For their 3rd week of poetry this past Monday, students from Group D of the O-School discussed what it means to celebrate. Celebrations are not just for holidays or birthdays, but can involve showing love to people, animals, or objects in life, those who have been overlooked or taken for granted.
Together we read the poem “Ode to my Shoes,” by Francisco X. Alarcón. In his poem, Alarcon uses personification, giving his shoes human-like qualities to express how extraordinary they are. Tired/they stretch and loosen their laces/ wide open they fall asleep and dream of walking/ they revisit the places they went to during the day. Alarcon reveals how important shoes are, they help us travel and imagine new worlds to explore.
Inspired by Francisco X. Alarcón, students wrote poems celebrating real and imaginary things that they enjoy and are inspired by.
Group D (Elementary) Students
My Bear
My bear looks like a polar bear.
He’s kind of yellowish because he is
my mother’s bear from college.
But he is mine now!
He talks like he is human, but he doesn’t talk
until I’m sleeping! He moves around
and is also a secret agent.
Chucky
He talks, he walks
Has red hair
White socks
Red shoes
He has overalls, blue eyes
and has a Good Guys Logo
and a striped shirt.
Alyssa and Her Bear Friends
Grape
Banana
Watermelon
Blueberry
My bear markers sleep in my purple pencil case.
They make me happy; we became friends in September.
They play who can stake up faster:
Blue
Purple.
Pink
Yellow
sometimes the order switches.
Watermelon is my favorite.
My markers don’t get jealous.
Banana gets lost sometimes
and the tip is smooshie like
a paint brush.
Yuji
Back one thousand years ago there was a curse
that killed a lot of people and was super powerful.
It lived for too long, and it died.
Before it died, it killed its cousin.
There was a human, that turned into a curse,
that turned into a finger, its cousin got reincarnated,
had a baby, that is the main character.
The baby’s name is Yuji.
A man could take out his brain and put
it in other people’s heads.
He swapped his brain with the baby’s mom.
Yuji fought other curses.
When the little baby was a teenager,
he ate a cursed finger–which was his uncle
and the uncle didn’t know it was his nephew.
The uncle was indigestible. He stayed
with him as he grew.
Megame–Yuji’s friend died.
And somehow the finger gets swapped.
The curse was then reincarnated in
Megame.
Yuji fought his brother that he didn’t
know was his brother.
And almost killed him.
