Grassdale High School’s Grade 8 pupils were invited to a poetry workshop for teenagers last Friday, March 23, in celebration of South African Library Week, which was from March 19 to March 25.
Professor Jacobus Moolman, a poet and lecturer from the University of the Western Cape (UWC), facilitated the workshop.
Teacher Peter Hendricks said the school’s intention is to inculcate a culture of reading among the pupils, starting with the Grade 8s.
“From next term everyone is supposed to have joined the library and they should have a novel to start their book club at school.”
Mr Hendricks said the school wants to form a relationship with the library. “I believe a reader is a good leader.”
Professor Moolman explained poetry to the children, which grabbed their attention. He read a poem and afterwards asked the pupils how the poem made them feel. Some of them said they felt warm and sad.
Professor Moolman then added that the secret to good poetry is not to write about feelings such as kindness, love and anger, but to draw or paint a picture in words of actual things instead of abstract feelings.
One of the pupils wanted to know if you could earn money from writing poetry but professor Moolman said it was difficult. He said writers, including himself, write because “we have no choice as it is our passion and we love it.”