All posts in Poems

Chicago Born and Raised

This week Hyde Park’s poetry club read “Where I’m From” by Willie Perdomo, a poem about the people, lessons, and experiences that define our “origins.” Enjoy these poems by two Chicagoans about the push […]

Poetry as Play

Today in Ms. Reed’s 3rd grade, we talked about play and surprise. We talked about how poetry can give us tools to express some of our deepest emotions and thoughts, while also giving us a […]

Inside Out Emotions

This Tuesday for our 7th poetry session at the O-School we embraced our emotions. As a warmup activity students played saw scenes from the movie “Inside Out 2,” the main character Riley is going […]

A picture is worth infinite words

Beautiful magic can be made when words and images collide. For that reason, Waters 7th graders dove into the world of Ekphrastic Poetry. Ekphrastic poems are written in response to an image, often a […]

A picture is worth ______ words…

Beautiful magic can be made when words and images collide. For that reason, Waters 6th graders dove into the world of Ekphrastic Poetry. Ekphrastic poems are written in response to an image, often a […]

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 […]

Lying About

James Tate’s poem, “Untitled” begins, “I sat at my desk and contemplated all that I had accomplished / this year.” The speaker then runs through a litany of ‘accomplishments’ growing more and more nutty, […]

In my heaven…

At Henry Elementary Week 2, we learned about lines, line breaks, and stanzas! We watched and read a poem by José Olivarez titled “Mexican Heaven.” Students then created their own poem of heaven or […]

Where Are We From?

Last Saturday two bold poets represented Lawndale’s 6th and 8th-grade poets at the Poetry Center’s All School Reading. In another turn of events, the 8th grade class became two sections of poets, instead of […]

‘I remember now. Aha!’: James Tate Imitations.

Students read James Tate’s poem, ‘Untitled,’ where the speaker embellishes their accomplishments…just a little. Lesson Note: “I love my funny poems, but I’d rather break your heart. And if I can do both in […]

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