Besides the actual reading in class of many poems, I would suggest you do two things: first, while teaching everything you can and keeping free of it, teach that poetry is a mode of discourse that differs from logical exposition.

Quote by A R Ammons

Is it not careless to become too local when there are four hundred billion stars...

Is it not careless to become too local when there are four hundred billion stars...

Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that...

Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that...

You have your identity when you find out, not what you can keep your mind...

You have your identity when you find out, not what you can keep your mind...

If the greatest god is the stillness all the motions add up to, then we...

If the greatest god is the stillness all the motions add up to, then we...

Only silence perfects silence.

Only silence perfects silence.

A poem generated by its own laws may be unrealized and bad in terms of...

A poem generated by its own laws may be unrealized and bad in terms of...

I must stress here the point that I appreciate clarity, order, meaning, structure, rationality: they...

I must stress here the point that I appreciate clarity, order, meaning, structure, rationality: they...

I am grateful for - though I can't keep up with - the flood of...

I am grateful for - though I can't keep up with - the flood of...

Definition, rationality, and structure are ways of seeing, but they become prisons when they blank...

Definition, rationality, and structure are ways of seeing, but they become prisons when they blank...

Questions structure and, so, to some extent predetermine answers.

Questions structure and, so, to some extent predetermine answers.

In nature there are few sharp lines.

In nature there are few sharp lines.

Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful.

Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful.

Poetry leads us to the unstructured sources of our beings, to the unknown, and returns...

Poetry leads us to the unstructured sources of our beings, to the unknown, and returns...

Even if you walk exactly the same route each time - as with a sonnet...

Even if you walk exactly the same route each time - as with a sonnet...

For though we often need to be restored to the small, concrete, limited, and certain,...

For though we often need to be restored to the small, concrete, limited, and certain,...

That's a wonderful change that's taken place, and so most poetry today is published, if...

That's a wonderful change that's taken place, and so most poetry today is published, if...

I take the walk to be the externalization of an interior seeking so that the...

I take the walk to be the externalization of an interior seeking so that the...