Poetry Break! Poetry That Does Not Rhyme

Introduction:
Begin by talking about insects - ask students what they like/dislike about bugs. If you feel like acting, pretend to see a bug and then begin the poem (be careful of scaring students).

Cockroach
by Valerie Worth

Of the may creatures
That wriggle and creep
And make some people
Shudder, I don’t mind
Snakes or mice or
Caterpillars or worms-

Though I don’t quite
Care for ants-but
One that I can’t
In the least abide
Is the cockroach: not
So much that it scuttles

And bristles, and glues
Its slippery eggs in
The cracks of books, but
That it looks so clever:
As though it knows
My particular horror,

And plots to stalk
And startle me better-
Today I dart from
Behind the sugar, tomorrow
I skulk in her sneaker
And twiddle her toes...

(from Animal Poems by Valerie Worth)

Extension:
Bring a cockroach for the students to observe. Discuss the poem with the students - do they see similar characteristics from their own observations?

Reference:
Worth, V. 2007. ANIMAL POEMS. Ill. by Steve Jenkins. New York, NY: Farrar Straus Giroux. ISBN 0374380570.