Hello everyone, and sorry I've been hoarding poems and have not updated the blog recently!The poems here were inspired by our reading and discussion of "The Hands," by Gina Valdes in 6th and 8th grade, and "Voyelles," by Arthur Rimbaud, in 3rd and 6th grade.

Also, be sure to check out the blog next week - in 8th grade we will be creating and posting audio recordings of our work from last week!

8th grade

The Hands

These hands like to write raps
These hands hold the mic on my
mouth spit good rhymes
my nose smells money
my ears hear music
my feet feel the stage floor

- Shaquille

My ears
the way I communicate
the way I know how other people are feeling
the way other people know how I feel
they are like the telephone
to one human to another
connecting feelings
connecting us
my ears learn
to try to change the next day
they hear how people act
bad, nice, mean
a thousand other beats running through the
wires people call air
connecting us; all of us
the way we feel, act, do, and not do to eachother
everything we know, everything we learn comes
from the connection we have.
The way we listen to each other
the way human beings communicate with one another
my ears hear the happiness of the world
the laughter coming to my ears as how the waves
come to the shore
eventually we will hear everything, just
like eventually the waves will crash on
to the shore
Then all will return

-Charlotte

Colors: Red, blue, yellow, green, purple and orange
These colors I cannot experience fully.
My eyes, these eyes, have been dipped in black ink,
In an irritating sense of blackness that reminds
me how different I conceive life,
How punishing life is, even in the hands of someone
else. One action, one small movement, could change
the entirety of your world, a supposed miracle.

- Alex H.

Words, they forever fill my mouth
It is me, my teeth, my lips, my voice
Say what my mind cannot, taste what my
other senses can only dream.

My mouth is boring, only in sleep or thought
inside the words pop out like a monkey out of
a tree. Loving, or caring are words always
there, but even mean, hurtful things always
seem to ind a way. I speak, I shout, I
whisper softly, I can barely even sing. But
my mouth can do all these things, and what
joy does it bring.

- Tylisha


6th grade

My hands love to make jokes.
My hands touch things how I dream it.
My hands love to do the right things.
My hands were born to write.
My hands were able to talk to me when I was so bored.
My hands were like meatballs.
I love my hands my hands are like twins.
My hands love me my hands are so chatty.

- Esteban

These hands use their thumbs to hit colorful buttons,
to rotate joysticks. These ears hear sounds of engines
rev-ving, guns firing, bombs exploding, they hear people
grunting to pull themselve up a ledge. These eyes see
scores, numbers, health bars, stamina bars, characters dying.
My mouth talks in victory, loss, effort.

- Mark



A like green
Like the smell of Febreeze.

E like yellow
Like the feelings in the morning.

I like white
Like the feelings of a penguin.

U like red
Like the smell of meat being cooked.

O like blue
Like the smell of the ocean water.

- Paul

C, purple like the color of a starfish wandering in the sea
L, Blue like the color on a pepsi can
E, yellow like the lightning of thunder when it's raining
A, red the color of a farm with loud animals
R, white like the color of the snow coming down in winter.

- Leslie

3rd grade


Colors of the Alphabet

A, red. The color of blood that comes from my finger.
B, blue. The stirring of the waves.
C, white. As cold as ice.
D, violet. As close together as fire and ice.
E, green. Like the color of life, responsibility, freedom, and justice.
F, grey. The color of sadness.
G, clear. The way of the mind.
H, periwinkle. The love of colors.
Z, a color we do not know of.

- Sabrina

A is red like the swishing blood coming down from the human body.
E is for green like the grass blowing around by the wind.
I is for black like the dark forests in the calm trees.
U is for blue like the oceans with whooshing waves.
O is for purple like the scary ghosts in haunted houses.
Y is for brown like the dark sunset with the white moon.

-Sammy

B as in blue dolphins jumping into the light blue morning sky.
L like a cold purple breeze that blows past you in winter.
A like the red blood flowing out as you get a cut.
C like the orange cat jumping down from his cozy quiet spot high in the trees.
K like the cold chill you get when you're scared.
Q like the warm cozy quiet that keeps you warm when the cold crisp snow falls before you.
N like the newborn polar bear awakening up from a long snooze.

- Delaney

Wishing

Here is a collaborative class poem by Alcott's fabulous third graders. Let's think of a title for it, shall we guys? Next time!

I wish I could go to Novosibirsk with a tiger, and a blue-green shark
I wish I had a cat and a magic bunk bed
I wish I can get a pokemon like Dialga
I wish I could go to the Philippines wearing a blue swimsuit with my dog fishing for sharks and eating crickets.
I wish that my dog was white as the snow in Antarctica
I wish I can fly and had a pet car
I wish I had a ferrari that had a pink elephant that was driving in the sky
I wish I was at my old house where I had my big red treehouse and all my little friendly pets around my house we sold my house that very day because we were broke and sad
I wish I had a Lucario in a red ferarri in Las Vegas
I wish I could have a tattoo of a dog that is red and it is on my stomach
I wish I could have two yellow golden retrievers in my house
I wish that I had a big red dog and I would ride it at Las Vegas
I wish I could walk my brown snake to Mexico
I wish that there was a red snake in my grandma's house
I wish I had a red gardos and we lived in a mansion
I wish I had a penguin in my white freezer
I wish I had a golden rod to save all of the world
I wish the world was filled with a color a place for anyone
I wish I could have a blue dolphin in my room
I wish I could go to the blue sea to go into a dead shark
I wish for 1,000,000,000 blue dollars and walk my dog out in Italy
I wish my school had a Bastodon
I wish I could have a blue room, with a purple and red and blue tiger, I wish that I could have anything I want. Like walk my tiger in Paris, with people running away. I wish penguin in a hot cloud. I wish I lived on a cloud. I wish.

Welcome to Alcott's Hands on Stanzas weblog! Here we'll be posting poems written by the students of Ms. Pinter's 3rd grade class, Mr. Lavares' 8th grade class, and Ms. Billingham's 6th grade class.

Last week, students in 6th and 8th grade each contributed one line to collaborative poems. These lines are self reflections inspired by details in a variety of photographs and paintings.


Some things we are

from the 8th grade:

A place out of nowhere, these colors I am
Joyful like the beautiful lake
Like the claws of the waves, I am reaching for everything
A lonely time, with a single cup of tea
I am bored like the girl standing away from the other children
I am not a dull person like the color of the sky
A table of oddities pointed at a window, full of sail
Loud like the kid playing the trumpet
Joyful, warm summer air while walking in the grass
I am not happy as the people within this painting
I am sad and alone as the lady on the left, standing solo in her long brown and white dress
I feel lonely like this white stripe
Energetic like the old ducks dancing
I am bored and never happy
Like the picture, quiet like the pumpkins, or energetic like the fire
I'm like the flower in this picture, the black means how I feel inside sometimes (mad) and the
outside of the flower (orange) means I feel sweet
These birds from Peru are very colorful and happy so to explain me in this picture I am happy and fun to be around and very active
The sweet cider hid from the pumpkins and fire
In my own words, don't jock what you can't rock, and your opinion is not needed
I flow with my dreams like the flow of water
I feel like I get kicked around like a rock and a kid
Some times I feel like I get swept away like a sand castle getting swept away by the ocean
Let midnight take over the deep blue sea
Deep. I am a very deep person I keep all my feelings to myself as if they were at the bottom of a deep blue sea hidden forever
Guitar. playing I don't give a... attitude, I'm tired, don't wanna be here person, a smoker with a blue soul, for passion and gratitude stepped on the little man to get to the top. Probably lived a cinderella story life. Burnt edge picture gives away an indication that parts of a life are missing not telling how mine is
The silence is as quiet as the clearing of rain
I cannot see my future as she cannot see a rainbow
I feed them what they need, yet only I can feed myself
I want to be free to fly, like the butterflies blazing in the sun
I am soaring high like the planes in the sky
Lost in the middle of black and white, in the middle of nowhere
I am like the wind, moving fast through my life
The champion is ready as his battle will begin, but in the heart of this fighter, he knows he will win
Like the sly fox who searches to find the string
Free spirit in my mind
Drama and pain is what I live through but in my mind I can dream about whatever and be happy
I will never ever get on a boat because it might sink


from the 6th grade:


I'm as fierce as the wave on the left
I'm sexy just like the man that is coming from a boxing match
My eyes are as colorful as the Macaws' colorful feathers
I'm hungrier than these foxes in this picture
This flower line is horizontal
I feel plain like the trees in the background with no leaves
I am the dog in the picture followed by the chickens, but that doesn't mean I can't be a leader
I am strong like David Lachappelle
I feel alone like the lady in the yellow hat sitting at the table inside the diner
I see a karlsruhe in the zoo
I feel like the green shoe on the left because I like green
I am happy like the kid playing the trumpet
I feel like a bee who is going to land on a flower any second