Today is Poem in your Pocket day…and I wasn’t in the classroom with my students today! But, they were all prepared.  Yesterday they picked one of their own poems (they had quite a selection since they’ve been writing a poem a day since April began), revised it, and copied it on a piece of paper to put in their pocket today.  And lucky for me, my teaching partner encouraged students to share their poems…both in the classroom and beyond.

I did collect a few poems yesterday so I would have some to share with you today.  Alice wrote a poem about a crummy old nail…maybe inspired by some of the ordinary poems I’ve written and shared.

Crummy Old Nail

Crummy old nail

served many

purposes

Crummy old nail

dented and

bent

Crummy old nail

proud and

historic

Crummy old nail

brave and

cautious

Crummy old nail

old with

wisdom

upon a

shipwrecked mast,

red

like a

cherry covered

in

rust.

Her brother, Luca, also played around with the ordinary–using the still life structure we explored the other day.

Stool: Still Life

That small stool

standing in the corner,

sulking throughout the day.

It’s surprising when someone

comes his way.

He stops sulking and stands up straight

and if he is lucky,

they sit.

When they leave

he straightens up

and waits for others.

When the sun sets,

he stoops and sits

and lets sleep overpower him.

Snoooooooooooooooore!

I’m not sure what inspired Caleb’s poem…he wrote it on the still life day after he tried a still life poem.

Rocket

Getting ready for launch

fueling the tank

cold on the outside

warm on the inside

a big heart driving

not a robot!

5…4…3…2…1…blast off

you jump into the sky

like you’re on a trampoline

from day to night

in a single flight

in the starry sky

time to attend to dreams

And I’m still fooling around with paint chip poetry.  I pulled out some in the orange/yellow family today: fresh squeezed, chamomile tea, and yellow brick road.  Here’s today’s attempt:

Oz

I follow the yellow brick road

or in my case

the sandy sidewalk

that leads to the Oz I treasure

Blue skies and blue seas

are a canvas

for the fresh squeezed

dabs

dancing in the breeze

I breathe in and exhale

salt air and wildflowers mix to conjure

the soothing comfort

of chamomile tea

I feel it pulse through my veins

Aaaahhhhh!

©Douillard