Public School Guests

PUBLIC SCHOOL GUESTS

Poems by the students of Tamaques Elementary, Westfield, NJ

SPRING

Spring is beauty and love
Pretty flowers are blooming everywhere
Rain is drip dripping on the flowers
Itty bitty drops
Nice warm weather everywhere you go
Great season to celebrate.

Ella Reiser, 3rd Grade

THIS IS SPRING

Sun and moon
flowers bloom.
Starry nights
heavenly lights.
Sparkling streams
great dreams.
High mountains
gleaming fountains.
This is spring

Lara Chandrasekaran, 3rd Grade

TELETUBBIES

Teletubbies, I love you Teletubbies.
Will you count Teletubbies with me… one, two, three.
I love Teletubbies.

Caden Flaherty, 3rd Grade

OH SPRING

Oh, spring you’re full
of delight and beauty
even when you rain
you’re so pretty in
so many ways. Oh spring
how birds are singing
and flowers are growing
we’re so glad
you’re here.

Giuliana, 3rd Grade

OLLIE

Outstanding
like the best dog
like the cutest do
incredible
excellent.

Sia Guysta, 3rd Grade

LAKES

I saw a lake in the spring. I saw a lake in the summer.
I saw a lake in the fall. I saw a lake in the winter.
I see lakes.

Henry Haines, 3rd Grade

SUN

When the sun shines and
the rain falls the
rainbow shows

it all but when
the birds fly and
the flowers
bloom
it is spring
time.

Lily Robbins, 3rd Grade

VIVIAN ROSE

Vivian Rose, oh, Vivian Rose
sways so peacefully and softly through the wind.
Dance is her life
and that will never change.
But most of all
the kindness she brings to the world
each and every day.

Vivian Rose, 3rd Grade

SORRY

Sorry I’m the wind and sky
sorry I’ve not opened my eyes
sorry I have not seen the wonders of the world
sorry.

Gracie O’ Brien, 3rd Grade

Poems by the Writing Through Writers from Anjali House, Siem Reap, Cambodia:

Poets at the Border

MY LIFE

My life looks like a bridge.
For a long time my life was hardly happy.
My life had a lot of problems.
My life walks slowly forward.
My feeling is like the sky.
Sometimes, I’m happy - white clouds and blue sky.
And sometimes I’m sad - black clouds and heavy rain.

Vey Rith Sokheta

I AM A BRIDGE

I am a bridge.
I can help people go across.
The bridge is beautiful.
People need the bridge to go across.
The bridge is long.
In the morning, I see the mountain and the bridge.
I see the people go across on the bridge.
And at night, I don’t see a mountain, but I see a bridge.
Everyone likes the bridge.
The bridge has light.

Moeun Vongdara

A BIRD IS LIKE YOU

A bird can fly like you, study in your grade
if you are smart you can go to the next class
if you go to the next class your mom
and your dad are happy and see
how smart you are.
Just do it because if you do,

you will get everything you want.

A bird can fly to another tree
the bridge is below the water
Khmer women can share our dancing to another
country and people in our country are happy.
People in another country can learn about
Cambodia.
Your countries can have many difficult things.
A bridge is strong, a bridge
can make your friendship.

Ho Sokchomnan

OUR LIFE

From far away
Out of sight
There was a bridge
That’s full of life.

Across the ocean
Above the mountain
That leads up, so high,

At the end of the bridge
The Mighty God’s waiting
For us.

Telling us our life
From birth to death
Before seeing paradise
That’s why the bridge’s name
Is Our Life.

Chhantry Muni Rattanak

A BRIDGE TO MY DREAM

There once was a bridge
Made out of concrete
Green, hard and tall
So far
So long
I am scared
Because it is high
Goes to the other side of the city
It touches the clouds
And it is on a mountain.

The mountain is so long, so long
The mountain leads to paradise
Nobody goes there
I do not want to go because
It is too far and nobody knows what is there
Disconnected
It is like a dream
Beautiful
You can think something nobody knows
It makes me happy

Group poem by the writers of Anjali House

THE BRIDGE OF PEACE

Friendship like water and fish
Feels like brother and sister
Feels like happiness
Together we will make joy
Similar to father and daughter
They live together
Motivate each other

A bridge from one country to another
Like you and me
Loving each other

Peaceful and no war
This is our hope
To be together
Peace forever

Group poem by the writers of Anjali House

Poems from Oaxaca, Mexico Students

WHY?

Love is a deep emptiness you can't get out of,
it's black, dark.

First, it's delicate, darling, so much tenderness
but you end up tearing my heart.

Sometimes
I feel like I'm waiting for something that is never going to happen
Love, oh God the love.

Salvador Sanchez
Oaxaca Mexico junior high school student

LEAVE IT BEHIND

The cliff is so big like my fear
but my enthusiasm is bigger than
everything

So I will forget everything
and I will take the risk.

Melany Francisco Lorenzo
Oaxaca Mexico junior high school student

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF…?

Life is a risk that we need to take…
A risk that unfolds others.
Some risks, they could finish well
and others could finish bad.
But why not take it?
Why stay in the “what would happen if?”

Life is a risk we need to take
So we are filled with victorious battles
or with bigger mysterious stories.

Camila Estefanía Morales Velázquez
Oaxaca Mexico junior high school student

FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE END

Is it good or bad for us?
I don´t know the answer,
All that I know is that it can be fun
Or scary for some of us.

Because we're humans
And we can feel fear when we’re taking risks
Feel insecure, anxious, and depressed
But if you tell yourself it will be ok, everything will be ok.

We feel fear, it feels like you´re lost
In the dense forest with a lot of trees without an exit.
Taking a risk is like being lost in a forest.
If you don´t see the best of the things,
You can´t beat your fear.

At the beginning we always feel fear
But it can be fun too, and always can be better.
At the end you will say "I could do it, I´m proud of myself!"
Taking risks is like being in a forest.
You can choose if it will be beautiful or horrific,
You can enjoy being there or hate being there.

Aislin Barraza
Oaxaca Mexico junior high school student

“ …”

This poem doesn’t have a name,
but I’m waiting for one
That I can’t get out of my mind.

I don´t know how, when or why,
but it has a place in my heart,
Even when we’re apart,
I’ve been writing this poem for a while.

I named this poem at the end,
with just a simple name.
I put it to remember you,
So I named it “You.”

Cristina Deniss Morales Velázquez
Oaxaca Mexico high school student

SHOULD I?

I’m walking in the dark,
not knowing where my path
might lead.

But is it really that bad?
Perhaps being afraid is the
real issue.
Should I fly away?

Should I be like a leaf?
Should I see where the
wind goes?

I’m sailing through life like
a boat does on the sea.
Not knowing what’s below me,
Not understanding how deep

the water really is.

Should I be afraid to know?
Would it be better if I knew?

There are no clear answers,
Perhaps everything happens
for a reason.

Michelle Woolrich Osante
Oaxaca Mexico high school student

CHALLENGES

I think to try new challenges
It could be scary

Because you need to take your bag, and say
I want to be at the top and put my flag there.

New challenges can open your eyes to see
And ask yourself why you have a mask?

A mask to cover your feelings?
Because you feel bad? Or sad? Or very glad too?

Taking an adventure is taking off your mask
and feeling ready to get going on your task.

These challenges try to give you a new day
Try to give you a new way

To be a new person
To feel a new sensation.

Oliver Alexander Cruz Valencia
Oaxaca Mexico high school student

A MISTAKE FOR SUCCESS

Are you there?
Are you trying to tell me something?
What do you want from me?
Just take risks!
Live different emotions
Life can be like what you want

cry
laugh
smile
dance

You can fail, but you can try
over and over
again.

As a part of being alive
we have the chance
to make mistakes
But
As a human we are.
We have the chance
to try again.

Daniela Jimena Cortés Sumano
Oaxaca Mexico university student

TAKING RISKS IS FINE

You should always take risks.
Because life is all about that.

It doesn't matter how you feel.
Feel fear, happiness, adrenaline, or anger
It’s okay.
Because life is all about that.

Don't be afraid to take risks.
Because as my mom says,

Life is only once.

Yulisa Merlin
Oaxaca Mexico university Student

Special Guest Poets for Children

BLACK LIVES MATTER

Every day I watch the news I her another black man has been shot.
He won’t return home to his family because the cops decided to make his heart

stop.

I’ve just got one question:
WHEN WILL THE RACISM STOP?
Our ancestors fought through chains and whips so we can be free at last.
But I guess people forget about the past.
I get nervous to walk outside of my home thinking will I be next?
Will I be Ahmaud Arbery getting shot dead for jogging or
George Floyd yelling, “Please get your knee off my neck!”
I will continue to be fearless with the spirit that God gave me
inside to fight.
Soon, very soon, our voices will be heard.
The wait will be over.
We just have to continue to be strong.
Like Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “I HAVE A DREAM.”
But for me this one is personal.
I have a dream that black men, women, and children will not
suffer any longer at the hands of a white man.
Our voices will be answered as we scream BLACK LIVES MATTER
no matter where we stand.

Natima Harry

GHAZAL FOR THE OCEAN

my hot feet covered in sand, I dipped into the ocean
to get salt, my grandmother in India boiled water from the ocean

my first time at Jones Beach, I gathered seashells, clams, and glass
I also picked a dead crab, grayish-pink, cast away from the ocean

sea salt, minerals, and aloe—ingredients in a Sephora potion-lotion
if I had money, I'd drink nonalcoholic Kahlua and eat vegan scallops on vacation
by the ocean

old white dudes cried when Ariel was re-cast as a Black woman
relax, chill dudes, she's still a red-headed mermaid in the ocean

I used to drown in a complex-ptsd-depression-ocean
I, Nidhi, just graduated from therapy, look at me, I'm swimming in the ocean

Nidhi Gandhi
Previously published in Up the Staircase Quarterly Issue 62