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School

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  • Poem

    poetry-magazine

    Nowhere Else to Go

    By Linda Sue Park
    Turn off the lights.
    Wear another layer.
    (Sounds like a dad.)
    (Sounds like a mom.)

    You say hand-me-down.
    I say retro.

    Walk.
    Bike.
    Walk some more.
    Recycle.

    (See what I did there,
    bike—recycle?)

    Your name in Sharpie
    on a good water bottle.
    Backpack. New habits.
    No thanks, don’t need a bag.

    What else.
    Oh yeah.

    Tell ten friends
    who...
  • Poem

    poetry-magazine

    School—12:15

    By Tina Boyer Brown
    Imagine the lunchroom,
    crowded and wary—
    seating charts a welcome apprehension.

    Loose-leaf
    papers spiraled from
    ballpoint-scratched notebook covers
    until the last hour,
    when a teacher
    sighed and sighed.

    Today, we close our backpacks,
    but minutes
    come quick and quit
    the ease of dawn.
  • Poem

    poetry-magazine

    At the Student Poetry Reading

    By Kim Stafford
    I guess you could call me broken,
    says one. I’m still lonely, says another,
    but now I can name it with a song.

    In my poem, says another,
    I can forget I am forgotten. Now
    I understand being misunderstood,

    says another. And another says,
    in a bold,...
  • Poem

    poetry-magazine

    A smile always heals

    By Suma Subramaniam
    You cannot pronounce my name.
    “Soor-ya.” Not “soar.”
    Surya—the sun god.
    Mom always tells me that a smile heals everything.
    So I try.
    I sit beside you in the cafeteria
    and smile.

    You look down at your food
    and eat your cheeseburger,
    I eat the lemon rice in my...
  • Poem

    poetry-magazine

    One of Us

    By Joyce Sidman
    “That kid is weird,” says
    the teacher, flipping her shining hair.
    “I don’t know where he’s at.”
    Indeed, he is quiet
    in the way of a giraffe:
    ears tuned to something we can’t hear.
    He turns his sleepy eyes on me—
    chocolate brown
    with long, extraordinary lashes—
    as I...
  • Poem

    poetry-magazine

    Undone

    By Padma Venkatraman
    They ignored the new boy,
    snickering behind his back.

                                                        In silence, I stayed     safe.
       ...
  • Poem

    The Silliest Teacher in School

    By Darren Sardelli
    Our teacher gave detention
    to the fountains in the hall.
    She handed extra homework
    to the artwork on the wall.
     
    We saw her point a finger
    at a banner and a sign.
    She said their bad behavior
    was completely out of line.
     
    The principal approached her
    and said, “What...
  • Poem

    Recess! Oh, Recess!

    By Darren Sardelli
    Recess! Oh, Recess!
    We love you! You rule!
    You keep us away
    from the teachers in school.
    Your swings are refreshing.
    Your slides are the best.
    You give us a break
    from a really hard test.
     
    Recess! Oh, Recess!
    We want you to know,
    you’re sweeter than syrup,
    you’re special like...
  • Poem

    The Letter A

    By Darren Sardelli
    The letter A is awesome!
    It simply is the best.
    Without an A, you could not get
    an A+ on a test.
    You’d never see an acrobat
    or eat an apple pie.
    You couldn’t be an astronaut
    or kiss your aunt goodbye.
    An antelope would not exist.
    An ape...
  • Poem

    My Doggy Ate My Essay

    By Darren Sardelli
    My doggy ate my essay.
    He picked up all my mail.
    He cleaned my dirty closet
    and dusted with his tail.
     
    He straightened out my posters
    and swept my wooden floor.
    My parents almost fainted
    when he fixed my bedroom door.
     
    I did not try to stop him.
    He...
  • Poem

    More Dangerous Air

    By Margarita Engle
    Newsmen call it the Cuban Missile Crisis.
    Teachers say it's the end of the world.

    At school, they instruct us to look up
    and watch the Cuban-cursed sky.
    Search for a streak of light.
    Listen for a piercing shriek,
    the whistle that will warn us
    as poisonous...
  • Poem

    Turtle Came to See Me

    By Margarita Engle
    The first story I ever write
    is a bright crayon picture
    of a dancing tree, the branches
    tossed by island wind.

    I draw myself standing beside the tree,
    with a colorful parrot soaring above me,
    and a magical turtle clasped in my hand,
    and two yellow wings...
  • Poem

    Tula [“Books are door-shaped”]

    By Margarita Engle
    Books are door-shaped
    portals
    carrying me
    across oceans
    and centuries,
    helping me feel
    less alone.

    But my mother believes
    that girls who read too much
    are unladylike
    and ugly,
    so my father's books are locked
    in a clear glass cabinet. I gaze
    at enticing covers
    and mysterious titles,
    but I am rarely permitted
    to touch
    the enchantment
    of...
  • Poem

    Theme for English B

    By Langston Hughes
    The instructor said,

          Go home and write
          a page tonight.
          And let that page come out of you—
          Then, it will be true.

    I wonder if it’s that simple?
    I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.   
    I went to school there, then Durham, then here   
    to this college...
  • Poem

    Tests

    By Sara Holbrook & Allan Wolf
    Her
    Focusing on blanks,
    A, B, C, all of above.
    Your eyes lock on mine.
    Brain now a washing machine—
    facts, letters tumble and spin.
     
    Him
    Tests are less trouble
    for me since I have met you.
    Is it possible?
    Can having you in my life
    increase the size of my...
  • Poem

    Nature Knows Its Math

    By Joan Bransfield Graham
    Divide
    the year
    into seasons,
    four,
    subtract
    the snow then
    add
    some more
    green,
    a bud,
    a breeze,
    a whispering
    behind
    the trees,
    and here
    beneath the
    rain-scrubbed
    sky
    orange poppies
    multiply.
  • Poem

    Ode to Teachers

    By Pat Mora
    I remember
    the first day,
    how I looked down,
    hoping you wouldn't see
    me,
    and when I glanced up,
    I saw your smile
    shining like a soft light
    from deep inside you.

    “I'm listening,” you encourage us.
    “Come on!
    Join our conversation,
    let us hear your neon certainties,
    thorny doubts, tangled angers,”
    but for...
  • Poem

    Budding Scholars

    By April Halprin Wayland
    Welcome, Flowers.
    Write your name on a name tag.
    Find a seat.

    Raise your leaf if you've taken a class here before.
    Let's go around the room.
    Call out your colors.

    I see someone's petal has fallen—
    please pick it up and put it in your desk
    where...
  • Poem

    When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer

    By Walt Whitman
    When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
    When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
    When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
    When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured...
  • Poem

    Watkins Laundry and Apothecary

    By Marilyn Nelson
    Imagine a child at your door,
    offering to do your wash,
    clean your house, cook,
    to weed your kitchen garden
    or paint you a bunch of flowers
    in exchange for a meal.
    A spindly ten-year-old, alone
    and a stranger in town, here to go
    to our school for...
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