A couple of weeks ago, I shared Mirror Mirror by Marilyn Singer with several classes as we were reading through some of the Texas Bluebonnet books.
Marilyn Singer (whom I met in the elevator of the Four Seasons hotel in Austin last year during TLA) wrote this entire book of poetry in the Reverso form. Read one direction, they have one meaning, and then read backwards, with changes only allowed in punctuation and capitalization, they mean something totally different.
The cool thing about all the poems in this book is that they are all based on Fairy Tales and read one way it one side of the story (Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Goldilocks) and then read backwards it is the other side of the story (The Wicked Step Mother, The Big Bad Wolf, The Prince, The Three Bears).
After sharing the book with classes and reading about the Reverso poems, several students were inspired to write their own Reverso poems!
Read their poems below and congratulate them on their creativity and writing by leaving a comment below!
A beast You are
is as bad
as bad as a
as you. a beast.
-Marjan Turd
Listen and act appropriately. Appropriately act and listen.
Activities involve yourself in. In yourself involve activities.
-Ben Fossitt
Peace on Earth
Love and peace on Earth Knows none
Impossible as it is Magic it is
Is it so great? Great, so it is
Is it magic? Is it as impossible
None knows Earth on peace and love
-Macey Edmunds
Family Forever
Family is forever Together is family
Is it as always Everywhere love and kisses are followed
Followed are kisses and love always as it is
everywhere forever is family
Family is together
-Macey Edmunds
A girl without a phone incomplete. Incomplete a phone without a girl
Great job! Very creative!!!
Battle of the Sexes
Battle of the Sexes
Girl fighting the masses,
What a struggle. Oh!
Boy, he grows into the crown.
Is the one who knocks,
The Man.
The Man is the one.
Who knocks?
The crown he grows into.
Oh boy!
What a struggle.
Fighting the masses?
Girl!
Battle of the Sexes
For noble heroes,
It’s honor and chivalry
Not shining armor
Not shining armor
It’s honor and chivalry
For noble heroes.