Very often poetry is dealt with as a pursuit mostly for the mind. The physicality of poetry, of memory and emotion are often put on one side. For this exercise I usually use either Ted Hughes' poem Hands from Moortown Diary or my own poem fiftyfirstsecond included here. Both poems are very physical and both tell a life story.

This exercise is probably one for more imaginative students, I hesitate to use the word able as ability is often little to do with imagination. This piece would be suitable for yr9 or yr10, and possibly a group other than top of English; perhaps a drama or dance group would work quite as well.

After having a look at one of the poems, one might get the students to tell something of their own life story, each line matching a mark or observation about their own hand. If you have a very brave group, you can get them to work in pairs working with each other's hands. Or they may tell the story of their mother or father through their hands. Whichever way you choose it is good to work with the idea of someone they know well.

The Hughes poem is classic visceral Hughes with a gentle finish. My poem works upon repetition and using the arm as a metaphor and as a repetitive device, which holds up the piece and gives a certain tension.

When I work with these pieces I often tell the group that there is no need to make anything up. Tell the truth and try to feel the memories or what it is they are trying to say in the head, the heart and the body part being written about.

I also often use the idea, of when you fancy someone how if you brush against them, you say things like; I'm not washing my hand again. To put over the idea of lingering physical memory.

fiftyfirstsecond

the heaviest hush 
clothes become transparent 
fruit washes down 
hair plastered to face 
arms holding myself 
arms not reaching far enough 
arms touching tree bark 
drops on fingers 
bigger feeling/extra texture

arms cold with wet cloth 
           with goosepimples 
           hearing the noise cut down the traffic 
           with the itch of eczema cooled

arms trying to keep a man dry 
           wiping water and salt 
arms thinking of lost sons 
           a court case 
           a miscarriage 
           and one other 
arms against law 
deep in the kidneys 
shopping bag plastic holds and cuts 3 fingers 
arms walk home 
           ask tree of life 
           ask tree of knowledge 
arms feel the headache coming 
in waves with the sound 
each sound hurts 
in the spine and the mind 
arms cover my head 
arms cover my head 
           pump petrol

they bear the arms of initiation 
carry tattoos of many fingers 
dry elbow skin against nylon 
forgot to get cream

arms ask in rituals for a god 
           in their muscle lines a totem 
           in their nerves an idea of how to see

arms rubbed dry with towel 
           stiff in all their holding 
arms rest on table 
           talk their own way 
           won't stay hidden

© John Siddique 

Want to take your poetry teaching further?  
poetryclass poets are available for INSET - details here

| Home |      Poetry Lessons index page  |   Return to Top