How to be your own self

Four years after the construction of the Berlin Wall, Gerta can hardly remember the taste of a banana. This is how cut off East Berlin has become from the rest of the world. Imagine eating a banana could be a luxury.

While on an errand for her mother, Gerta is standing in line at the neighborhood grocery store and is trying to remember how to be different. Everything about her life has forced her to be part of a collective mentality. At school, the students are repeatedly told that their strength lies in being a member of the group. Being an individual is seen as a weakness, an infection from the West lying in wait to make them ill.

"We all walked in step, eyes ahead, and with conversation at a minimum. We all smiled, but not much, and frowned, but rarely cried. Nobody could succeed here, but most people around me seemed to be okay with that. It meant they wouldn't fail either.

"I didn't want to be like them. And at the same time, I was beginning to forget how to be different, how to by my own self. It was the feeling of being swallowed up, and I hated it."

Your assignment for next week is to write a poem entitled "How to be Different." I have added a page to our blog labeled Poems. On this page, I have listed examples of three types of poems. One of the poems is Oranges by Gary Soto, which we read together today. Oranges is an example of what is called free verse in poetry. Free verse poetry means that the lines do not have to end in a rhyme scheme. The other two poetry examples are haiku and formal verse. Feel free to use whichever form suits your style and imagination. The only really rule for you to follow is: Be Bold!

Please submit your poem to me as a Word document by e-mail attachment or as a Google document no later than 7 p.m., Wednesday, July 13.

Thank you all for your dedication and enthusiasm today. It made me feel very welcome. See you next Thursday.

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." --Albert Einstein