Piecing Together Poetry
Sixth graders wrote original poems as part of their Piecing Together Poetry project and then shared them in an “open mic” format in their classroom, which was transformed for the event into a “coffee house.” Students took turns reading their poems aloud to their classmates. Their poems are about themselves, their neighborhoods, and other things that were meaningful to them. We are pleased to share some of their poems with you.
“Trees”
by Marcuss Duran
I see the trees, dancing with the wind, and swaying with life, with its vibrant green leafy hear, shaking to the beat of the weather.
I see the leaves, turn brown, red, and orange, fall to the ground, swaying side to side, and landing without a sound, leaving the tree bald, and mature.
I see the snow, coming to take the leaves’ place, giving it snowy white hair, aged and wise.
I see the ax, coming to execute the tree, chopping violently, and noisy.
The stump acts as its gravestone, as if saying, “A Tree Was Here.”
"Imagination"
by Ennis Wilson
A wisp of a cloud.
A piece of a star.
Imagination determines
Who you really are.
It is a place
Where you can be you.
Where the sky goes infinite.
Where the earth is true.
Imagination has
Millions of possibilities.
Where you are the king
And play with the breeze.
You are in charge
Of this universe of you.
It is a place where
All dreams come true.
“A Shadow in the Night Sky”
by George A. Martin
Floating, soaring, gliding,
Zooming like a speeding bullet.
Bony wings like skeleton’s hands,
And ears twice the size of its head.
It goes lower and lower and lower,
Looking for a place to rest.
A woman walks by, looking at the sky.
When it draws near, she shrieks and shrieks,
It shrieks too, but in a strange, strange way.
“What is wrong?” it thinks to itself.
“Was it something that I said?”
It decides to go to a wood,
And it takes a soothing nap there.
It finds a nice, sturdy branch,
And it hangs upside-down.
It drifts to sleep,
The sun rising in the east.
“El.Salvador”
by Johanna Ayala
Oh cuanto amo El.Salvador,
It’s so beautiful and charming, to live in El.Salvador.
Los cavallas corendo en la calle.
The house is so huge with a bunch of storm petrels
flying in the air. My uncles and cousins buying popusas
for la familia while my abuela is in her chair rocking
back and forth.
Oh cuantos los amo.
(Cavallos corendo en la calle = horses running in the street, Cuantos los amo = how much I love them.)
“I wanna…”
by Derek Herbert
I wanna run like a speeding bullet
I wanna fly like the eagles and
I wanna touch the broad and beautiful sky
I wanna leave the ground in a sweet and silent sound
I wanna never be found.
But I’ll be in the colossal midnight sky and
All the ancient places
On this mammoth world I wanna be there in a swift wind
Or do I wanna dive a very steep dive
Into the crystal blue sea and just float finely as if I was a sailboat.
But I see a precious thing.
What is that thing? I don’t know. I swim faster than ever
And I see it. It’s hope, it’s a dream waiting for it to be read
In a bottle of hope.
