During my senior year of high school, our brand new poetry slam team watched Mike Taylor’s Thinking About You from the Brave New Voices Poetry Festival. Until recently, I’d only seen poetry slam used as a jazz-adjacent emotional trope in movies and shows. In the fall, I had gone to a slam that my dear friend was competing in, and for the first time, I saw narratives that were familiar to me being told by people like me – and I was hooked!
Thinking About You is a lighthearted love letter that shows a fun, jovial side to an art form that we commonly associate with trauma. I like to show it in class to open up our ideas of what a poem can be — that, and it still makes me smile 10 years later with its cheesy wordplay and exciting choreography! We dissected metaphor & simile, then used that lesson to write poems about what we’re thinking about. Check out some of the poems from Lesson 2 with George Washington Elementary:
Room 301
Her eyes are beautiful
Amya T.
Her eyes are beautiful
Like a galaxy in one setting,
Like a ocean in a barrier,
Like a glance of heaven.
They reminded me mom a work of art,
Painted with the finest brush,
Colored with the most vibrant paints.
Like seeing a meteor shower light up the sky,
Like being able to see 10 million fire flies…
¨Whisper¨ they say
Ariel P.
sometimes your life is like a whisper
They say to climb that mountain and never look back
But sometimes they say to forgive and forget
So which is it
do we forget all the bad times and focus on the good
Or do we begin to realize that you’ll always be misunderstood
I was always told if you don’t have nothing nice to say
don’t say it at all
But now i’m sitting here alone with no one to call
You have to realize no one will ever be happy for your success
Unless they’re already ¨THE BEST¨
I am like a feather on air
With nowhere to fall…
Screaming for someone to save me
But all I see is a empty hall
Cats
Christopher N.
Cats can be dangerous like a mini tiger
They’re claw can be as sharp as a knife
They can be loveable like a friend or family member
Or you hate them sometimes as much as an enemy or foe
Cats can be as fast a speeding car
And maybe as tired and lazy as a human
Room 305
SKATE OR DIE
David G.
I skate until i give up
But i never give up
I skate until i die
People asking why
Skateboarding is my heart
You’re never taking that apart
I smile when i skate
Us skaters don’t hate
I’m not amazing but i still skate
Because i believe i can be great
Skate or die
My Mind
Aidan A.
What’s usually on my mind is shoes
Specifically jordan and nike shoes
I like to save up money to buy them to
I spend all my money on shoes that’s what i do
I keep my shoes clean
And try not to make my shoes crease
I Wanna Discover the World
Orlando C.
I wanna discover the world
With family friends and more
I wanna see California, Texas,
Orlando, Florida, I wanna discover
New things in new places
I wanna get things
and find things I’ve never seen
before.
I wanna discover the world.
Room 303
Music, My Second Family
Cameron S.
Music is as lovely as my mom.
It is my second family
Music are waves washing up on shore
As important to me like how a spider needs its web
Music loves me just like how I love it
I’m in love just like a romance movie.
Music is loud but shy.
It and me are best friends.
Home
Alexander W.
We drive back,
passing many houses,
Trees scattered everywhere,
we make it to our block,
Very familiar,
the road seemed like a maze –
i’ve done many times.
Until we see it,
bushes that resemble cotton balls,
The bricks seem like crates –
they hold every good memory,
The plants seem like people inviting us in.
I’m home.
Summer
Kalib U.
Summer is coming soon!
I can not wait for the sunny days, the beach, the barbecues
I’ll hangout with my friends, playing outside, in the blue sky
I’ll play games til I die!
Goodbye all the math, reading, science, Now I can have fun!
Summer, I can’t wait for the time it comes.
