In our second week, Washington Elementary and I took some time to make connections. The changing of autumn into winter is something that poets have pined over for centuries, and surely our minds are trying to journey elsewhere on these cold Midwestern mornings, so I wanted to center metaphor and scene building to start cracking into poetry. This week, I brought in Mike Taylor’s simile-smothered “Thinking About You,” which was one of the first performances I watched when I got into the poetry slam scene my high school senior year:
Most students were bogged down by an impending big end-of-marking period assignments which made writing a bit tough. Before poetry is anything else, I think it is a means of processing. Much of the writing this week had to do with thinking about projects, tests, high school placements, futures, success, and more, but parts of life outside of school still came through.
Here’s some of the Week 2 writing from Ms. Nazimek’s classroom:
Group 2
Yazmin J.
I’m Thinking About Poems
Poems remind me of books or songs.
School, my reading teachers, and any random song make me think about poems.
I see poems as ways people can write out their songs.
Some people make their poems from random thoughts.
Others make them rhyme.
You can write poems when and however you choose.
Even if when you’re writing them you don’t have shoes.
Some poems make sense.
Some are just made up of random words that don’t make sense.
Like how Doctor Seuss had some books that are immense.
So remember that you can write your own poem now.
Because… why not…
Now I have one last thing to say…
I am still thinking about poems.
Anita E.
I’m Thinking About Leaving School.
Taking a nap.
Going out without my friends,
Without having anything to do with school.
No parent supervision,
being a teen,
going out,
being free for once
In my entire life.
Alexandra C.
I’m Thinking About Someone Special
They’re like a piece of gum I can’t get off my shoe.
A catchy song I can’t get out of my head.
They remind me of a new kid at a new school
Or a little kid at Disney World.
I’m thinking about video games
How it gets my heart pounding
How it makes me mad when I lose
It’s like an escape from the world, you don’t need to think
About anything but how to beat this game.
Group 3
Zelda R.
The Mirror
You looked at yourself in the mirror
and you asked your self questions
I’ve been thinking about you
The girl in the mirror
This girl
So simple yet so complicated
Her mind is clear, then flooded with
Hundreds of thoughts
Her body is perfect but she treats it like
a book’s cover
She judges it.
She tells herself that she’s like a
Penny
worthless.
She acts like she’s a pigeon surrounded
by peacocks
Like a sunflower surrounded by roses
The odd one out
Even if her friends tell her that she’s as perfect
as a rose
She only shakes her head
Over the years, this rose… slowly withered, her sorrow
became clearer
So please help save
the girl in the mirror
Group 1
Johana G.
I’ve Been Thinking About Volleyball
I think abut all that balls that be hit over the net and the kneepads,
The signs being hung up around the school, people talking about it,
One of the coaches expecting me to do good.
All the people hitting the floor. Dislocating their knees
from a spike.
All the scars being left.
The burns from the floor and how you have to shake it off as
if it doesn’t hurt ot happened.
The ball being called out from a serve.
Your coach looking as if they’re about to bench you.
People saying how easy it is,
The nose you hear when people hit the ball.
All the stress you get when you’re losing.
The bench…
the most hated part.
Sitting on the bench stressed as if it was school.
The 10 mins you get to change into your jersey and
shorts.
All the push-ups you do as if it was P.E.,
The net is the most hated when it comes to tipping the ball.
Your knee pads falling and your knees hit the floor.
The notepad being used to track your mistakes.
Lesley R.
Me Without You
Me without you is like car without toon’s
Ghost without saying Boo
Biker without tattoo
Sky without blue
Blue without clue
Detective without a clue
Humans without food
Feet without shoes
Refrigerators without being cool
Kids without school
