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11.50
I arrive in the playground with three baking trays covered in magnetic
words - the ones people generally use on their fridges. I quickly
make up a couple of short sentences and attached them to the metal
fence.
12.00
Half a dozen children run out to ask what I'm doing. I say I'm making
tiny poems and sticking them to things in the playground. I also
explain that if they have a go they can take photos of what they
make with my camera. To my amazement they instantly fall on the
trays and begin work.
For
the next hour my camera is in constant demand as child after child
jumps up ad down in front of me asking to photograph their latest
poem.
1.15
I'm in an empty playground with a camera full of gorgeous poetic
images.
A
week later I return to the school with three copies of a book
I 'd made up from the kids photographs. Later I chatted to a few
of the children in the playground. These are some of the things
they said:
"I
got 'always think' and I put it on my head. I put my two fingers
near to head to say that I was thinking"
"I'd
get a sentence, then I'd think 'Is it something I've done in my
life?' If the answer is yes then I'd use it."
"I
just got a bunch of words and shoved them into a sentence. If they
didn't make sense, I just got another word or took one away."
[about
the poem 'black blood'] "I think that blood is black but everyone
says it is red I don't believe them... I think it is black because
my skin is black."
"We
tried to make a rhyming sentence but we couldn't find any word that
rhymed"
Click
on the Red 2 to see a photogallery of the children's work.
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