“I Remember” Poems

“I Remember" poems––immortalized by artist and writer Joe Brainard in his book I Remember (Granary Books, 2001)––make an excellent introduction to a series of classroom poetry workshops. For one thing, they are fun to do and to hear. They’re usually vivid, down to earth, and personal. For another, their practice lets the students know that poetry can be made of their own speech patterns and experience.

Especially if this is the first of a series of sessions, begin by reading aloud a poem (or prose selection) notable for its rhythmic energy and sensuous details. Get in a “thing-y” mood. You might use the following excerpt from Brainard:

I remember the only time I ever saw my mother cry. I was eating apricot pie.
     I remember how much I used to stutter.
     I remember the first time I saw television. Lucille Ball was taking ballet lessons.
     I remember Aunt Cleora who lived in Hollywood. Every year for Christmas she sent my brother and me a joint present of one book.
     I remember a very poor boy who had to wear his sister’s blouse to school.
     I remember shower curtains with angel fish on them.
     I remember very old people when I was very young. Their houses smelled funny.
     I remember daydreams of being a singer all alone on a big stage with no scenery, just one spotlight on me, singing my heart out, and moving my audience to total tears of love and affection.
     I remember waking up somewhere once and there was a horse staring me in the face.
     I remember saying “thank you” in reply to “thank you” and then the other person doesn’t know what to say.
     I remember how embarrassed I was when other children cried.
     I remember one very hot summer day I put ice cubes in my aquarium and all the fish died.
     I remember not understanding why people on the other side of the world didn’t fall off.

Write DETAIL on the board, and discuss what it means. Tell the class you’re going to ask them to write “I remember...,” followed by what they remember––it can be anything, from the day they were born to this morning. And it doesn’t have to be “important”; we’re just getting some flavor of real life here. Shorthand things such as “I remember my first bike”––period, end of memory––are tedious and generic. Students should flesh out their memories with the detail that was part of the original experience––colors, exact names, unusual focuses. They should tell just what it was that made it stick in their mind. Pretend it’s a one-minute movie and tell everything in it. Make it real.

Try reading an “I Remember” poem of your own. This will help create an atmosphere in which students will explore the personal. Read aloud “I Remember” pieces by kids, pointing out good uses of sound, how poetic language often arises amid common speech, how comparison vivifies language, and any other virtues you find. 

Then ask them to write, describing as many memories as they want, but concentrating on each one long enough to bring out its specialness. (You can have younger kids abbreviate “I remember” to “IR” each time.) They don’t have to think “poetry,” but can pretend they’re talking, trading memories with a friend.

Collect and read aloud.

An interesting variation of this exercise is to concentrate on a single memory. In this case you should spend even more time talking up detail. This kind of I Remember is likely a family photo, in which one sees not only Aunt Myrt picking pears but also the tree branches, the broken fence next door, half a black dog, the sky, an empty can of Van Camp’s Pork ’n’ Beans, etc.

Another variant is to draw the students’ attention to the possible play between early memories and more recent ones. These memories could be set off in blocks, or interspersed, to cast light on life changes.

I remember when I was in kindergarten my teacher said, "Cut on the lines.” I was cutting wobbly. Henry said, “I’m telling ’cause you aren’t cutting on the lines.” I said, “Who cares? “Then he told the teacher. She said, “You don't have to cut exactly on the lines, Henry.”

Patrick Tindall (2nd grade)

 

I remember being showered in the wilderness by hot embers from a blazing fire sent into the air by an exploding can of cream-style corn.

Jim Bates(high school)

 

I remember a wild stallion rearing like magic through the wild river.
          I remember a plane taking me through clouds of visions.
          I remember a star flashing red and blue in the dark breeze. 
          I remember a cloud that looked like a beautiful dragon in disguise.
          I remember a wolf large enough to ride but it dashed away slicing snow.

Shauna Goosman (5th grade)

 

I remember the forest with trees so thick and tangled the ground was painted with one big, cold shadow. 
          I remember playing with the skin that hung from my great-grandma’s arm and being told not to do it again.

Phelan Earp (7th grade)

 

I remember when I was moving from Wyoming in our gray Blazer. We were about halfway and our Blazer broke down. We stopped at this stinky car shop to have it fixed. They worked on it for a while. It was late at night. We were traveling for a while and I got carsick and threw up all over the place. My mom had an old red sweatshirt on. Our Blazer wasn’t working too well again. We were getting tired. My mom and dad brought us to a church to sleep for a while. My dad left to find a place to fix the Blazer. The next thing I knew I saw a dead cat on the side of the road and there was a magpie flying in the bright blue sky. We drove up to the old swampy house. I could not believe that was our house.

Tammy Taylor (5th grade)

 

I remember being pulled in a little red wagon, watching the leaves flutter on the trees. 
          I remember my sister stealing a banana from home and running away on her blue bike, up the dirt road.

Angie Mortensen (12th grade)

 

I remember the time when I was riding in an airplane. And I was scared because I didn’t want to wreck. So I looked out a window and I saw blue skies and little islands and it made me relax.

Buzz Yohman (3rd grade)

 

I remember when I was at my grandma’s and my grandpa and I and my aunt and my cousin went to a great big pond and fished. I caught a big one and gutted it and digged my hands all in it and saw the eggs and got my hands all bloody and my mom took a picture and I put it in a bag and now I can look at it.

Terri Christensen (1st grade)

 

I remember going sledding in the mountains. It was fun, the deep white snow was good to eat. My grandpa hitched me up to the truck. I turned over and got a faceful of snow. It was cold. I got back in the sled. We got going fast again. I climbed to the top of the mountain and sledded down. I crashed into a bush. I went flying into the snow face first. The snow was good. I went sledding again. This time I missed the bush. I went down the mountain. Woosh woosh went the green trees. Down the hill me and my dad went. Woosh, we hit the deep snow. Woosh, I’m back sledding again.

Michael Parmer (3rd grade)

I remember when I was a flower girl I thought my dress was too puffy. And the bridesmaid, with her pink flowery dress, she said, “Slow down, you’re going too fast, you little brat, slow down!” After that we stopped and I said, “Shut up.” She didn’t shut up, just kept talking. Then we got rice thrown on us. And here comes the bouquet, with all its colors. Now here comes everyone to clobber the bride. Soon we cut the cake, drank punch, finally time to go home.

Penny Stenersen (5th grade)

 

I remember the day my favorite rabbit died.
I picked him up, and he was light and cold and hard.

Emma Lewman (10th grade)

 

I remember catching a black and yellow caterpillar. I tried to keep him by sticking two flowers together. But he ate his way through!

Michelle Jakovac (4th grade)

 

I remember a girl with red hair
Heavy red hair
Wrapping a gentle face
          of cream and pebbles
A banana held in her hand
Opening the banana
And the rotten fruit falling on my foot.
I remember going to the Anglican School, Jerusalem
And having my Calvin Klein knickers flushed down
The toilet of the locker room
But I remember it didn’t matter
’Cause I didn't like them anyway.
I remember playing house
With 88 cans of baked beans
Beans on the floor and the walls
And telling my mother they were modern art.
I remember dancing and hitting my head
And wishing I had passed out
So Mr. Dish would carry me home.
I remember being chased around the bunny hutch
The bunny hutch painted with a brown rabbit
By Derek
Who had heavy red hair and a face
          of cream and pebbles
And wishing he wasn’t so slow
Wishing he’d caught me

Ann Jankowski (12th grade)