Poetry Unlocks Creativity

Thoughts on The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

I cannot describe the emotions I feel after reading The Crossover by the poet Kwame Alexander. I was in tears at the end of this book because Alexander truly created a work of art. From the beginning, I was hooked. The free verse poetry style, his word choice jumping out on EVERY page, the imagery, the diction, and so much more made this book into an overwhelming positive experience for me as the reader.

The writing style Kwame created for the book could not have been done more beautifully. The use of multiple poetic forms: free verse, definition, apology/epistolary, list, couplet, etc, formed this book into not just a story about two twin brothers who love basketball, but more so a story about life. The struggles parents feel when they only want good for their children, the fights between siblings, feeling new emotions, dealing with change, experiencing death and more are all intertwined in this book about middle school basketball. Alexander’s word choice is also mind blowing. Each word is well-crafted on each page, like listening to your favorite song or hearing a friend talk about their passion. The poem Storm, on page 151 reads, “Like a strong wind, Dad/ rises from the clouds, strikes/ down the stairs, swift and/ sharp and mad as/ lightning. Flagrant foul ref!/ he yells to everyone in the/ gym….” Alexander could have simply stated that JB and Filthy’s father was mad at the ref’s call. Instead, Kwame incorporated words used to describe a storm. By using descriptive words, the reader can visualize the intensity behind their father’s actions and how passionate their father is about basketball. When I read this poem, I could visualize their father standing in the bleachers, rising from his seat and yelling at the ref for making what he thought was a bad call. The dictation and multiple forms of poetry, makes this book an amazing mentor text for students when working on curating their own poems and finding their poetic style. The poems encompass writing tactics that explore imagery, rhyme, emotion, use of nature, etc, that is beneficial to expose to students as they are exploring how to write poetry.

The free verse novel also supports emergent readers who are in upper elementary and middle grades. The novel is 237 pages long and full of text that is engaging, while also building literacy skills. The empowerment a student will feel after they complete this lengthy novel is grand. The free verse aspect of the story also allows students to engage in critical thinking without having to annotate paragraphs of text.

Using The Crossover as a Mentor Text

A major aspect of The Crossover is the amount of poetry within the story. This serves a great mentor text I can use with students when working with poetry. Alexander uses many different styles of poetry to allow students to explore different writing styles. I created two poems using the poems in The Crossover as a guiding tool, like students do with mentor texts.

I gathered inspiration from This Week I, on page 144, to create my own poem. When I read this poem I thought how this would be a neat way to journal. The sentences are short and to the point. I did not have to explain what food I ate or what I was anxious about. I simply wrote down what I did and how I felt during the week. I wanted to explore this poem because I enjoy journaling and writing about what is happening in my life.

I also used pro-fuse-ly, on page 154, as a mentor text to create a poem surrounding one word. I chose the word “anxious” because that is an emotion I have been feeling a lot lately. I could add a lot more to this poem, but I kept it in the style Alexander had by only listing three examples using the word. I enjoyed writing this poem because I have never seen poetry done this way. The author is defining a word that may be challenging for students, providing context to the word as it relates to Filthy and the story, while also keeping poetic style. I wanted to explore this style and provide context to my life.