Students participated in a 10- minute creative writing meditation and breathing exercise. I read them I Close My Eyes by David Ignatow. After the meditation, they were asked to write whatever came to mind. Classwork was conducted in silence. Daydreaming and even boredom were encouraged! Most poems will be presented without titles.
Lesson Note: “Boredom heightens daydreaming because moments of boredom resemble sleep. Each inhale and exhale becomes part of the experience. When the mind finds itself in an interlude of rest, synapses connect in different ways, and new thoughts are formed. The listener creates his or her own harmony in the space, just as our minds [might] fill boredom with a story or observation or memories-to escape the boredom. Mysteries abound in the time we’re not ‘entertained.’ “–Pep Talks for Writers by Grant Faulkner: Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month.
Ms. Taylor, 8th Grade
1st Period
Ania M.
Breathing, my chest rises and falls
like a sun on a horizon
Beating my heart sending a
quiet thump through my body
A wave of my body sitting
in a chair feet on floor
hands on knees
My mind, suddenly vanishes
my thoughts are nonexistent
a slight glow speeding through my body
Alen S.
Free
Free can mean a lot of things.
Like the free coupons a store may hand out
Or a caged zoo animal being released
Fee is a variety of things.
Come home from school on Friday is free.
Going to you ‘happy place’ is free.
You get what I’m trying to say here.
Free: a flexible adjective that can describe a lot
of things. When you’re Free, you are calm. Happy.
End.
Elizabeth P.
Eyes closed. Tick tick, tick, tick.
My feet find the tempo of the clock
While my breathing has a different beat.
Every breath moves my body, bops my head-forward, back, forward, back.
My spine moves like a gentle wave but constantly.
Every second there’s a new beat.
Unconsciously enjoying the peaceful music as if I was the one
Playing the high notes on stage.
My eyes close again so my ears can open to the sounds.
Tick, tick, tick, sniffle, slam!
Eyes closed. Wait. Now, open.
Jennifer U.
Quietness will make me
feel better
as if rearranging
my stuff as well
as making me
feel better
Ms. Taylor, 8th Grade
2nd Period
Michael T.
I’m surrounded by positive energy
Yet, happiness eludes me
What is the true meaning of happy?
Is it when you get something you really wanted?
Or when you fall in love?
No Happiness is something we strive to be
although most of us will never truly be happy
but that’s okay. We get closer to it every day.
Being happy shouldn’t be a requirement, a way you’re supposed to feel
If you force happiness it isn’t real.
Abigail R.
I don’t understand meditation.
I never did.
I’ve been told I have a short attention span.
So meditation is not for me.
During the time I couldn’t really pay attention to that british guy.
I probably fell asleep for a couple minutes.
I couldn’t really tell what was going on and what he was saying.
So meditation is not for me.
To be honest, I don’t understand the point of this. All of this
How can meditation help poetry?
After this, I have learned that meditation make me sleepy
So meditation is not for me.
Joshua M.
I was sailing in a small fishing boat. I found myself
adrift. The vastness of a
giant sea. Suddenly, a bird swooped
down from the heavens and appeared before
me. An Aabatross. He opened his
mouth to reveal a great, long fish that
he’d caught. I thanked the bird for
its gift and then it flew away.
Soft and sweet, was the albatross
Soft and sweet
Ms. Taylor, 8th Grade
3rd Period
Giovanni T.
When you calm life seems slower
Calmness is something good for the mind in soul
Sometimes people get overstressed
Some people cant handle life that way
So in times of stress it’s good
Relaxation is something we all deserve
5:00am
Elyze S.
Your voice reaches out to me
and wraps around my mind,
like the way your arms wrap around my figure
tight and secure
taking in the shape of my body.
Je suis contente.
Smooth like marble,
soft like velvet
is the best description
of your voice et tu levres.
It’s 5am and this is
all I can think about
waiting for sleep to yank
me away from your embrace.
Ms. Taylor, 8th Grade
6th Period
Joseph S.
I have no ideas
So I am going to write random things
and call it abstract
or I can call it a collection of thought
which is what all poems really are
Just thoughts put on paper
they are made to be overthought
for their supposed underlying meaning
and that is what this is just some short thing
that I will call a poem
Tyler H.
Silence
What is silence
Some of have it, some don’t
Very few want it as I do
Silence is a gift
Silence
Silence
The world wants what it cant have
Silence
Maurissa W.
I run. Run so fast
to my toes feel the spikey grass
I come to a mid stop
and all of a sudden my heart drops
there, he stands
In the full meadow land
His eyes and hair show brown
As we begin to fall down
We talk talk talk
The dirt has a feel of something like chalk
We look at the smooth blue sky
And we begin to just cry
Harrison K.
You are half asleep under a desk when you see James
doing
‘OK’
with his hand.
Ms. Taylor, 8th Grade
7th Period
Light?
Josh V.
If light is here
And not there
then it is everywhere
It may be
we don’t know
we may never know
what is light
What is not
light is everything
It is all around us
its here and not there
It may be everywhere
Aiden M.
Calm, calm, calm
words have meaning
and yet at the same time,
they don’t.
Words are nothing without meaning
and meanings are nothing without words
Where is the beginning?
Where is the end?
But deep down
Words are just words
that’s all they’ll ever be.
