Some adult learners and teachers have negative memories of their previous encounters with poetry because too much emphasis was placed on the poem's "intent" or dissecting poems to determine their rhyme schemes. However, poetry can be an effective complement to instruction in adult literacy classrooms and can serve as an effective instructional tool for both reading and writing. Because the readability of individual poems ranges from very easy to more complex, instructors can plan whole group instruction using poetry even when learners' reading levels vary. Whether students read poems independently or the instructor reads poems aloud while students follow along with their own copies, poems provide valuable materials for comprehension lessons. Poems can be useful resources for helping beginning readers develop fluency and phonics knowledge. Literacy learners can also write poetry with appropriate scaffolds and support from their teacher. Writing a class poem is another good introductory lesson. Copy change (which entails students using another author's framework to create their own writing) and form poems are effective poetry-writing exercises. To assess students' use of poetry for reading or writing, literacy instructors must first consider their instructional goals. By combining their own assessments with students' self-assessments, instructors can determine whether students are achieving program goals. (MN)