each other as we fall deeper in love with the amazing bridges that words are. Love language. At the end of the residency I publish a book of the best work of the students and each participant receives a copy along with the school library, Teachers & Writers Collaborative and many other interested individuals.
We read everything from picture books to classic poetry. We read famous works by Nobel laureates and works by children from other schools. We talk about scientific theories, the physical laws of the universe, our solar system, technology and anything else the class shows desire to know more about. This all leads to philosophical discussions where we all open each others minds through comprehension of the text together. Our discussions inspire us to focus on certain themes and describe our own ideas. We also look at great visual art work, listen to songs, wish on magic items, hear the histories of special jewelry and sticks and thunderstorms; and most importantly, we respond, we articulate and describe our own life experiences and interpretations. We play with words and bravely invent meaning.
I see these students grow as writers, it is one of the greatest rewards in my life and I feel so lucky to have this opportunity. We concentrate on the fact that the inner world of the self is interesting and significant. Our surroundings are uniquely interpreted and these careful observations we make are individual experiences that are the substance of wonderful poems, revealing special things about everyday objects and situations. All of our lives are similar in that we share the world and the human condition, but the way we understand and picture our relationship to those things is what makes us individuals. Awareness of our own feelings are important to being a good writer because that's what makes our voice, and each voice has different and valuable information to share. All this sharing makes the world bigger because we each add our own particular world to it.
We can teach everyone and learn from everyone, if we pay attention. During these residencies that's exactly what we do - we pay attention, to our world, our words, each other and ourselves. I thank, especially, the excellent teachers and administrators I get to work with for their patience, cooperation and support that is pivotal to making this project such a success. I also thank Teachers & Writers Collaborative, the organization that puts me in the schools, teaches and inspires me."
To learn more about the Teachers & Writers Collaborative, visit their website:
(grades 2 - 4)
(UNTITLED)
Life is real and hard
I can see the moon over the roofs.
All kind of talk is small.
I can hear the moon talking.
The moon is saying, 'I can't come down.'
I can feel my spine waving.
- Devendra Hulasie, 2nd grade
DANCING!
A rock is staying and trees are waving,
but what am I doing?
What is my life?
I am dancing!
I feel the need of life,
life is free shiny but empty
as I whisper a wordy bird comes to help.
- Christopher Riva, 2nd grade
(UNTITLED)
When my mom was going downstairs
and she fell and broke her leg I was very sad and that night
I heard a song and sometimes I hear that song
and I would always cry again with the song
and she had to get stitches but now I am always happy because
she is all better and she plays with me a lot.
Even when she had the cast on she would play
cards or board games like chess or checkers.
I will always remember that day for the rest of my life
even though it was the saddest day of my life.
She was in the hospital for awhile,
I missed her a lot when she was in the hospital.
It felt like it was the last day of my life,
like the whole world was over
and I did not know what to do
or know where to go either
it felt like I was gone but everyone was there
but I was not. I was the only one gone
I don't know why though because I was the only one gone
it felt like nobody needed me
it was weird and I am still thinking why it felt that way.
- Victoria Corso, 2nd grade