Found poems - finding new meaning in words

We discussed the idea of a palimpsest - of writing over words, reusing text to find new meanings. Students spent ten minutes on a free write about their school and their school day. Then I asked them to use the text they had written, and only that text, to create a new poem - either a poem on anger, love or an equally strong emotion, or a poem about a strong memory.


7th grade - room 309

Jair O.
Cold

Cold killing
off everything.
Nothing but
cold. Icy
chilliness filling
in all
the space
kill grass.


Jesus U.
Love poem

My inside
is cold
I don't
feel good
you left
and I
don't laugh
I've changed

Efrain S.

Feeling happy
a lot
of leaves
look trashy
in the
morning

Estephanie B.
Memory

And yeah.
It was
brown, cold
lonely, and
full at
the same
time, it
was grass.

Glenda C.
Love poem

You made
me run
to a
freezing alley
yelling nasty
blocking the
sidewalk to
happy hearts

Metaphors

We read Sylvia Plath's wonderful riddle of a poem, "Metaphors" after which students wrote exploring aspects of their appearance through metaphoe

8th Grade - Room 303

Diana P.

I'm a riddle in six metaphors
My hair is a puffy coat, a dress
My hair is a wavy plant
My forehead is a pink polka-a-dot dress
My eyes are a honey river with cinnamon on top
My lips are a cracked side-walk
My teeth are a crooked desk

Liz M.
My Eyes

My eyes are the twinkle to my soul
My eyes are a microscope
My eyes play follow the leader
My eyes are animals inside
My eyes are two brown cookies
My eyes are the sun shining bright
My eyes are two bright light bulbs

Abigail C.
Metaphor

My hair is a long path
also calm seas
that fly in the wind
and the sweet, sweet chocolate
moves around, the seahorse swimming
I feel my hair, an endless path
my eyes wide cherries in spring
strings of sparkles against the sun

I am poems

Students at Pulaski wrote poems using anaphora, or repetition of the beginning of the line, after reading M. Scott Momaday's "The Delight Song of Tsoai-Talee"

7th Grade - Room 309

Diego B.

I am a pencil that is writing on this paper
I am a bottle of water that is sweating when it is tired
I am the sun that is active in day and dormant at night.
I am a building that is standing tall
I am a cheetah that is running through the forest.


Aimee P.

I am the shadows of everyone
I am the one who is always heartbroken
I am the wind who is always blown away
I am the complete opposite of my friends
I am the cloud who rains always
I am the tear drops of every adolescent
I am the echoes in your mind telling you to do the wrong things
I am the weakness of your mind
I am everywhere
I am your sorrow
I am in your mind, floating and waiting
I am here waiting.

Anjelica A
I AM

I am the gentle breeze in the fall
I am the maple tree in a field of pines
I am the roar of a crowd of many
I am the passion of music
I am the gentle song of a songbird
I am the great roll of thunder
I am the gentle strokes of a painters brush
I am all the colors in a rainbow
I am the simple beauty os a blooming flower
I am the mysterious presence of the moon.

I stand in good relation to the moons gentle glow
I stand in good relation to the steady pace of waves
I stand in good relation to the beauty of music
I stand in good relation to the peace of the world.


8th Grade - Room 303

Janelle S.

I am a baseball throwing people out at home
I am a bible loves talking about Jesus/God
I am a dog always happy
I am a car that won't start
I am a bank always quiet like a princess in trouble
I am a tree with all his colorful leaves on it
I am a whale swimming through the great beautiful ocean
I am a candle on fire with a good smell coming out of it
I am a dream that what I say comes true

Jorii W.

I am the moon taking the sun's shift
I am the only balloon sailing the sky
I am the insect in a lion
I am the last leaf on he decomposing tree
I am the rapid wind pushing a bag across the meadow
I am the lost bird in the wood
I am who you're not
I am who you think you are
I am those that are above
I am legit

Jessalyn C.

I am a bright star shining on a pitch black night
I am a bird picking on his food
I am a coqui in the night
I am the disco light at a club
I am a dog running with children
I am a bird flying with its flock

Book of Questions

Students at Pulaski wrote group poems in response to Pablo Neruda's "Book of Questions"

Eighth Grade Room 303 Book of Questions

In the quiet room do you use your imagination?
What if you were in a meadow, but just any meadow a dark meadow, the only sound is the wind?
Where is the wind? Do you feel it when it blows in your face, runs through your hair?
Where does the dark come from what is it made of?
Crumbs are sad but why?
Do you see dead people in your room?
What books make noise?
If the little piece from the back of my earring held my heart where would you keep it?
What would you do if you saw a homeless man that has nothing but dust in his hand and lived in a forest?
Can a ladybug hear music?
Why is your room squeaky?
Does heartbreak lead to death in a pain of silence?
Would you kill the ant, who has baby ants in it, in my room?
How quiet is it where you really are and just hang out there?
Is a lonely puppy in the night as sad as a penny is shiny?
Is there anything sadder than a person stuck in a wheelchair?
Is my room really quiet or is there just no sound?
Why did god make this world? Is it to show us something or to change how we act?
Where's the best place to imagine and what would you imagine?
Why does the dog stand in the rain alone?
Who is the most beautiful person in the world?
Why does the night show its life but does not speak with words but with the wind?


Seventh Grade Room 309 Book of Questions

Why is there nothing but air in the sky?
How would you feel if you went into a diamond room, with its great quietness?
Does nothing involve dust or dirt?
Does your sorrow fall upon you like a grain of sand in the wind or does it overcome you like thundering waves in a storm?
In my own world in outer space?
How many jelly-like bacteria would I find in a mountain?
Why are there dust mites in church doing nothing?
Why does the dog like to dance to Jazz on the New York City streets?
Do all puppies have happiness in the forest?
Why do I picture my future with darkness and echoes?
Why does the ant's red stuff cause craziness?
Would a bug be loud or six flags?
Why did Sponge Bob go to McDonalds with sand on his feet?
Can you imagine heaven full of nothing of nothing?
What would a germ do with a ball in space?
Is there a rainbow in Venus as thin as a hair?
Is there water in my room that could turn into music?
Why does my head have nothing in it?
Does a t-rex sniff pudding while putting his toe in apple juice?
Are there and bacteria with cream filling inside my closet?
In the cave with nothing but you would you see your guts and eat them?
Why can I feel my heartbeat in my head?
Why did ants go to the bathroom quiet?
Does a spider open space to a parallel universe?
There's nothing in my close but my pencil.
Would you find a milling dollars in the guts of an ant?
I wonder is an ant in the sky would have blood popping out?
Why don't ant's heads fear thunder?
Is dust worth 1,000,000 dollars or nothing?
If the soothing ocean would be white, would you feel good?


Seventh Grade Room 311 Book of Questions

Do crumbs make noise in a quiet basement?
Tell me is a rock shiny world and quiet as an attic?
Why are peanuts so tiny and don't taste like nothing in my attic?
Why does my heart beat louder than a beating drum?
Why does a dice have more than one face, and if I opened it up, will I find a coin in a lovely place?
Do you know if there are ants in the attic, if so it's a nasty world?
What house has the scariest attic with the cuckoo?
Do you think a germ has a world that looks like paradise and has your own house with soft music and a waterfall?
If you were to make your own world, what would you put and do in it?
I wonder if there is like in heaven or heaven and love in life?
Bacteria is my hand, why don't I hear anything at my house?
Why in the library do people have books about ants?
Does the flea library go whoosh as quiet?
How many books about germs are in the library?
Are the germ in the city are in my room?
Are there any little rocks in pebbles that are in the TV?
In my intestines, are there cockroaches in the library?
Is there peace, is there a closet, is there anything to talk to me like an ant?
What has bacteria and germs that snores?
Is there anything in outer space that is nothing?
What is a rock and sand that snores?
Is there another world for germs that has a Columbia?
Tell me why doe a chocolate factory have lots of candy but no animals to help eat it up?
What house is the most ugly and smells like peanuts but nothing's in it?