As well as being a teacher/trainer for over 30 years, he is also a visual artist and poet. He was the winner of the EFL Poetry Competition and has published two full collections of poetry. He has also published short stories, broadcast on the radio and featured in podcasts for the British Council. . He has worked in a number of different countries and is now resident in Bournemouth, UK.

Email: johnkaypoet@googlemail.com

The poem

Cleaner

I pick up wrappers;

somebody’s wrappers.

 

I scrape up gum;

somebody’s gum.

 

I knock yoghurt pots

off the roofs of phone boxes;

somebody’s yoghurt pots.

 

I sweep up dog ends;

somebody’s dog ends.

 

I suck up the remains

of half eaten kebabs;

somebody’s kebabs.

 

I suck up the remains

of half digested kebabs;

somebody’s kebabs.

 

I lift pint pots

out of hanging baskets;

somebody's pint pots.

 

I brush away fliers;

somebody’s fliers.

 

I wash away urine;

somebody's urine.

 

I scoop up feces;

somebody’s feces.

 

And I peel off the stickers

of girls with their knickers

around their knees;

somebody’s daughters.

 

Ideas to use the poem

1 How does the poem make you feel? (Adjective practice)

2 Given that everyone visualizes a text in their own way, here are some suggestions for questions your learners might like to comment on. In their version:

• What time of day is it?
• How old is the cleaner?
• Is it a man or a woman?
• What’s his or her home/family life like?
• How does the person feel, physically and emotionally?
• What is (s)he wearing?
• Why is (s)he doing this job?
• How long has (s)he been doing it?
• What did (s)he do before?
• What would (s)he rather be doing? 

3 Without making it too much of an exercise

• draw students’ attention to the rhythm: Di Der Di Dum, Der Diddy Dum,
• consider linkage; weak forms and unstressed syllables,
• rising and falling intonation,
• speed of delivery at key moments,
• lengthening of vowel and consonants sounds for effect.

4 If the learners are interested in the lexis, there are a number of items I’ve drawn the their attention to: pick up, scrape off, knock off, sweep up, suck upaaaikk,; lift out of, brush away; wash away, scoop up and  peel off.

5 They then act out these actions to aid memory. Their peers can guess which ones they are miming. They can also give each other instructions

6 They can practice various structures, for example:

• say what (s)he’s just done,
• just did,
• is going to do,
• is doing,
• is trying to do,
• is fed up with doing,
• managed to
• etc.

7 Then, in their own words, students tell the story from the cleaner’s point of view. Think about:

• where you are,
• who you’re telling the story to
• why are you telling the story
• etc..

If you like, use the poem as a prompt.

 

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