Ranging from gut-busting limericks about mustachioed women and simple, sweet rhyming jingles to long, free versed “slam” rants and satirical narratives, my poetry was well received by my family, friends, and teachers (my girlfriend claims I write excellent sonnets). While I do not consider myself a poet per say, poetry for me was a pastime, which became a hobby, which became a release, which became a passion.
Due to my newfound love in the subject, I helped Brenda revamp a creative writing workshop she taught a few years ago at Saddleback’s College for Kids Summer programs. Over the course of last summer I went on a wild adventure with four boys and a girl all of varying abilities and highly different opinions on writing. Including an energetic young man whose creativity practically spewed out of him and bounced off the walls, a quiet poet whose images jumped off the page, a sweet “big brother” whose stories were so many, he couldn’t get them all down in an hour, a dreamer who created an entire new plotline to Star Wars, and, of course, the lovely lady whose persuasive paragraph was so moving, it convinced her parents to buy her the cell phone she had been wanting. With all this going on around me, I learned just as much, if not more, than the kids did!
The Creative Writing Summer Program at Pathfinders combines reading stories, creativity exercises, and free-writing techniques that allow students to express the stories inside of them and bring their amazing thoughts, opinions, and emotions, from their head, to their pencils, and onto a page. They write short stories, descriptive and persuasive paragraphs, and a multitude of formal and informal poetry. By opening up the writer inside of each child, those who had originally loved writing walked away refreshed and bursting with new ideas, while those who had loathed the subject discovered that it was “kinda fun.”
It is my sincerest hope that (for at least of few of the kids who go through the two week intensive program) the students will pursue writing and continue to create and craft poems, stories, and essays, (maybe even novels!) on throughout their lives. Who knows? Maybe the next Dickens, Hemingway, Poe, Dickinson or Twain is inside of you!
-Vincent
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