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Grade
7

Books

 

Books can take you anywhere:

across the golden desert sand,

over the silver waves of the sea,

up into the empty world of space,

under the foamy waterfall.

 

Books can change your life;

they can make your cat a vicious tiger,

your room a dangerous forest,

your friends secret spies.

 

Books can change you:

once you’ve lived a thousand other lives,

you are different from before.

Like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon,

the world is new, and so are you.

Grade
12

Yellow cabinets, like sunflowers are planted on top of floral walls,
the sink is clean; the lemon scent still lingering in the corners,
the cooker whistles, and the sound echoes excitedly, bringing smiles to the waiters, making Grandma herself hurry to the stove.

The smell of meat overpowers everything;
as every second passes by,
our mouths salivate childishly.

Awaiting Grandma's voice, soft and sweet, calling us to dinner;
a lovely family reunion.
She mixes the curry, places the rice on the table, sets everything in place; a perfectionist.

Round table, for everyone to join, none to miss.
Laughters and stories pass around like a bowl of nachos and chips.

Clinks and clanks of utensils and glasses,
Grandma's face is lighted up,
with love and happiness.

Dirty dishes, finger licking fingers, stained stove,
but in the end, for Grandma, it was all worth while;
her everyday life story told in short.

Grade
6

Darkness rises slowly around us

Silently, slowly, it creeps across the world

But where there is darkness, there is also light

A light that empowers us to be

The best person that is physically possible for us

If we follow this light

And ignore the darkness

We will continue in the pursuit of happiness

Grade
6

The Timekeeper’s Clock

 

Tick,

Tick,

Tick,

Goes the Timekeeper’s Clock

Ticking, tick tick

When will it stop?

Striking the hour,

A top of the tower,

But does that old man’s clock ever stop?

 

Tick,

Tick,

Tick,

Goes the Timekeeper’s Clock

Its little arrows whirling,

Spinning and twirling.

The gear shifts round,

While the hour grows long,

But will that old man’s clock ever stop?

 

Tick,

Tick,

Tick,

Goes the Timekeeper’s Clock

Five little hands,

And one little gear,

Around a few more hours,

And a few more years

For the timekeeper’s clock never stops

 

Grade
7

Sitting here, since dawn, so lonely, waiting

For a memory locked away for preservation,

For some knowledge is better forgotten.

 

Sunsets, and joyful breezes, swishes of

Euphoria, sing remembrance of dreams,

Like harmony, the burbling of streams.

 

Memories flowing, once one comes, so do

The others, like lilies dappled on a stream,

Some blossoming, and others only wilting.

 

Ashes of tests not passed, and expectations

Not met, burn my tongue like the smell of char and ash,

Like smoke, refusing to pass, flowing from memory.

 

As memory comes, it must come both with

Peace, and pain, both with the river gurgling with

Quiet, and the smoke burning away, joy and tears.

 

Grade
7

Poetry is not my thing but I like to rhyme.
I'm writing this on the third so I don't have much time.
I don't know what to write so this all freestyle.
This poetry is made up and the goal is for you to smile.
I like cracking jokes about dogs and teachers.
I tell funny stories while I sit on the bleachers.
I don't know what to write so I'll list things I like
Swimming and dancing and riding downtown on my bike
Here are three things more I enjoy
Legos and stories and tennis oh boy
I also like Disney land the dog named goofy
And Mickey and Pete with his hair so poofy
So these are somethings which I enjoy much
but I also like baseball and sports of that such
I don't like writing "What gives" you might say
But I like writing poetry late in the day
yes right around five I'll feed my dog and then rhyme a word 
about lions and tigers and big mocking birds
I also like animals and cooking, the like
but one thing I don't enjoy is eating the fish pike
It tastes too salty and I don't like fish
except for a salmon and soy sauce, I like that dish
I'm getting tired of writing and such 
So I hope you enjoy this poem very much
And may I remind you to always make friends
and with final adieu, I shall say THE END.
 

Grade
9

The Story

of

The

Golden

one

 

a young boy

wasn’t yet comfortable in his skin, and

wanted to be OK- better than OK- when he grew up

 

a struggling adolescent

wanted to escape childhood

Just be out of it. Be comfortable

 

By 13

he’d started to realize

fitting in

was

kind of

a

play

an

act

 

he

had

to

Give Up The Ghost

of

a dream of having

good feelings about

the Way

he

grew up

 

with

tough love

the equal

partner for the better part of two decades

Grade
7

Water

Icy cold,

Trickles through my fingertips early in the morning,

As the sun peaks through the clouds.

And this moment of perfection is gone in a

Snap.

 

I think of water as I stomp down the crowded hallway

Every second it gets tighter and tighter,

Squished up against sweaty bodies.

 

I try to forget water as the pencil grazes the blazing white paper-

But then I stare out the window

At the rain hammering rhythmically.

 

Finally-

The snap the swim cap

Gripping my head

The jolt of power as I dive into crisp, cold water.

 

That first second where my fingertips break through the waves

Everything is still

And I know that I’m finally home.

 

Grade
6

The Rock so peaceful

Siting on the grassy bank

Sees the world pass by

Grade
11

They glance off each other

Hard

Like marbles, yaw and torque and tempered steel

Sliding naturally and awful,

Cold.

 

They bounce and grate, nonstop,

Flat

Despite the motion, despite contour

Colorfully varied, distinct,

Same.

 

They are continually shifting,

Fast

Flitting about in mindless effort to

Make sense of the world, yet without

Care.

 

It hurts to look for too long—

Metal scrapes on metal, ice on ice,

Relentless.

It hurts to try too often—

They chip away, fragment, destroy,

Ruthless.

But yet I look

It is a world of humans, after all

Humans.

Plural.

Coexistence—

Amalgamation of ideals empty.

 

A girl passes by

Her raven locks flying.

A boy passes by

His golden hair bouncing.

Two pairs of them—eyes—hit my own and

Glance

Off, with a resounding clang,

Tintinnabulation between my ears, in my

Eyes.

I look again, and it hurts—

Again the clang, again the pain, I swear I shall not look again.

 

But yet I look,

Human.

When I walk out I gaze at the sky.

It swallows my eyes

Up

Into the painted-paper vault of

Smooth

Azure color-joints,

Soft

And endless, benign.

But it is not

Human

I peer into the mirror

It ingests my irises and spits out my pupils

And I cannot see

Myself.

I cannot

See.

 

Eyes.

They glance off each other

Uncaring

Cold

Untouching

Lost.

Human.

We don’t look, not at each

Other,

Not

At ourselves.

It hurts, metal on metal, ice on ice,

Eyes

 

They meet. Our eyes.

I stare. You stare. We

Stand

Transfixed.

Ah.

 

They glance off each other

Hard

Flat

Cold

Same

Bouncing, marbles, all doing one thing—

Searching.

Searching.

Searching for another, for another’s gaze,

For another’s

 

Eyes.