In this article, the author relates the effectiveness of using poetry in his classroom. He relates how students who initially thought poetry as "sappy" have somehow changed their perceptions as they begin to learn more about it. Through various poems, these students came to see how poetry can be a catalyst for a provocative inquiry question such as, "What does it mean to be American?" They also learned how poetry could help them communicate important ideas to others, such as the linguistic limits of using "Black" and "White" to describe groups of people. (Contains 1 figure.)