National Poetry Month 2013: Teens in the TechnoVerse

It's the last day of April and I'm saying TGIM. (Thank God It's May.) I should have known when I began a series on the TechnoVerse that life would go into Warp Drive this month.

When April 2013 began, my family was in Florida for spring break. In the last 30 days, we have:

visited The Wizarding World of Harry Potter;

On line for Olivander's.

celebrated a first birthday;

sent one kid off to California for a robotics world championship;

taught poetry in two elementary schools;

Fifth graders writing portrait poems in response to fine art.

got sick and missed a week of middle school, but

the show must go on (stage managed "The Little Mermaid" at said middle school);

sent Dad off to Nashville for a business trip;

various and sundry other joys and minor disasters.

As I am learning, this is a typical month when you have two teenage children. My teens are tech-buffs. They do their homework on laptops, watch anime in their spare time, and spend too much time on Reddit.

For them, and for the teens in your life, here is a great teen-focused poetry website.

http://www.powerpoetry.org/

PowerPoetry.Org -- "Write Your Own Life Story" bills itself as the largest mobile teen poetry community in the TechnoVerse.

A lovely lady, Alyce Myatta, from the NEA (which sponsors another great teen poetry program, Poetry Out Loud) tipped me off about this site. This is a place for young poets to upload and share their original writing. They are encouraged to browse through their peers' poetry and vote or leave comments.

There are great inspiration resources at PowerPoetry such as "5 Tips for Writing and Ode Poem" and "6 Tips for Writing about Music." Kids can learn how to make a multimedia poem, get hooked up with the local slam scene, even find an adult poet to be their online mentor.

But I especially love what comes up when I click a tab entitled "Why Write a Poem": 

"Every one of us has a story that is completely our own by virtue of the fact that each of us is unique and has an ever expanding collection of experience that are particular to the lives we lead.

"Simply put, no one is like you.

"Poetry is the means which we can express ourselves, it’s a way to vent, and to make sense of the world, to tell our stories in our own words."

Quoted from PowerPoetry.Org

Teachers, there is a spot on this site for you, too. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on EDUCATORS. You'll find out how to start a PowerPoetry group at your school.

Despite all the drama at home, I've had a great month exploring the TechnoVerse with all of you. Kudos to our excellent guest bloggers! You have all expanded my tech-tools and my thinking about how I can use technology to be a better, more organized writer. (Yes, even you, Dennis Kirschbaum.)

This month, I've experimented with SoundCloud, downloaded Scrivener, felt overwhelmed by Pinterest, revisited an email poem about seamonkeys in my underpants (it's a long story).

If you're not ready to say goodbye to the TechnoVerse yet, here is a full list of the posts in this series:

Invitation to the TechnoVerse (Monday 4/1)

Gloson Teh Compares Writing Poetry with Writing Code (Tuesday 4/2)

Linda Baie apps for inspiration  (Wednesday 4/3)

Barbara Morrison on Scrivener (Thursday 4/4)

Scott Slaby advises students with a text sonnet (Friday 4/5)

Danuta Hinc compares online poetry translations (Monday 4/8)

Carol Munro writes poetry with a friend via email (Tuesday 4/9)

Dennis Kirschbaum is a lovable Luddite (Wednesday 4/10)

Regina Sokas on global connections (Thursday 4/11)

April Halprin Wayland on RhymeWeaver.Com (Friday 4/12)

Amy Ludwig Vanderwater on SoundCloud& Pinterest (Monday 4/15)

Ken Ronkowitz  of Poets Online (Tuesday 4/16)

Moira Egan looks at the tech side of Sonnets (Wednesday 4/17)

Gregory Luce on Poetry Foundation’s Walking Tour of DC Poetry (Thursday 4/18)

Christine Amyot Hurley on tech based poetry projects for kids (Friday 4/19)

Irene Latham's Progressive Poem stops at Author Amok (Monday 4/22)

Diane Mayr explains Archive.Org (Tuesday 4/23)

Kay Weeks tests out a random poetry generator (Wednesday 4/24)

Clarinda Harriss uses texting errors to compose poems (Thursday 4/25)

Debbie Levy replaces her Roget's with Dictionary App (Friday 4/26)

Ann Bracken takes us to Tweetspeak Poetry (Monday 4/29)

TechnoVerse wrap up & PowerPoetry.Org for teens (Tuesday 4/30)

I am happily powering down the warp engines, everyone. If you'd like, leave a comment about the recommended apps, websites and programs you've tried as a result of our series.

Good luck as your school years wind down. It's been one for the yearbooks!

http://science.howstuffworks.com/warp-speed3.htm