Poetry comes alive for students

Two traveling thespians from the touring group Poetry Alive did what the name suggests at Pinon Hills Elementary School on Jan. 15. They sent verse dancing, spinning and ringing off the walls of the school's gymnasium.

With T-shirts reading "Metaphors Be With You," performance artists Michelle Schwantes and Carney Gray declaimed and dramatized the hallowed words of such greats as Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost, but also the zany stanzas of poets like Edward Lear and Jack Prelutsky.

Throughout the assembly, the two actors selected students from the audience to help them perform.

Third-grader Brady Rodina, 9, was one of the lucky ones chosen for a Lewis Carroll poem called "The Crocodile."

Gray extended the arms of the young man, who was sitting in a chair, to simulate the wide open mouth of a croc. Then, portraying an unsuspecting fish, Gray put his head between the imagined razor-sharp teeth.

"How cheerfully he seems to grin, how neatly spread his claws," Gray exclaimed, "and welcomes little fishes in with gently smiling jaws!"

When the jaws snapped, Gary let out a roar that shocked and delighted the audience.

Students weren't the only ones called upon to act. Third-grade teacher Karen Sullivan was recruited for a Prelutsky poem called "Creature in the Classroom."

Gray and Schwantes told the teacher that she would no longer be a teacher, but rather the "creature" alluded to in the title. Gray himself would be the teacher and Schwantes the student.

Once in proper character, with minimal coaching, Sullivan began devouring everything in the pretend classroom. Real students in the background shrieked with joy.

"But the thing continued eating," Schwantes cried. "It ate paper, swallowed ink, as it gobbled up our homework I believe I saw it wink. Teacher finally lost her temper. 'Out!' she shouted at the creature. The creature hopped beside her and GLOPP... it gobbled teacher."

However amusing the poems, though, the duo reminded students not all poetry is meant for laughter.

"Not all the poems we do are loud and active," explained Gary. "Some poems are quiet and ask us to listen."

As examples, they recited "My People" by Langston Hughes and "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost.

"He gives his harness bells a shake to ask if there is some mistake," Gary said in a much softer tone, pretending his chair a weary horse. "The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep."