Poetry Break: Barbara Esbensen

Introduction
I would display a bunch of both new, long, sharpened pencils and broken pencils along with some of those oversized pencils. I would ask the students how much writing they think one pencil can do.

PENCILS
by Barbara Esbensen

The rooms in a pencil
are narrow
but elephants castles and
watermelons
fit in

In a pencil
noisy words yell for attention
and quiet words wait their turn

How did they slip
into such a tight place?
Who
gives them their
lunch?

From a broken pencil
an unbroken poem will come!
There is a long story living
in the shortest pencil

Every word in your
pencil
is fearless ready to walk
the blue tightrope lines
Ready
to teeter and smile
down Ready to come right out
and show you
thinking!

From A JAR OF TINY STARS: POEMS BY NCTE AWARD-WINNING POETS, Boyd Mills Press, 1996.

Extension
Let the students choose a pencil (broken or new and long). Then let them tell why they chose a broken or new pencil. I would let them choose from a variety of shaped paper (elephant, star, fruit, square) to write what they are thinking.