1. I am
A2
2. Biographical / Bio Poem A4
3. Concrete
A
4. Found
N
5. Cinquain
A5
6. Diamonte
F
7. Acrostic
S
8. Prose
M
9. Someday Poem
I
10. List
D
11. Name
R
12. Phrase
T
13. Alphabet
O
14. Definition
P
15. Five W’s Poetry
Q
16. Haiku
U
17. Limerick
V
18. Quatrain
Z
19. Ballad
X
20. Couplet
Y
21. Synonym
B
22. Opposites
C
23. Month Metaphor
A1
24. Three Word
E
25. I Don’t Understand G
26. Just Because
H
27. Weather Poem
L
28. Sense Poem
K
29. Bull Durham / Credo J
30. Sonnet
A6
31. Lyric
W
32. Song
A2
1. I am
I am a hard working teacher who loves to laugh
I wonder how my students will do this year
I hear their brains clicking
I see the light in their eyes
I want them to want to succeed
I am a hard working teacher who loves to laugh
I pretend I am always in control
I feel like I’m swimming in quicksand sometimes
I touch the hearts and minds of others
I worry that I am not good enough
I cry when one of my family is in pain
II am a hard working teacher who loves to laugh
I understand I cannot save everyone ignorance and apathy
I say I still need to try
I dream of being the best teacher I can be
I try to make my classes interesting
I hope I never stop caring
Answer Key
I am a hard working teacher who loves to laugh
2. Biographical / Bio Poem
Carol.
Busy, tired, mother and teacher,
Sister of Bill,
Lover of children, animals, and a happy classroom,
Who feels joy when reading, power when riding, and sore
muscles at day's end,
Who needs laughter, pets, and flowers,
Who gives help, love, and praise,
Who fears dragons, big bugs, and gaining weight,
Who would like to see everyone succeed, wars end forever, and a cure for A.I.D.'s,
Resident of Deerfield, Aspen,
Krimm.
Answer Key
3. Concrete
Answer Key
4. Found
Found Poetry Based on Elsie Wall
from American Life Histories, 1936-1940
Rocks in her chair between supper and dinner,
thirty-two but looks forty-five.
Never learned how to chop in the garden,
never learned right how to pay at the store.
Rocks in her chair between supper and dinner,
children in rags lined up on the porch:
all she can count, all she can figure.
How can she clothe them to send them to school?
Daughters with bright eyes of Jean Harlow,
hang Jesus and movie stars framed on the walls.
Six dollars a week for six mouths in the family:
How will they work, get out of this town?
Jim works in the cotton mill, tends crops in the garden.
Elsie can cook if there's food in the house.
Answer Key
Pots catch the flow from the rainy roof leaks.
Rocks on her porch in rain or in fine.
5. Cinquain
Nature
by Khaled
Nature
Beautiful, pure
Refreshing, enjoying, relaxing
Nature is healthy.
Fun
Answer Key
6. Diamonte
Love
Bright, Passionate
Charming, Drifting, Growing
Cherish, Infatuation, Antipathy, Uncaring
Animosity, Falling, Dead
Dark, Disgust
Hate
---Kimiko Brantley (Grade 10)
Answer Key
7. Acrostic
Calm eyes
Oozing
Over
Lake water
Answer Key
8. Prose
A Port is a delightful place of rest for a soul weary of life's
battles. The vastness of the sky, the mobile architecture of the
clouds, the changing coloration of the sea, the twinkling of the
lights, are a prism marvellously fit to amuse the eyes without
ever tiring them. The slender shapes of the ships with their
complicated rigging, to which the surge lends harmonious
oscillations, serve to sustain within the soul the taste for rhythm
and beauty. Also, and above all, for the man who of mysterious
and aristocratic pleasure in contemplating, while lying on the
belvedere or resting his elbows on the jetty-head, all these
movements of men who are leaving and men who are
returning, of those who still have the strength to will, the desire
to travel or to enrich themselves.
--Charles Baudelaire-Answer Key
9. Someday Poem
SOMEDAY...
Someday I will play the guitar
Someday I will have a job
Someday I will get married
Someday I will have kids
Someday I will be rich
Someday I will be noticed
---Melissa Manor (Grade 10)
Answer Key
10. List
THINGS KIDS SAY WHEN THEY WANT TO GET OUT TO PLAY
--I did all my homework.
--I picked up my toys.
--I empitied the trash.
--My bed is made. No, there are no lumps.
--I ate all my vegetables.
--But everyone else is.
--Bobby's mom doesn't make him.
--But, Mom.
--No, my dirty clothes aren't under the bed.
--Yes, Mom, I'm sure.
--Yeah, I'll be careful.. No, I won't poke an eye out.
--Oh, please!
---Steve Schlatter (Grade 10)
Answer Key
11. Name
Fierce
Righteous
Energetic
Dude
Answer Key
12. Phrase
EATING SPAGHETTI
with a twirl of a fork
and the help of a spoon
quickly up to the mouth
before it all falls off
Answer Key
13. Alphabet
Cats
Don’t
Ever
Fly (willingly)
Answer Key
14. Definition
Friendship
Friendship is like stars in the
sky. Like going
to fly with Peace,
and the moon shines
on us while we fly. We walk
through the sky and clouds. And we
share the future in a treasure
chest, topped with diamonds.
- Jessamyn Ansary
Answer Key
15. Five W’s Poetry
I
Love to ‘Blade
Along Venice Beach
In the middle of the day
Because people are friendly and get out of your way
Answer Key
16. Haiku
Sun moves on rubble,
weeds grow sideways in small cracks,
small vines cling to walls.
Answer Key
17. Limerick
There once was a chef name Maurice
Who always used way to much grease.
His Chicken was fine;
His fries were divine,
But his dinners just made me obese.
Answer Key
18. Quatrain
Along the line of smoky hills
The crimson forest stands,
And all day long the blue-jay calls
Throughout the autumn lands.
Answer Key
19. Ballad
We miners long ago did find
the skull rock on the lake.
The silver lay in open veins
all shining for the take.
Answer Key
20. Couplet
Back and forth the dancer whirled,
A butterfly with wings unfurled.
Answer Key
21. Synonym
LOVE
Attachment, adoration, warmth, adore
Love is so pure, right down to the core.
---Kimiko Brantley (Grade 10)
NOISE
Clamor, uproar, hullabaloo.
These things can really annoy you.
---Shasta Inman (Grade 9)
Answer Key
22. Opposites
OPPOSITES
What is the opposite of love?
Maybe it is as beautiful as a white dove,
Because love is so fine,
This is something that I know is mine.
What is the opposite of a smile?
Maybe it is a frown that hasn't been seen in a while,
Because a great smile brightens up the day,
This has made my day better in every way.
What is the opposite of true?
It could be purple, or even blue.
Because truth is better than a lie,
I want the truth even from my special guy.
---Kimiko Brantley (Grade 10)
Answer Key
23. Month Metaphor
JULY trudges
right in
with a bang.
It crawls around
on the hot ground,
leaps around
spreading warmth,
then glides right
out of the way.
---Tierra Jones (Grade 10)
Answer Key
24. Three Word
MORNINGS
sleep, alarm, awake
alarm, awake, shower
awake, shower, clothes
shower, clothes, shoes
clothes, shoes, dog
shoes, dog, run
dog, run, breakfast
run, breakfast, sunrise
breakfast, sunrise, car
sunrise, car, work.
---Alex Buffington (Grade 10)
Answer Key
25. I Don’t Understand
I DON'T UNDERSTAND...
I don't understand
why people dislike me
why people can't get along
why dogs are colorblind and cats aren't
But most of all
why people are prejudiced
why people must move away
why people argue over stupid stuff
why there is wars
What I understand most is
why trees grow
why birds chirp
why the suns shines
why the car goes.
Answer Key
---Anita Pepper (Grade 10)
26. Just Because
Just because I'm scared
Don't laught and giggle behind my head
Don't kid and play when I'm not there
Still ask me because I might play
Just because I'm scared
It doesn't mean I can't do it
It doesn't give you the right to talk about me
It doesn't stop me from having fun
Just because I'm scared
Still tell me everything you did
Can't wait until I get big
Just because I'm scared -- please try to be my friend
---Brandon Womack (Grade 10)
Answer Key
27. Weather Poem
THUNDER
Thunder comes in loud
Like the majestic roar of a lion.
It answers the call
Of lightening
By striking fear into people.
Away, somewhere in the sky,
Somewhere in the unknown,
An unknown voice,
And then leaves without a trace
Of its existence
Except in peoples' stories.
---Elia Miller (Grade 9)
Answer Key
28. Sense Poem
sage-covered desert
freshness of morning
scream of the hawk
caress of a breeze
dew of the wind
new day born
Answer Key
29. Bull Durham / Credo
CREDO
I believe in the widsom of elders,
the influence of peer pressure,
the importance of success,
the evil that exists in money,
the effectiveness of hard work,
dedication, courage, strength.
But the belief that you don't have to strive
for your goals is just outrageous.
I believe in the truth that will set you free,
I believe in love that will conquer all,
I believe in respect for others,
Courtesy, politeness, gratitude.
And I believe in the fact that tomorrow
isn't promised to you.
Answer Key
---Tierra Jones (Grade 10)
30. Sonnet
So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse, (A)
And found such faire assistance in my verse, (B)
As every Alien pen hath got my use, (A)
And under thee their poesy disperse. (B)
Thine eyes, that taught the dumb on high to sing, (C)
And heavy ignorance aloft to flie, (D)
Have added feathers to the learned's wing, (C)
And given grace a double majestie. (D)
Yet be most proud of that which I compile, (E)
Whose influence is thine and born of thee, (F)
In others'works thou dost but mend the style (E)
And arts with thy sweet graces graced be. (F)
But thou art all my art, and dost advance (G)
As high as learning my rude ignorance. (G)
Answer Key
31. Lyric
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's, all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.
-William Yeats
Answer Key
32. Song
Wish You Were Here
Incubus
I dig my toes into the sand
The ocean looks like
A thousand diamonds strewn
Across a blue blanket
I lean against the wind
Pretend I am weightless
And in this moment
I am happy happy
I wish you were
I wish you were
I wish you were
I wish you were
here
here
here
here
I lay my head onto the sand
The sky resembles
A backlit canopy
With holes punched in it
I'm counting UFOs
I signal them with my lighter
And in this moment
I am happy happy
Chorus
The world's a rollercoaster
And I am not strapped in
Maybe I should hold with care
My hands are busy in the air
Saying
Chorus
Answer Key
Concrete Poetry
Concrete Poetry is the use of words and their physical formation to convey
meaning. This may be done with color, the shape of the letters, and/or the
arrangement of words. Samples below show some of the many variations
available. To view various forms of concrete poetrty on the Internet, click on
the words in bold lettering in this sentence. You may use the information you
find at this link, but you may not publish it in anything other than a school
report.
Directions: Graphically create a scene using only words. From a distance
this will look like a picture, but up close it will consist only of words and
phrases. No extra lines or shapes should be used. A light pencil line might be
drawn first as a guide. Use colors, shapes, and sizes that will enhance the
meaning of words.
Answer Key
I Am Poem
1st Stanza
I am (two special characteristics you have)
I wonder (something you are actually curious about)
I hear (an imaginary sound)
I see (an imaginary sight)
I want (an actual desire)
I am (the first line of the poem is repeated)
Stanza 2
I pretend (something you really pretend to do)
I feel (a feeling about something imaginary)
I touch (something you imagine you touch)
I worry (a worry that is real to you)
I cry (something that makes you very sad)
I am (the first line of the poem is repeated)
Stanza 3
I understand (something you know is true)
I say (something you believe in)
I dream (a dream you actually have)
I try (something you make an effort to do)
Answer Key
I hope (something you really hope for)
I am (the first line of the poem is repeated)
Form of Diamonte Poem
There are two patterns you can follow in writing a diamonte.
Pattern 1
Line 1 = NounLine
Line 2 = Adjective, Adjective
Line 3 - Verb, Verb, Verb
Line 4 = Noun, Noun, Noun, Noun
Line 5 = Verb, Verb, Verb
Line 6 = Adjective, Adjective
Line 7 = Noun
Pattern 2
Line 1 = Opposite of line 7
Line 2 = Describe line 1
Line 3 = Action about line 1
Line 4 = 2 nouns about line 1, 2 nouns about line 7
Line 5 = Action about line 7
Line 6 = Describe line 7
Line 7 = Opposite of line 1Student Examples:
Form of Cinquain Poem
Line 1 = One Word (noun) Subject & title of poem
Line 2 = Two Words (adjectives)
Line 3 = Three Words (verbs)
Line 4 = Four words that relate feelings
Line 5 = One word that repeats or refers to line 1 (subject)
Answer Key