That’s the wonder of school visits because every one, every one is different. I do four forty-five minute presentations each day, and you get, you get it’s just the craziest things that happen. I was in Hershey, PA not long ago where they make Hershey chocolate, and one third grader said, “Pat”, they all call me Pat, he said, “Pat, how do you make chocolate milk?” I said, “I don’t know.” He said, “You put a Hershey Kiss on a cow’s tongue. And the cow swallows and gives chocolate”, well of course that’s not the way it happens but you know I thought it was great.
And they just say strange things. I was in Champagne, Illinois and a fourth grader came up to me she said, “Pat do you have lambs?” I said, “No.” She said, “I have lambs, I have two lambs.” I said, “Really? That’s great.” She said, “Yeah I’m in 4H.”
She said, she said “They both won blue ribbons at the Champagne County Fair last month.” I said “Wow that’s terrific.” She got shy, she said “Do you know what their names are?” I said “no”, she said “Patrick and Lewis”, I said be still my heart. And then in the next breath she said, “We had Lewis for dinner last night.” I thought you know from the sublime to the ridiculous. Anyway.
Writing poetry is very, very difficult, and I don’t generally do poetry workshops because some teachers and some parents expect their kids to come out of one having written a publishable, polished poem.
And the first thing I say is, I can’t write a publishable poem in forty five minutes, why should I expect a fourth grader to be able to do that? So I generally don’t write with them. And unfortunately, it’s not surprising, but when you talk about poetry with kids the first thing they think of is rhymes because that’s what they grew up with I guess.
But I try to encourage them not to rhyme, I mean rhyming is not one of your holiday games, it takes a long time, as my friend Jane Yolen says she uses the BIC method of writing &mash; butt in chair — and that’s what you have to do, you have to sit down in a chair for long hours. I mean writing is not inspiration, it is not inspiration, it is dedicated hard work.