Students read Peggy Trojan’s deceptively simple poem, Noon Hour, We talked about the two-word title, the two stanza poem, short lines, putting big ideas into small containers, empathy, marginalized characters, and the one period at the end of the work. Students then crafted their own short time-of-day poems. Peggy Trojan is a retired teacher who published her first poem at the age of 77. She is the author of several poetry collections, including the self-published All That Matters: Collected Poems 2010-2018 and Essence (Portage Press, 2015). She lives in Wisconsin.
LESSON NOTE: ‘Poetry with its intimate focus on everyday moments in time, is an ideal medium for uncovering the grace that is always available to us, especially when we choose to take care of each other in whatever ways we can.’ –Healing The Divide: Poems of Kindness & Connection. Ed. by James Crews.
Ms. Ruan, 7th and 8th Grades
2:45 pm Friday
by Freuddy C.
Students lined up
for dismissal
Having their phones out
Calling their parents
Hearing students talking
Yelling outside
And saying what are you
Gonna in the weekend
Smelling fresh air
And playing in the snow
With friends in
The playgroup
One thing different
AT this time
You can hear
students
20:46 pm
by
Yongqi L.
After parting, they and I went our separate ways
On the road in the small countryside
Village under the moonlight
Like a well
You threw in a rock and there was no sound
I sat in the courtyard
Serene drinking Chinese tea
I love its sense of serenity
The Breeze Gently Brushed my cheeks
I tell the wind today‘s story
Ms. Wright, 8th Grade
3:30 pm
by
Ying Qi W.
Staying in bed
Inside my blankets
And laying on the soft pillow below me
Scrolling through my phone
Watching Youtube shorts
And feeling more lazy as the time goes by
Hearing the sounds of me tapping my phone
And the small creaks
From the bed below me
As I turn around to find the perfect spot.
My morning
by
Jiawei L.
Morning day to start
Quiet as ever
Not everybody is awake
I have the time to myself
Sun at its brightest
Birds chirping the day
While eating my breakfast
Getting on the internet
Seeing what is trending
After the quick update
I go on my day like
Nobodies business
As usual
Ms. Wright, 8th Grade
Night
by
Baiyan C.
We were all playing games
Talking about strategies
The loot we got
The amount of money we had in game
At night
with no sun in sight
The sound of my laptop fan
My keyboard being pressed
And the sound effects from the game
Being muffled by our constant talking
Light Is For The Living
by
Harmoni P.
Light isn’t what is comfortable not even what I like
Is it because I know that someone is not alright?
For too long I’ve been so stupid, I can’t seem to find
The thing that’s in the dark or maybe it’s my mind instead
Living is easy when you’re not dead
I enjoy the thought of being invisible
Think no ones gonna know
Everyone’s nothing like what they said
Faking what they know is never real
Happiness was never a part of the deal
