This past Monday the O-School’s Group C students dabbled in magic, potions, and spells. A poem is similar to a spell, each poem is unique, using powerful words and images. I asked students to imagine potions for real or fantastical things, such as potions for good grades, courage, or superpowers.
The lesson for this week was inspired by the wonderful poet-in-residence Timothy Rey. We read one of his former student’s poems, “To Be Invisible,” by Kristen S. an 8th grader from Washington Elementary. In her poem Kristen uses sensory details to create a potion for invisibility, adding unique ingredients such as, drops of rain, the scent of lavender, and flowers near a river. But there was an interesting side effect to the spell, the potion itself began to disappear!
Inspired by Kristen S. students used their pens and pencils as magic wands to conjured up their own special potions and spells.
Group C (7th & 8th) Students
Control
Sitting alone, you think, you dream.
You imagine, you —but you’ve won.
What you won?
Doesn’t matter, you’re proud.
You breathe, your chest falls
and rises, its calming.
You feel your body gently
hugging.
You feel… you.
This is your body.
You inhale,
you smell new, cleaner.
You have a new taste
on your tongue,
its sweet.
Leprechaun Potion
To be a leprechaun, you need a few things.
To become a leprechaun, you can see a short man,
hear running, able to touch a poet of gold,
smell an Irish spring and taste a shamrock.
A side effect of being a leprechaun is being
short, or harassed for your pot of gold.
Everyone looks like a giant to you,
you always where the color green.
My potion for Laughter.
Ingredients:
Cartoons
Jokes
The hard ground
Air
Cheese
You’re reminded of funny moments,
and jokes you have witnessed.
You might not be able to stop
laughing.
Potion For Success
To be successful, you need to see into the
future and not look back.
You need to add a drop of the words
of affirmation and fame.
You need to reach forward and feel
your goals as a tangible object.
To smell the exclusive perfume of
musk, vanilla, saffron, and gardenia
that you would’ve never been able
to afford.
The taste of caviar as it burst in
your mouth with a fishy aroma.
This is the idea of success shared,
if you do this, this will happen.
A mix of ingredients to reach a
specific goal, but there are
infinite recipes.
Maybe you need to feel the hug
of your loved ones.
Hear you are loved.
Look back at your mistakes,
smell an old dress given to you
by your grandma,
taste a homecooked meal,
and BE happy with what
you have.
That . . . is Success.
To Be a Boy
to feel the water on my bare chest at the beach.
without the elastic of my binder on my ribs.
to hear a deep voice, a boy’s voice, louder
than my light, quiet squeaky girl voice.
to taste my food without feeling insecure about
my stomach.
to smell perfume without feeling too feminine,
Do I smell like a boy? Do I talk like a boy?
to look in the mirror and see a boy.
Reincarnation Poem
Throw in a piece of your favorite food.
Throw in a picture of yourself too.
Smell the death and rot enroaching.
Taste the bugs you are forced to eat.
Hear your regrets as you’re made into a stew with beets.
Feel the slime of your new body, why, why would you take the potion.
Nimrod (Immortality Potion)
As I fear my own life coming to a close,
I look for answers.
I find my black leather tome, and it
all my needs, never wanders.
The thing I need can make and
put into a bottle.
I shall start right now, and I will go
full throttle.
It takes a shell, pretty as Venus,
from the crimson beaches and a
letter full of emotion.
The soft fur of a baby kitten,
and water from a pond full of blossoms.
A hint of vanilla and mix it up to finish
the entire potion.
It sparkles and sheens,
shimmers and gleams,
and the ones who drink it,
you will soon see…
that once you achieve
immortality you will lose
everything you care for.
So tragic as it maybe,
the most important thing
is one’s own immortality.
