Text Box: As an extension of the haiku, the tanka adds two additional lines each of seven syllables. Like most Japanese poetry, the tradition focuses primarily on observations with nature. Sophie does just that and recalls a horse playing through a pasture before it returns to the trough to eat.

 By Sophie K.
Text Box: Symbolic of depression, Tori uses the desert to convey these deep feelings we all feel from time to time. Full of alliteration and imagery, Tori decided to go with the short compact form of the haiku to write her poem “Desert”.

 By Tori M.
Text Box: Depressing Haiku

¨ Horse
Text Box: Sophie’s insult poem focuses on the chant “you look just like…”. The insult poem is designed to never let the person or object to which the poem is about ever actually receive the poem. Between squashed cockroaches and plucked chickens, here Sophie tells us just what this person looks like.

 By Sophie K.

¨ Cockroach

Listen to this...

Being heard
Text Box: This ghazal of Persia is a photograph of Kyle’s yard. Designed to capture several different moments in time, this poem gives us a look at what Kyle’s looking at.

 Kyle B.
Text Box: The rondeau’s rounded style is named such because it begins and ends with the same line. Ryan has visited the wall over on the grounds of Jefferson school and it is there where he found the inspiration to write his poem.

Ryan F.
Text Box: The Wall

¨ Nature In My Backyard
Text Box: Tori’s pantoum is an extended French poem that has several lines that repeat. These repeated lines are called refrains. Here Tori observes the stars overhead.

 Tori M.

¨ The Stars
Text Box: This unique pantoum has a lot of heavy onomatopoeias. The sound effects capture your attention and the repeated lines give you a second chance to hear the effect. In another fictional setting, here we have Luke making a story of a victorious warrior going into battle.

 By. Luke R.
Text Box: This poem comes from a joke that Tori heard once. You should ask her to tell it to you. If you know anything about Cuban politics, you’ll think the joke is funny.

 By Tori M.
Text Box: Peanuts, Popcorn, and Crackerjacks

¨ The Warrior
Text Box: “Say hello to my tummy”, is one of my favorite lines in this poem. Sophie has decided to write an ode to the mousse that she received on her recent birthday. Just listening to the poem makes me want to go out and get some from the store. Dessert anyone?!

 By Sophie K.

¨ Chocolate Mousse
Text Box: The imagery in this ode is phenomenal. Nicole has a really sharp eye for attention and detail and as her strongest skill, I think that it really comes out in this poem. I love that the lure is described as salty.; fantastic.

Nicole W.
Text Box: To Fishing Text Box: Shelby has a very comfortable rhythm to her poems that remind me of a Shel Silverstien or a Dr. Suess. This poem is in fact an anti-poem that expresses her angst and frustration in writing poetry; a classic struggle. I’d have to say though, I think the poem won.

 Shelby I.

¨ The Pain with Poetry