My seven-year old daughter and I had a fun moment last night that both challenged her and encouraged her. She was learning to write poetry and express her feelings and thoughts.

We did this “collaborative” poetry exercise that we wrote a poem together.

We used a Hay(na)ku form, which I posted about a few days ago here, that consists of only six words. The first line has one word, the second has two, and finally the third has three. It is a simple, yet profound form.

In this exercise, I had her write the first word. At first, she was tentative and afraid to write, but I told her it is easy, and I can write it out for her (she’s in the process of learning to spell and write, so that is intimidating at times), and that we would do it together. There is no “wrong way” to write poetry. After getting over her initial fears, she did amazing! Here is what she created:

The Woods

Silent

Dark night

The owls hooting

I was so proud of her! What a fun thing that we can do to connect and draw our kids into a freeing and exhilarating activity like writing poetry! Win!