The Writing Club

Bad Poetry Day

Reading Comprehension for August 18

"You want us to do what?" asked Abby, as she stared across the porch at Hank.


"We are going to write bad poetry," said Hank with a grin.


"That does not make a bit of sense," said Bobby. "We started this writing club so we could learn to write better, not worse!"


"That is the whole point," said Hank. "We've been working so hard to try to learn about writing, we forget to have fun." He looked around at the other members of the group.


"I'm game," said Marisha with a shrug. "I can't do worse than some of those poems we had to study in English class last year. Some of them were great, while others made no sense at all!"


"Yes," said Taylor. "Besides, it's good writing practice. We can learn what makes good poetry by writing some bad poetry. And we don't have to feel any pressure to write good poems since we're calling them bad!"


"Well, you all know that poetry isn't my strong suit," said Sam, "but I should at least be able to write bad poetry. How much time do we have?"


"I hadn't really thought about it," said Hank. "Maybe we could have them ready in thirty minutes?"


The others nodded and got to work. Marisha sat on the porch steps and looked up at the sky. Sam chewed on his pencil as he thought with closed eyes. Hank sat on the floor with his arms behind his head. Abby and Taylor began writing right away. Bobby stared at the ceiling.


At the end of the half hour, Hank spoke again.


"Is everyone done? Who wants to be first?"


"I do," said Abby. "I wrote this one about my little brother. It's a poetry couplet (CUP-let). It's bad because the two lines don't rhyme and don't have the same rhythm."


"I like to eat peanut butter


. . . Print Entire Reading Comprehension with Questions