All posts in Josie Levin

“But the scar is still there” Diagramming Poetry

This week, students leaned about another visual poetic form, diagram poems! We discussed there crossover between poetry and diagrams, how we can represent metaphors and allusions in this combined form, and how to integrate […]

“Pero no se alarmen / que ese polvo de estrellas / cáe en las personas / buenas de este / Tierra” (“Don’t be alarmed / that star dust / falls on the good people / of this Earth”)

How do you fix things? How do you know what needs fixing? This week Waters 6th and 7th graders discussed the poem “What is handed down” by Ada Límon and what it means to […]

Exquisite Corpse “the dark slapstick”

This week 6th and 7th graders worked together to create exquisite corpse poems. Each student responded to a prompt “What animal scares you the most?” and passed their papers to the next student to […]

“power already in my bones” Corrupting the Sonnet

This week in class we read “My earliest memory is telling myself stories without” by Diane Seuss and expanded on some of the history of poetic forms we started with odes. We discussed how […]

“How can you tell a name is yours? / You hold it tight”

This week in class we read “Everyone who happens to live where” by Kimberly Alidio. We talked about our names, what they meant in the past and what they might mean in the future. […]

“Lemon/Lime by itself” Odes to the Unusual

This week we read “Ode to my socks” by Pablo Neruda. Students thought about the things they love and were challenged to write an ode to the most unusual. The below poems are a […]

Erasure Poems

This week we took a look at some examples of erasure poetry. Students saw many different forms, using the page they were given for their own poems to make a variety of poems with […]

Poems (with footnotes)

This week Water’s 6th and 7th graders in Ms. Smallwood and Ms. Hernandez’ classes read “Thank you Letter (with footnotes)” by John Grandits. In class we discussed creating double meanings in our writing and […]

Comic Poems!

This week in Ms. Smallwood and Ms. Hernandez’s classes we read an excerpt from Cartoon Dialectics by Tom Kaczynskki and discussed how something can both be a comic and a poem. We came up […]

Poems after Paintings

This week students dipped their toes into art criticism. We read “Untitled #9, 1981” by Victoria Chang, after the Painting by Agnes Martin of the same name. We discussed how Chang’s poem described the […]

Donate

Support our student poets today!

CONNECT WITH US!

Twitter Facebook-f Instagram

STUDENT POETRY

Click on a school name below to browse student poems from current school partners.

POETRY ARCHIVE

Click on a school name below to browse student poems from our archive.

RECENT FACEBOOK POSTS

TESTIMONIALS

“Writing poetry makes me feel like I can see myself, like I can see my reflection, but not in a mirror, in the world. I write and I know I can be reflected.”
-Oscar S.

“Writing poetry makes me feel free.”
-Buenda D.

“Writing poetry is like your best friend.”
-Jessica M.

Search

CONTACT US

General Inquiries
info@poetrycenter.org

Programs (School & Organizational)
programs@poetrycenter.org

Reading Series and Events:
curator@poetrycenter.org

The Chicago Poetry Center is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
FEIN: 23-7400515

SEND US A POSTCARD

Chicago Poetry Center
1448 E. 52nd St, #256
Chicago, IL 60615

I’M FROM THE CITY LIGHTS / STREAMING OUT IN THE NIGHT / AND HUGE SKYSCRAPERS / TOWERING OVER THE LAKE – MELISSA E., 7TH GRADE POET