As we continue distance learning, students at Taft Freshman Academy continue to generate beautiful poems! This week’s poems are inspired by Robert Frost’s Choose Something Like A Star. In a slightly different approach, students were invited to use words from the following list to add to their celestial poems:
Smoke
Angels
Mirror
Regret
Moonless
Pleasure
Rose
Glittering
Face
Oblivion
Breaking
Smolder
“We are chemically connected to all molecules on Earth,” says astrophysicist, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, ” And we are atomically connected to all atoms in the universe. We are not figuratively, but literally stardust.”
Lesson Note: ‘In a time of crisis, poetry can help focus our fears and transform ‘noise into music’ … In effect, poetry “aims in every possible way to reaffirm the world that we actually inhabit, in all its vital, messy, beautiful, tragic reality. Mar 10, 2020, The Washington Post.
Ms. Taylor, 8th Grade
Period One
Untitled
by Evelyn B.
Glittering star
Your lavender-colored smoke
Intoxicates me
Your rose-colored halo
Is full of regret
Circling around you
Feeding into your desires
Consuming you
Filling you with pleasure
Questions for the stars
by Lilah R.
Look in the mirror tell me do you think you’re life is in danger
In order to survive, gotta learn to live with live regrets
The memories smolder and the soul always yearns
I would like a place I could call my own
I will pray to God and the angels
Don’t go breaking my heart
Ms. Taylor, 9th Grade
Period Two
Uranus, you poor thing
By: Angelina A.
Uranus, Have people only ever saw you as a joke?
I don’t think you are cause I see you as a pretty glittering face.
Is there any other planet that has similar feelings like you?
I think pluto might because people bully them for not being a planet.
Does the coldness of the universe ever bother you or does it help ease the pain?
I don’t think i would like the coldness of the universe unless i had a sweater.
You can’t run or hide so how do you hold all your tears back?
I think if i were in your shoes, i would slowly start breaking down.
Since you are bullied, do you ever bully the other planets?
I don’t think making others will solve anything.
Is it the name that makes you feel this way?
I think people who make fun of your name are very disrespectful.
Oh Uranus, you poor thing…
BEAUTIFUL STARS
By Joseph K.
Stars are like angels in the sky
in the moonless night
Like a rose blooming they are glittering
showing us their beauty
When there is smoke we
can not see the pleasure they bring to the world.
Ms. Taylor, 8th Grade
Period Four
Untitled
By Andrew M.
O star you bright being
Please grace me with your knowledge
There are things that I want to know
And their answers lie deep in the depths of the galaxy
What great throes have the universe put you through?
What are your pleasures, your pains?
What regrets lie deep in your glittering visage?
You have graced us with your light for so long
When will your resolve falter?
When will it be just too much for even a great being such as yourself and you will have but no alternative other than to collapse into a great inferno
Which will plunge your children into oblivion?
When will the human race have to face the miserable truth that life is not eternal and all good things come to an end?
Untitled
By Elias R.
Saturn you are beautiful to look at,
Tell me how did you get your ring? It moves about you like a hula hoop.
Your face looks ageless, how old are you?
As you give a look of smolder watching us down on Earth
Catching all items that move around you, is there regret in the items that you let go
You are not moonless as you have more moons than one can count on one hand
It is black as smoke in your view I would assume not as the stars light up your skies
But maybe only the stars will know
By Mary L.
Those stars must know much more than us.
Humans aren’t the only living creatures out there.
But maybe the stars will only know.
Creating stars could’ve been really difficult.
But maybe the stars will only know.
The stars are actually really close together.
But maybe only the stars will know.
They could just be yellow rocks.
But maybe only the stars will know.
The stars could be the size of an ant or a spaceship.
But maybe only the stars will know.
Stars actually don’t like astronauts coming into their territory.
But maybe only the stars will know.
The stars switch places every once in a while.
But maybe only the stars will know.
The stars are actually blue and green.
But maybe only the stars will know.
Stars don’t like us.
But maybe only the stars will know.
They think we are all over the place right now.
But maybe only the stars will know.
Ms. Taylor, 8th Grade
Period Six
Floating Sand
By Nathan S.
Oh Universe, How do you see us?
We’re just specks of sand on the shores of your ocean
You’ve watched us grow and be grown
What do we serve to you?
Some suppose we have a purpose
Others do not
Some refuse to believe you exist
Others believe that someone else is taking over for you
What language are we to speak to understand your knowledge?
Why make us if you just cast us aside into the depths of your ocean
We will sink lower to the point of no sunlight than rise to the surface
We’ll float among you until we can no longer be floating.
Dear Planets of the Universe
By Michelle B.
Do you ever try to count the stars?
Each one mirroring the next
Bright flaming balls of smoke
there to give us light
As we rotate through the solar system
We can’t help but wonder
What other life forms might exist?
Angels perhaps or new familiar faces
living among us in mystery
As we try not to regret every
Glimmering day the universe chooses
To gift us.`
Ms. Taylor, 9th Grade
Period Seven
Oh Universe
By Mason F.
Oh Universe, where do you end
Breaking away, into the unknown
We are so oblivion, so much
To discover, so little time
When will we go, Earth isn’t immortal
We use to be
Moonless, until you helped
The glittering stars,
Gazing down at night
Fading away during the day
Oh Universe, so smokey
So dark
Filled with such strange
Things
Oh Universe, where do you end
When does everything stop
Oh Universe
Your the only thing that knows
How old are you
How do you make things?
Oh Universe
You’re a mystery
To be soon discovered
Untitled
by Melanie R.
O stars
Do you get lonely do you feel regret do you have a face that’s as beautiful as a rose do you always look the same color don’t you ever wonder if there are others like you do you look at the earth and look down at us with a smile do you ever get lonely or are you surrounded by stars?
