Create an audio essay that brings together poetry and either 1) personal experience or 2) cultural concerns. First, identify a poem that speaks to an event, change, or experience in your life or to a cultural concern (e.g., consumerism, gender, war, relationships, etc.) You can choose any poem, but you may want to think about sonic elements of the poems you consider as you decide.

If you choose to relate the poem to personal experience, you can make decisions about how personal this aspect of the discussion might be. Think of Steph Ceraso's "Soundscape" and the way it discusses her moving from one city to another. There is personal background in the piece, but it is used in the service of discussing the subject of the essay. In the same way, your audio essay can resonate with you personally and provide a story about your life, but the focus should still circle back to the poem.

​If you choose to relate the poem to an aspect of culture, you will want to find a compelling angle--e.g., instead of linking a poem to "gender" you might connect it with "toys for young girls" or some other concrete area of focus. You may want to conduct some research into this aspect of culture, and then try to find ways take the cultural topic and create a "story" that gives the audio essay focus and pulls the listener in.

As young children, we long for the day that we can read independently, articulating and understanding a world of fiction for ourselves for the first time. We start with picture books and progress into the uncharted water of pages exclusively of text. Somewhere along the way, we have all encountered the poetic realm of children’s author, Shel Silverstein.

On the surface, the poems of Silverstein’s collection of works, Where the Sidewalk Ends, seem to only tackle the concerns of a typical adolescent:  friendship, happiness, compassion – intangible things made tangible through Silverstein’s clever examples.

Masks

Sound of a murmur of a crowd

Female Voice: She had blue skin,
Male Voice: And so did he.
                      He kept it hid
Female Voice: And so did she.
Male Voice: They searched for blue
Female Voice: Their whole life through,
Male Voice: Then passed right by-
Both Voices in Unison: And never knew.

Sound of glass breaking

Good idea ding

We are nothing if we are not ourselves. Fronts and facades are walls that separate us from happiness.

How Many, How Much?

How many slams in an old screen door?
Depends how loud you shut it.

Door slamming

How many slices in a bread?
Depends how thin you cut it.

Sound of knives

How much good inside a day?
Depends how good you live em.

Laughter

How much love inside a friend?
Depends how much you give em.

Cheers

Good idea ding

Life cannot be quantified. It is lived to the fullest through a good attitude and the right perspective.

Pleasant nature sounds

Where the Sidewalk Ends

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Sounds of traffic
 

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

String music

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

Good idea ding

There is a purpose to it all; there is life after death. All we need to do is keep our eyes open and have a little faith.

Readers may grow out of Silverstein’s poems, but if they do ever revisit these classics, they are sure to be in for a surprisingly apt life lesson. As readers mature, so do the poems’ take-aways, making Silverstein not only a genius poet but a timeless author as well. 

Shel Silverstein Audio Essay

As young children, we long for the day that we can
read independently, articulating and understanding a world of fiction for
ourselves for the first time. We start with picture books and progress into the
uncharted water of pages exclusively of text. Somewhere along the way, we have
all encountered the poetic realm of children’s author, Shel Silverstein.

On the surface, the poems of Silverstein’s collection
of works, Where the Sidewalk Ends, seem to only tackle the concerns of a
typical adolescent:  friendship,
happiness, compassion – intangible things made tangible through Silverstein’s
clever examples.

Digging a little deeper, there are many subtle, yet
powerful life lessons to be learned from these children’s poems. Silverstein
tackles themes such as identity, perspective, and religion, all through witty
metaphor.

“Masks”

Sound of a murmur of a crowd

Female Voice: She had blue skin,

Male Voice: And so did he.

                      He kept it hid

Female Voice: And so did she.

Male Voice: They searched for blue

Female Voice: Their whole life through,

Male Voice: Then passed right by-

Both Voices in Unison: And never knew.

Sound of glass breaking

Good idea ding

Through the use of these two masked individual,
Silverstein indicates that much is to be lost from concealing our true selves
from the world around us.We are nothing if we are not ourselves. Fronts and
facades are walls that separate us from happiness.

“How Many, How Much?”

How many slams in an old screen door?

Depends how loud you shut it.

Door slamming

How many slices in a bread?

Depends how thin you cut it.

Sound of knives

How much good inside a day?

Depends how good you live em.

Laughter

How much love inside a friend?

Depends how much you give em.

Cheers

Good idea ding

Silverstein starts with poems with tangible acts and
concludes with intangible relationships, but each example he lists has one
thing in common: they are all centered around effort. Whether it is shutting a
door or maintaining a friendship, you get back what you out into it. More often
than not in life, effort and outcome have a direct relationship.

Pleasant nature sounds

Where the Sidewalk Ends

There is a place where the sidewalk ends

And before the street begins,

And there the grass grows soft and white,

And there the sun burns crimson bright,

And there the moon-bird rests from his flight

To cool in the peppermint wind.

Sounds of traffic

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black

And the dark street winds and bends.

Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow

We shall walk with a walk that is measured and
slow,

And watch where the chalk-white arrows go

To the place where the sidewalk ends.

String music



Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and
slow,

And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,

For the children, they mark, and the children,
they know

The place where the sidewalk ends.

Good idea ding

As Silverstein’s most popular work, this poem
encompasses the whole collection, tying them all together with a common thread.
Silverstein states that children know the place where the sidewalk ends and
they draw “chalk white arrows” to point the way. Whether this mystic place is
heaven or just a representation of a fulfilled life, each one of Silverstein’s
poems in this collection could be viewed as a “white chalk arrow” in its own
right, as each one carries with it a message on how to live a better life. There
is a purpose to it all; there is life after death. All we need to do is keep
our eyes open and have a little faith.

Readers may grow out of Silverstein’s poems, but if
they do ever revisit these classics, they are sure to be in for a surprisingly
apt life lesson. As readers mature, so do the poems’ take-aways, making
Silverstein not only a genius poet but a timeless author as well.

Look deeper. Take Silverstein’s advice. Follow the
chalk white arrows.