Roses are red, violets are blue; workshop bridges a generation or two

For an hour on Monday mornings, the generation gap between senior citizens and Acton-Carlisle High School freshmen narrows a little as they come together in Shel Hull’s English classroom.  

“I’ve been doing [Partners in Rhyme] since the very first session,” Helen Young said. “It’s such fun. The kids are lovely.” 

Partners in Rhyme is a six-week workshop led by poetry therapist Patti Russo, where teens and older adults read and write poetry together. 

“Easter Seals got a grant in 2006 to see how expressive therapies could bring the generations together,” she said.

With no experience in this area, Russo said she “pulled something together” with elders and preschoolers. She loved the response and, after a few years, thought it would be interesting to do something similar with teens. 

She reached out to Rebecca Loprete, then the CCHS English department chair. When Loprete couldn’t continue, Russo approached Hull. 

“I just had the good sense to say yes,” Hull said. 

‘Sophisticated young people’ 

Each session runs for six weeks and has grown from one group a year to three, Russo said. The Acton Carlisle Foundation funds the program, but next year’s sessions will be a little special. 

“One of the older adults in the program passed away, and her family is funding next year’s program,” Russo said. “So next year will be from her family.” 

Russo introduces poems centered on a theme. The class reads and discusses each piece, and then has an opportunity to write their own. In a recent class, they learned about and wrote odes — to a daily list and to alfredo sauce, to name two.

“The kids are remarkably sophisticated young people,” Jack Nevinson said. 

Hull said her students have “risen to the occasion.” 

“They have a sense that they want to speak in a way that presents themselves well, that presents their ideas clearly,” she said. “You can see some of the leadership qualities that don’t appear otherwise.”

Worth the time 

Though teachers have tight schedules, Hull said she was happy to make the time because she could see the value in the program. 

“They have opportunities to talk to just talk about how they feel about the poem, so it’s a little less academic and, in that sense, personal,” Hull said. “Then they’re also, of course, getting the social piece of interacting with older adults in the community.”

That benefit is not lost on the students. 

“I think I’m getting a better outlook on the senior citizens in Acton and just people in the area,” Thomas Bury said. “It’s great to get to know them.”

“I think it’s really important to communicate with people who mean a lot to our community,” Sara Siala said. “And I think in order to grow as a community, we have to really communicate and collaborate and cooperate with each other.”

Russo said her goal was to have the students “dislike [poetry] a little less,” and it appears she’s on the right track.  

“It’s better than I thought it was going to be,” Maxi Furman said. “I thought it was going to be a bunch of boring poetry, but it’s a bunch of engaging stuff. We get to talk about not just poetry, but life outside of school. And we have the freedom to write however we like.”