Airplanes Light Trails (Photo credit: JcOlivera.com)
Leaving land of lone star
of heat, humidity, and horses
on a huge white bird
over open ocean
in night’s ebony embrace
Out of the ominous
an amazing archipelago
the pearl of perfection
the majesty of mountains
home
By Samuel Samson-Williams, 7th grade
David reads his poem "Going to Cuba" at Discovery Green. Photo by Yvonne Feece.
I will leave Houston on
a very good note.
I will go to Cuba,
walk in the 90 degree heat.
I will go to Cuba,
dance in the streets for fun.
I will go to Cuba,
make beans out of scratch.
I will go to Cuba,
swim in the warm, brown water.
I will go to Cuba,
learn how to speak español.
I will go to Cuba,
eat plantains for breakfast.
I will go to Cuba.
It will be gorgeous at night.
by David, 3rd grade
Click the link (above) to listen to the poem read on KPFT radio by A’Viyon Robinson, a 4th grader from Parker Elementary.
This poem is featured as part of the 2012 A Poem A Day campaign, a National Poetry Month celebration by Writers in the Schools (WITS) that features a different poem by a WITS student every day during April. Click here to learn more.
Picture this: Having your ideas take shape among the rolling hills and sprawling trees that make up the historic campus of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Even better, imagine winning a scholarship to send you there! The Kenyon Review invites high-school students ages 16-18 to an intensive 2-week writing workshop as part of its Young Writers Program taking place June 24-July 7 and July 15-28th. The program offers a supportive, challenging, and rewarding environment for youths to express themselves among their peers and gain insight from leading instructors in literature. Click here for more information and to apply.
What: Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop
Where: Kenyon College, Gambier, OH
Cost: $2,275 includes tuition, accommodations, meals, and activities. Need-based scholarships available.
Contact: (740) 427-5207 or youngwriters@kenyonreview.org
When my mom was a child, she had several penpals. I remember how she would tell me about them and how much she relished reading their letters and writing back and forth to her friends. How exciting it was for a letter addressed to her with a stamp from a faraway country to arrive in her mailbox!
Today young people still enjoy sharing their lives and learning about other cultures through penpals. Schools use services that connect students from classrooms all over the globe. Children practice reading and writing in a foreign language, work on literacy skills, and learn about other cultures.
Although the content of penpal letters may be similar to what it was when my mom was a girl, the method of communicating is shifting. In the Peanuts comic strip, Charile Brown has a “pencil-pal.” In 2011 children are more likely to have an e-pal, since many of them correspond instantly via email with friends around the world.
Have you ever connected with someone in another part of the world through a penpal or e-pal relationship? What did you learn?
by Marcia Chamberlain, WITS writer
Image via Wikipedia
I will never forget the impact that Gwendolyn Brooks, Poet Laureate in 1985, had on me when she visited my high school and spoke to a small group of us in our school library. She read a few poems, including ones from We Real Cool, and then answered questions. One of the questions was about the Library of Congress.
She explained that the Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, in terms of shelf space and number of books. It was built by Congress in 1800 and housed in the United States Capital until much of the collection was destroyed in the War of 1812.
Today the Library of Congress is housed in 3 different buildings and contains over 147 million items. Although it is open to the public, only members of Congress, Supreme Court Justices, and high-ranking government officials, including the Poet Laureate, may check out books.
I remember Ms. Brooks sweeping her arms in an arc across my high school library and saying that we must fill the libraries of the world with books by all sorts of people, not just the ones we relate to easily.
Thank you, Ms. Brooks.
by Marcia Chamberlain, Writers in the Schools
I heard a song
that took me to Germany.
Touring a castle,
seeing everything
from
knights in shining armor
to the beautiful
castles
with gold and silver.
Everything is wonderful
and beautiful
and peaceful.
A spark in my mind
that someone lived here at this place!
Someone had enough
money to buy everything
anything they wanted.
Someone lived here at this
place
at that time.
They could get whatever
they wanted.
They are greedy
and selfish
and ungrateful.
Everything in my
mind stops when the song is over!
By Reagan, 6th grade
One must have the mind of a sandcastle
by a blue sea on the rough sand.
A child is playing on the sand.
You might find something strange
in the sand. Incredible.
The thing could be a shark.
Most of all, sharks
need water to breathe.
It’s funny to be a castle
in the sand because
the water rushes at you
and pulls you back to sea.
By Luis, 3rd grade
Photo by M. Christian via Flickr
I bathe in the luminous starlight
Cleansing my soul of the dried tears of yesterday
My fears and pains are washed clear away
Into the deep night.
Pure moonlight paints my wings
The deep black of slumber forgotten
As I soar ever higher, in joyous flight besotten
Into this tranquil world devoid of earthly things.
By Jessica, 8th grade
Photo by charbel.akhras via Flickr
My soul pulled up into the garage
Rusty and broken down
With a hanging left headlight,
Black faded paint,
Smoke coming out of the tailpipe,
Bottom dragging on the ground.
I got out and said, “My soul needs a fixin’
A new paint job
Twenty-four inch rims
To take me toward good decisions.
My soul needs plasma TVs on the headrests
To show me the good things I’ve done,
Twelve-inch subwoofers to bump my heartbeat,
A license plate that spells
A-N-G-E-L.”
And when I get it out the shop
I’m goin’ to spin it,
Roll it down the streets of Hollywood,
My window down, arm resting on the window in the wind,
Driving alongside all the other souls beside me,
Watching the sun set over the beach,
The seagulls, white like my angels.
By Carlos, 9th grade
Photo by Bob Jagendorf via Flickr
The water
that we drink
comes from
the rivers of the
white mountains. I climb
as high as I can to
see big, hairy mountain goats
and have fun throwing
snowballs. When it is
your birthday, climb
as high as you can
so you, too, can get
the best flower
in the snow.
By Nicolas, 3rd Grade
Photo by K_Thomas via Flickr
I was born here, but my parents are from Vietnam. School is harsh there. The teachers hit you with a ruler or put you in the sun all day if you do something bad. You can buy an ox to carry the stuff you grow to the market. The huts in Vietnam don’t have electricity so you can only cook over a fire. In Vietnam taking a bath is pouring water over your head or swimming in a lake.
My mom and dad didn’t want a life of misery for me so they had to move to America. My dad had to leave my grandpa in the Vietnam war. My dad now gets mad if you even talk about war. My grandma died of liver cancer. My mom gets mad if we talk about sickness.
When my parents first came to America they saw really nice people. They joined a class where they teach you how to speak English. I never got a chance to meet my grandpa or relatives in Vietnam. I don’t know what my grandpas’, grandmas’, uncles’, or aunts’ names are. My mom and dad worry about why they left the rest of my family. I worry about my parents.
by Brian, 4th grade
Today WITS welcomes seventeen colleagues from across the US for the first WITS Alliance National Conclave. The group will meet for three days in downtown Houston.
The participants are:
Jim Walker, Second Story Indianapolis
Janet Hurley, True Ink, Asheville, NC
Megan McNamer, Missoula Writing Collaborative, Montana
Jeanine Walker, Seattle Arts & Lectures
Michele Kotler and Keith Kaminski, Community Word Project, New York City
Janice Hatfield and Krystia Nora, California University of Pennsylvania
Josephine Jones, Colorado Writers in the Schools
Kristine Uyeda and Alise Alouisi, InsideOut, Detroit MI
Nicole Robinson, The Wick Center for Poetry, Kent State University, Ohio
Sean Nevin and Renee Simms, Young Writers Program, Arizona State University
Terry Thaxton, Literary Arts Partnership, University of Central Florida
Cecily Sailor and Giuseppe Taurino, Badgerdog, Austin, TX
For more information about this event, click here.
Photo Credit: Jenn Edo Photography, Houston
I was born in Gamma’s house and every time I spend the
night there she wakes up and cooks me sausage and grits.
I have a nephew named Jaden who I play ball with. My
favorite things to do are eat, watch TV, and play video games
all day. My favorite video game is Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtle Smash Up and Spiderman 1. My favorite subject is
math because it’s easy. Last summer
I went to Camp Periwinkle,
Houston Space Center, and
Schlitterbahn. At Schlitterbahn there was a
pirate ship that drops water on you and makes you forget
everything, but it didn’t make me forget because I am
hydro-dynamically designed. It was awesome!
By Memphis,
Age 8
Photo by Brandt Williams via Flickr
I am in Bitola on the Macedonian border with Greece. One of the wonderful things that happened my first year teaching in Macedonia was the students asking me if I was on facebook, although I had to tell them I was not. Then I went home and joined facebook, partly on the advice of my Harvard-educated nephew who lived in a dorm where and when facebook was born. I remember the Ugly Betty episode where Betty is trying to decide whether or not she is willing to befriend Henry, her ex-boyfriend who has married someone else for complicated reasons, and I wondered at our making the decision between “ignore” and “accept.” So here is the question. I know that facebook is making us global, but is it also making us more accepting…even kind and perhaps forgiving. I know that it says “accept”, not forgive. What about local as well as global forgiveness?
This Spring the Macedonian teachers and I had global meetings on facebook. We did global craft-shopping. The teachers are already planning for March 2011 facebook meetings. Clicking that “accept” button rather than “ignore” is not contrition or absolution, in the sacred sense, but, as in Betty’s decision, it is an important decision that people need to band together to teach their young and that there isn’t all the time in the world to do it.
Merrilee Cunningham, WITS Writer to the Balkans
[postcard from skyscrapercity.com]
So tomorrow is my last day in Tetovo. Yesterday my fellow teacher Besa took me on a walk around the old town of Tetovo. We went to several places that I had visited in the past, most importantly for me, the Colored Mosque. There are so many beautiful old buildings in Tetovo, including the Turkish tekke or Muslim monastery that I have also written about, associated with the Bektashi sect, one of the ancient mystical sects of Islam. The first mosque on this site was probably guild in 1495, but this is the Balkans and land has slipped back and forth during wars. In 1833 the mosque was rebuilt by Abdurrahman Pasha, the son of Rexhep Pasha. Now maybe you are asking what is a Pasha and the answer is a Pasha is a title for landlords and generals in the Ottoman Empire. This Mosque was build next to the Shkuma river, where there were other buildings of Islamic origin including a bath that is now open as an art gallery.
The single classical minaret allows one to see the Colored Mosque in Tetovo from all over the city. I am so glad that I visited it again as I wondered where Abdurrahman Pasha, son of Rexhep Pasha, got the ideas for his amazing interior with its yellow and red flower baskets cascading off the walls of this beautiful and welcoming sacred place.
Merrilee Cunningham, WITS Writer to the Balkans
[photo of Colored Mosque from balkantravellers.com]
