CCNY Poetry Outreach Center
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
RAINBOW
Rainbow is a cozy thing
Cozy as my soft blanket.
Rainbow tastes like all
the fruit flavors.
I want to see a real rainbow
in Mexico.
Niko Garcia
PS 29, Pre-K
YELLOW AND ORANGE
Yellow and Orange are sisters.
They bake chocolate chip cookies together.
Yellow is bright like the sun.
Orange likes to play with cars.
They are happy colors.
Savanna Gecaj
PS 29, Pre-K
RED AND PINK
Red and pink are best friends.
They like to play hide and seek,
They also play Princess.
Red is like a heart
full of happiness.
Pink is sweet
as rainbow cake.
Tecla Kaplan
PS 29, Pre-K
ORANGE AND YELLOW
Orange and yellow
are best friends.
They like to play
on the slide.
Orange pushes yellow
on the swing.
These colors are bright as stars.
Emmy Pantoja
PS 29, Pre-K
GREEN
Green is like a hard avocado
that I eat for dinner.
It is a fall color, green as grass.
Green is soft as a stuffed
dinosaur which I would like to have.
Adam Rutkoff
PS 29, Pre-K
I LOVE DOGS
A dog with black dots
A dog looks pretty
A dog looks cute
A dog barks
A dog is smelly
A dog is fuzzy
A dog is small
A dog has claws
A dog has curly hair
A dug runs to the bathroom
A dog is nice
A dog eats dog food
A dog tastes like cotton candy
A dog can lick you
A dog is soft
A dog is stinky
A dog is loud
Group Poem
PS 29, Pre-K
COINS
Hold fast to coins
For if they stop
Life’s a swirling black hole
With no pink mole
Hold fast to coins
For if they die
Life's an empty fridge
With no warm pie
Orion Colosi
PS 321, 4th Grade
YOUR DREAMS
A dream is a wish, a bubblegum dish,
and your life is affected by your dreams, too.
It can be a sunny day, a forever payday!
It’s true, it's true, it’s true!
Life can also be a dark, barren, sea,
With your heart burning, burning from the core.
So look into your dreams, make them come true,
the person the magic mirror is you...
Spread your wings, prepare to fly!
Live life to the fullest,
shoot up to the sky!
There are many years before you die.
Timur Eker
PS 321, 4th Grade
THE LEAVES
Rustling on the trees
changing color with amazing ease
floating gracefully to the ground
falling, falling all around
dancing, dancing through the air
unaware that I am there
jumping, jumping to the ground
everywhere, all around
the leaves, the leaves
on the trees
falling, dipping through the air
here, then there, then everywhere
whispering through the trees
crunching, crackling, the leaves
Sarah Fleming
PS 321, 4th Grade
WAR
People fighting
like soldiers
We want freedom
They're wrestling
like vicious cats and dogs
We want freedom
What's the point
of fighting
We want freedom
Swords swinging
guns banging
WE WANT FREEDOM!
Kaia Harris
PS 321, 4th Grade
THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE A PENCIL
You dance across the page
Roll across the human hand
Feel your black tip drag along the white paper
Feel the hand touch your rigid bumps
And your eraser hit the page
You drop on the ground and bounce, bounce, bounce
You can smell your freshly sharpened tip
Then you get picked up and written with again
Your tip broke from the fall
You drop into the sharpener but your tip breaks again
And you get gently placed into the pencil case, never to be used again.
Lazlo Katznelson
PS 321, 4th Grade
MY WISHES
I wish the world was a better place,
from earth, and all the way to space
I wish our bright blue ocean waves were clear as glass,
with nothing even close to trash.
I wish the world was a better place,
from earth, and all the way to space
I wish everyone had a heart of gold,
no final breaths, my sadness would be sold.
Juno Mazur
PS 321, 4th Grade
IT'D BE NICE
It'd be nice if there was no pollution
Pollution is an abandoned car, broken and bare
It'd be nice if there wasn't world hunger
World hunger is an empty supermarket, hungry and spare
It'd be nice if there was world peace
No world peace is a burnt-up forest, dark and daring
It would be nice if people stopped littering
Littering turns into a dump, crazy not caring
It'd be nice if the world was happy
Happiness is like a treasure, found like hope
My dream is happiness.
Hudson Moore
PS 321, 4th Grade
OCEAN
Turquoise waves crashing down on shore
Luring me in with your salty, smell
Stealing all of the sand from shore
With all of the turtles and dolphins, you're hard to resist
The shells are scratching my feet
The sound drilling into my ears
Your current, sweeping me away from shore
Your octopi, so beautiful, I love and adore
I find myself in paradise, you the ocean
It hurts me so much, to say goodbye
You shall always be a friend of mine
We will meet again, Ocean.
Elie Navarro-McKay
PS 321, 4th Grade
IF I WERE A SUPERHERO...
If I were a superhero,
I would control the weather,
For the flowers begging for rain,
Or for a very cold, pale man,
On a lovely vacation.
If I were a superhero
I would control the weather,
For the polar bears pleading for ice,
For the Africans in a drought,
needing rain.
If I were a superhero,
I would control the weather,
From the red-hot deserts,
To the coldest of blue lands.
If I were a superhero,
At the end of the day,
I would be a normal girl.
Resting after a long day.
Beatrix Swigert
PS 321, 4th Grade
IF I COULD FLY
I'd be a bird looking for its prey,
I could soar above the white fluffy clouds,
I could leap, soar, dive, whoosh,
I'd be a falcon diving deeper and deeper,
I could hang upside down from the tallest oak tree.
I could fly up the tallest skyscraper with such force
that I rip the glass from the windows,
I could fly circle after circle,
if I could fly.
Ruby Yarrow
PS 321, 4th Grade
WHAT WOULD
what would
make a
perfect world
it's hard to say
a perfect world
would have
no say
to be mean
no racism
kindness
everywhere
rainbows all to share
But if you are mean
It’s hard to say
YOU will be
in your own way
Violet Barzilay
Ella Baker School, 4th Grade
I WANT TO BE FREE
I want to be free of not knowing what Trump will do to our people—
my undocumented friends, their families, the people who love them.
They want freedom too—freedom from being afraid.
I want to be free, free of our government taking away the things that matter most:
Friends, love, people, our rights, our thoughts, who we are!
Sometimes I think about the people in this country
and how they just want to live their lives
I want to be free of only two genders.
I want non-binary people to be free.
I want us to be free of ICE raids—
how they go around deporting people
back to countries they never even lived in.
Is this even the United States of America???
I want to be free of Trump
taking away the warmth from my heart and my life.
I want to be free of thinking to myself,
"What will happen next now that he is our president?"
I want to be free from not knowing what will happen
to this country I thought I loved.
Most important—I still have hope.
And when you have hope… YOU ARE FREE
Aria Scarlett Weissman
Ella Baker School, 4th Grade
GROUP POEM
rosa: a perfect world would be
peace and love
forever and always
genesis: a perfect world would
be romantic and religious
marley: a perfect world would be
for kindness to take over
rosa: a perfect world would mean everyone would feel safe no matter who they
were—no matter their gender
no matter their race
no matter their identity
genesis: a perfect world would be no one would be judged for
the color of their skin
and people would have empathy to walk in someone else’s shoes
marley:everyone would have the same amount of money
everyone would have a home
genesis: my wish is for homelessness to end
rosa: my wish is for the world to be perfect for everyone
marley: when i was born i had a hole in my heart but my parents and doctors
helped me and today i am here and healthy. my wish for the world is that all kids
could have the same care.
All: this is our version of a perfect world
Genesis Hinds, Rosa McNally, Marley Schall
Ella Baker School, 4th Grade
IN MY DREAMS
In my dreams
I like to fly
Where others cannot go
And when I lift off
I soar to a faraway place I do not know
When I hear a sound
A beautiful note
Just like a melody
I smile and shine and dance
Into infinity
I must explore far and wide
And like a firework
I shoot up into the sky
I burst into one million specks of light
And then I realize it was all just a dream
A beam of light streaks through my dark night.
Luella Carrington Cruz
Ella Baker School, 5th grade
UNITY
Unity
Hearts form love
Sometimes there is hate
Segregation
Racism
People are still fighting for rights.
Trans people are bullied every day
We need to fight for peace and rights
We have Black History month in February
To honor
To celebrate
To remember what a great people they are
To remember how they changed the world
We need to fight hand in hand
Doesn’t matter your race
Doesn’t matter your gender
Doesn’t matter your disabilities
Doesn’t matter your sex
Because you are you and that matters.
Lavender Eller
Ella Baker School, 5th Grade
IN A PERFECT WORLD
In a perfect world
people would be happier
we would have a different president
In a perfect world
things would be the way
they are between me
and the white people
I care about
there would be
no racism
In a perfect world
I could play video games all day
I would have my PS5 at school
People would spend more time together
It would be sunny all the time
In a perfect world
I would feel happy
and free
Zaire Gurley
Ella Baker School, 5th Grade
HAND IN HAND
Hand in Hand
I look up at the stars
they shine through the
Darkness, Hand in Hand
I wonder if all the
people who fought for
unity ever look up
Hand in Hand, at the same stars.
Sylvia Markham
Ella Baker School, 5th Grade
BRIDGES
Some bridges are literal
Some bridges are metaphorical
Those bridges cross the gap
Between race, sex, LGTBQ and
Open up space for equality.
Don’t cross the the river of ignorance
Build bridges of equality.
Holden Rudy
Ella Baker School, 5th Grade