Noisy Giants
In the night
I hear a bark
I see the rain
Pouring down
I see a rapid flash
I hear a rattle
During the stormy night
When the night
Rages with anger
Stomping with giants
Create the thunder
Millions of their torches
Shine
During the stormy night
When the night
Rages with anger
Raindrops splatter
Like a pot
Filled with water
Wind destructs
The innocent trees
During the stormy night
— Tamsin Crook, 3rd Grade
The Night Sky
Stars
Hot, round
Shining, glowing, spinning
There are billions of stars
Space
— Gavin Goldstein, 2nd Grade
Nature’s Parade
Nature’s patterns are like a piece of art
The autumn leaves sing with the breeze
The brushing leaves are the maraccas
The grass, the strings of the violins
Create an orchestra of peaceful music
The forest trees, sopranos, altos, form the opera
The rain, the tap dancers’ parade
Thunder claps like cymbals from a giant’s hands
Monarch butterfly wings whistle like flutes
The life cycle of the orchestra
— Anahit Harutyunyan, 3rd Grade
Haunting Shadows
A reaching hand out of the shadows
Brings you back in
To memories you tried to forget
And to reality.
You face the hard concrete ground
In the shadows, knowing, just knowing, somehow
That you will never, ever be unscarred
You will never see the world as you once did
With those eyes
Now struck with the sights
Of hardship
Of poverty
And of loss and death.
They change something in you that you didn’t know
Even so, you try to block them out
But they will always be your haunting shadows
And you will have them forever
— Allison Joe, 6th Grade
Swaying Trees
How the branches
Dim the sunlight
Of a million stars
The swaying trees
Tickle my feet
Their branches,
Like a fountain
Droopy, hanging
Feeling shame,
Quite sad
But not exactly
— Sydney Le, 3rd Grade
Two Types of Planes
Of roars and whistles
Or feather-like bristles
We all would choose the new
Enchanting melody
Or ghost-like cacophony
Our past models are no longer valid
For business and Human’s transportation
Or rhythmic sensation
We forget about the past
The types of planes that scrape the skies
Or the gentle Cardinal with immense black eyes
Sweet soft chirps that fill your ears
Clanging thunder is what he hears
He created two types of Planes
The straight-path crashers
And the fluttering beauties standing the test of time
We all would choose the new
— Liam Machabee, 7th Grade
A Snowy Season
Winter
Snow blanket
Freezing, soft piles
Cold, windy, happy, joyous
White
— Charlotte Reynolds, 1st Grade
Feelings Are The Frosting
You get angry
Fierce fire shooting flames
Feels like the incense you left burning
Dry ice letting out smoke
A sharp jagged table corner
Disgusting sour syrup
That is all okay
You can be sad
No one should be staring
The peppery bite of the sun
Is let out on your neck
Fluffy snow in your snow pants
Giving you a chill
That is all okay
You can be happy
A nice, gentle, bright smile
Flowers blooming
On an orange yellow day
You feel happy and that is okay
— Lailah Abdul Khaaliq, 3rd Grade
Pitch As Coal
A dark heart that has turned into pitch coal
Life is lost, hope is lost too
Pitch black is a box
Sharp stings of knives
Pricking flesh
Time is dreary
A crow’s eye, the dead line
Comes at once
Like when a tsunami crashes over a city
It is a skin of hope
Broken in two
Death is the sting of a king cobra’s poison
It is the ticking of a stopwatch
Hades himself in disguise
There is a small bit of hope in death
Yes, leaping forward to a new beginning
It is time to set your new wings to the sky and say,
“I believe
In hope.”
— Nasim Abdul Khaaliq, 4th Grade
Wonder
It used to be said
That often in error
But never in doubt
Now their doubts have grown
They have grown as big as all outdoors
Born as a bubble of space
Young light is released
Glowing sheets and tendrils
Yet nobody knows
Nobody knows
— Sophia Guralnik, 4th Grade