student example poetry

By Gretchen Kaija
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

Tarnished, dusty, old
Hidden from the light of day
Long-forgotten key

By Noah Brautigam
Green Mountain Valley School, Grade 12

There’s poetry in her hips,
Speaking to me,
Rhythm and flow.

Pendulums swinging
from her shoulders,
Sheathed in the brightest yellow I have ever seen.
Cadence matched by
the sway and flirt of her hair,
Yellow.

Even as is dances away from me.

Yellow is the sun,
Base orb.
There is no pain in yellow.

Boxed In
By Emma Redden
Leland and Gray Union High School, Grade 9

My vocabulary consists of
Five words from the time
I step into my plastic casket
Until it is time for me to
Reincarnate myself.

My one sided conversations consist of
Four syllable sentences.
The first few words a kindergartener
Learns when playing store.

There was a time
Long ago
When I had giggled,
And she had laughed.

Her tall freckled figure,
Wrinkled and old.
My tiny pink body,
Frail and new.

Her callused feet
Comfy in soft warn slippers.
My small feet,
Cute mini toes wrapped in knit booties.

Her ankles and shins
Rough and chapped from dry winter air.
My plump ones,
Ready for developing new muscles.

By Blaise Gervais
Edmunds Middle School, Grade 8
Out slips a smooth black stone,
Cool as satin sheets.
Visions of rippling waters,
Hide beneath its glassy surface

A red plastic soldier marches out,
Its complexion the same color as its uniform.
One foot frozen in a jaunty stance,
Next to the end of its rifle.

An old battered coin falls with a dull clatter,

By Angela Wood
Colchester High School, Grade 9
There is something in my pocket
But whatever could it be?
Perhaps a silver heart-shaped locket
Or a shiny golden key.

Cold and smooth against my hand
Smooth and flat, with edges rounded
Made of metal from the land
By a silversmith’s hand it was pounded

Attached somehow to a fine thin chain

By Parnell Kaffenberger
Edmunds Middle School, Grade 7Chilly hands seek refuge in,
the pockets of your coat,
inside wandering fingers find,
something hard,
it appears to be a small stone,
from THAT day,
THE day,
When you and he
were throwing rocks,
on to the frozen lake,
Laughing and yelling,
until,
CRACK!
The icy shock,
then he came running to help,

This entry was sent in after the deadline had passed for this prompt. However, this piece is so interesting, we thought it worth publishing here.

The Boy, 1936 by Carl Mydans.
By Emma Redden
Leland and Gray High School, Grade 9

When you look at me...why do you stare?
If you stare at me long enough,
I’ll evanesce.

If I passed you on the street
I don’t think I could take my eyes away.

But why?
Why me?
I am nothing.
I am not important…

Black and blue
By Johanna Gehlbach
Hartford High School, Grade 11

Forks and knives clanked on muddy brown dishes
I was so happy to see my friend
I could barely speak
The words snagged in the back of my throat

Tremors throbbed down through my hand
Spaghetti slipped off the silverware

Reminder: Beauty & Hate submissions can be submitted through the end of day Friday.
Paper Beauty
By Annabel Bruno
Rutland High School, Grade 10

I was running
and I stopped to watch the paper.
the wind was cold
and the leaves were
red
the paper was cold too
but different.
Like the arctic

Unbearable is the weight
By Whitney Dubie
Essex High School, Grade 12

Oh cold, reckless hollowed feet;
Oh heavy, miserable legs —
You carry me through these trials.

A shadow of her heavy weightless oppression
Coming over us like a lighted speck
On a mountainside.

It’s something unbearable,
Yet expected.

Charlie

By Gretchen Kaija
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

I watch the slumped back
of a boy
as he shuffles
down the sidewalk.
Slowly
shiny chocolate-colored hair
rises
looks left,

By Mary Griffin
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

Worn head,
Weave where fur once spread,
Softness in creases,
Colors? Washes instead.
New beneath bent tag,
Chipped black eyes,
Re-sewn arm,
Ragged ties.
Arching neck,
Tired frown,
Gentle slouch,
Impish clown.
My stuffed companion,
Crib-cry lend,
Old stuffed lion,
My dear friend.