Celebrate the CHERITA!
Long before discussions of AI became the national conversation, there lived Ai , the sentient poet who created the CHERITA, an accessible form of poetry which I learned about from the poet-teacher Joel (hō EL) Garcia, a member of the Ethical ELA cohort. The CHERITA is a six-line narrative presented in an easy-to-remember formula. Three separate stanzas. One line for the first stanza. Two lines for the second stanza. Three lines for the third stanza When writing a CHERITA, it's important to remember that the poem tells a story (CHERITA means story or tale in Malay) and that stories have a beginning, middle, and end. That means, like a well-written paragraph, there should be an introductory welcome to the reader in the first line with details in the next two lines. The last three lines should form a culminating thought to round out the poem. The possibilities of the CHERITA are endless and a great way to work ourselves into writing po...

