Crossing Over into Poetry

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

Even as a fan of basketball, I was doubtful that this book would be able to hold my attention. It's 237 pages of narrative poems about predominately Josh Bell, his family, difficult seasons of life, and their love for basketball. Needless to say, I did not grow weary of reading poems about basketball like I thought initially! Kwame has truly achieved something special with this book. I never knew how much poetry could express the basketball we watch with our eyes.

I have grown up watching Carolina basketball. Over the years my family has loved watching Michael Jordan (wasn't quite around when he was playing for the Heels, but my uncles loved Jordan), Garrison Brooks, Tyler Hansbrough, Justin Jackson, Luke Mayes, Ty Lawson, Joel Berry, Kennedy Meeks, Kenny Williams III, and many others. When the main character, Josh, hoped to play for Duke someday, I was a little crushed, but luckily his brother Jordan knows that the best kind of blue is CAROLINA BLUE.

(I'm number 12)

I played basketball in 2nd grade and 8th grade. I never reached "baller" status, but I do remember one fantastic goal that I made. My school's middle school team was playing one of their greatest rival (actually everyone was our greatest rival, I don't think we won a game the entire season), we were in the 4th quarter, roughly 2 minutes left on the clock. We didn't have a single point that game, while our opponent had scored close to 30 points. All hope was lost, so coach put me in the game. I don't know who gave me the ball, but somehow I had it and I was just inside the right side of the 3 point line, I was about to get blocked but I had a few moments so I took the shot. What else did we have to lose? To my amazement and probably everyone else at the game that night, it went in! NOTHING BUT NET! SWISH! We now had 2 points on the board with around a minute or less left in the game. The first shot of the game and I of all people made it. That angle became my "sweet spot", anytime I'm shooting hoops, that's where I shoot from and have the most success. I don't think I ever made another shot the rest of the season, but that one triumphant memory helps the words from Kwame Alexander's The Crossover jump off the page.

*You may be wondering how I was even on the team...My school was so small that if the majority of 7th and 8th grade girls didn't play, we wouldn't have enough to have a team. If you showed up to practice, you were on the team.

The Crossover has several affordances for students who don't enjoy reading in general and poetry as well. A lot of times we think of poetry as this super flowery over the top expressive collection of words where you are constantly trying to figure out the hidden meaning. The Crossover shows us that poetry can be about things we enjoy, like basketball. It can be rhythmic like rap and relatable to our own interests. It isn't the kind of poetry with a hidden meaning, it is easy to follow. This book has the chapter book look, with just a few sentences on each page rather than a page entirely full of words. The Crossover would probably be most appealing to students (both boys and girls) who have an interest in basketball. Another great affordance is that Kwame Alexander has written a prequel to The Crossover called Rebound, The Playbook (a little more wordy), and he has also written Booked, a poetic narrative about a boy who loves soccer but hates reading. Introducing The Crossover to your students shows them that they can read poetry, they can write poetry like Kwame, and supplies them with a few other books that they can read after The Crossover.

Two Word Poems

Great writers inspire readers to become great writers too! After reading The Crossover, I decided to try to write a two word poem like Kwame's on pg. 194-196. I loved how simple yet powerful this form of poem writing illustrated the climactic events near the end of the book (trying not to spoil the ending, you've got to read this one!). I decided to try to write a two word poem about the time I jumped off a 35-40 ft waterfall. It's a narrative topic that I've been working on, but I thought it could be fun to try it as a poem. Trying to describe such a big experience with two words per line stretched my brain, but it was fun.

An Invitation for Students: Here is a challenge that will stretch your brain and your abilities as a writer. Select a narrative from your Writer's Notebook. Can you write part of the experience in your narrative as a two word poem like Kwame? Consider how he took a big and emotional moment in the story and accounted it with two words per line. What did you notice him doing? Can you do it too?

Tanka Poetry

I had never heard of Tanka poetry before reading The Crossover. On page 212, Kwame uses a Tanka poem. Tanka poems are similar to Haiku's, they are both forms of Japanese poetry that are based on syllables. Haiku's are 5-7-5, while Tanka's are 5-7-5-7-7. I had no idea there were other forms of syllabic poetry. In addition to Haiku's and Tanka's, there is another form of syllabic Japanese poetry called Senryu. To compose my own Tanka, I looked back at my 100 things I like page in my Writer's Notebook and thought I'd write about my own hobby, clogging.

An Invitation for Students: Look back to your heart map, hand map, or list of 100 things you like and select a topic. Write one statement about the topic you selected. Then think of how you can stretch, shorten, and change the words you use to fit the Tanka syllable format.