- BY: Poetry Center
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Our silent auction is open for bids! We’re excited to be auctioning dozens of great bundles ranging in interest, all generously donated by staff, board members, and board alums! A few highlights: These are […]
- BY: Poetry Center
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From February through June of 2025, the Chicago Poetry Center is offering free online Critical Conversations: Anti-Racism sessions open to any Illinois nonprofit organization employee or volunteer. Drawing on CPC’s decades of workshop facilitation, […]
- BY: Poetry Center
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Looking for a way to devote time and energy to your poetry without the distractions of your busy life? Apply to a writing residency! Join the Chicago Poetry Center as poet Keith S. Wilson […]
- BY: Poetry Center
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Let’s make it 50 for 50! With Your Support We Can Fund 50 Residences Next Year As we head towards the end of the calendar year and launch our annual campaign, the Chicago Poetry […]
- BY: Cai Sherley
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This week Lawndale tried their hand at Blackout poetry. Using Aesop’s fables, song lyrics, and the full text of the national anthem, poets explored how to tear something up and put it back together. […]
- BY: Madison Mae Parker
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Today in Mrs. Siciliano 7th + 8th grade class, we looked at Melissa Lozada-Oliva’s poem, “Like Totally Whatever.” We learned about tone of voice, and the power of using it in poetry, particularly in […]
- BY: Cai Sherley
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This week Hyde Park’s poetry club read “Where I’m From” by Willie Perdomo, a poem about the people, lessons, and experiences that define our “origins.” Enjoy these poems by two Chicagoans about the push […]
- BY: Teresa Dzieglewicz
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Today in Ms. Reed’s 3rd grade, we talked about play and surprise. We talked about how poetry can give us tools to express some of our deepest emotions and thoughts, while also giving us […]
- BY: Joy Young
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This Tuesday for our 7th poetry session at the O-School we embraced our emotions. As a warmup activity students played saw scenes from the movie “Inside Out 2,” the main character Riley is going […]
- BY: Ola Faleti
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Beautiful magic can be made when words and images collide. For that reason, Waters 7th graders dove into the world of Ekphrastic Poetry. Ekphrastic poems are written in response to an image, often a […]
- BY: Ola Faleti
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Beautiful magic can be made when words and images collide. For that reason, Waters 6th graders dove into the world of Ekphrastic Poetry. Ekphrastic poems are written in response to an image, often a […]
- BY: Josie Levin
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This week students dipped their toes into art criticism. We read “Untitled #9, 1981” by Victoria Chang, after the Painting by Agnes Martin of the same name. We discussed how Chang’s poem described the […]
- BY: Larry Dean
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James Tate’s poem, “Untitled” begins, “I sat at my desk and contemplated all that I had accomplished / this year.” The speaker then runs through a litany of ‘accomplishments’ growing more and more nutty, […]
- BY: Madison Mae Parker
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At Henry Elementary Week 2, we learned about lines, line breaks, and stanzas! We watched and read a poem by José Olivarez titled “Mexican Heaven.” Students then created their own poem of heaven or […]
- BY: Cai Sherley
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Last Saturday two bold poets represented Lawndale’s 6th and 8th-grade poets at the Poetry Center’s All School Reading. In another turn of events, the 8th grade class became two sections of poets, instead of […]
- BY: Timothy David Rey
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Students read James Tate’s poem, ‘Untitled,’ where the speaker embellishes their accomplishments…just a little. Lesson Note: “I love my funny poems, but I’d rather break your heart. And if I can do both in […]
- BY: Madison Mae Parker
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At our first week at Henry Elementary working with a combined 7th+8th grade class, students were tasked with writing an introductory poem: What is the one thing you want people to know about you? […]
- BY: Leslie Reese
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My fourth session with Swift 3rd graders was dreamy. We talked about many kinds of dreams and nightmares. Then we read the poem “D is for Daydreaming,” which ends with the following stanza:“Try to […]
- BY: Timothy David Rey
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Students wrote Odes, using personification, after reading Francisco X. Alarcon’s poem, ‘Ode to My Shoes.’ Lesson Note: “If it were up to me, everything I love would have a poem in praise of it. […]
- BY: Mayda del Valle
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Do all questions have an answer? This question was our jumping-off point for this week’s lesson as we read excerpts from Pablo Neruda’s Book Of Questions. After a lively discussion about the nature of […]
- BY: Cai Sherley
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This past week Hyde Park Academy High School’s poetry club spoke their names. They discussed their origins, the power of each nickname, and what their names mean to them. These are two of those […]
- BY: Joy Young
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This past Tuesday, I started my afterschool residency at the Gary Comer Center and met a great group of 8th graders. The theme for our first poetry session on was self-portraits. Artists create self-portrait […]
- BY: Cai Sherley
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This week Lawndale’s 6th graders explored dreams, with everything from mystery men to goats. Enjoy! Ms. Barker 6th Grade Señor by Anonymous En mi sueño había un señor escalofrianteque me seguía y me había […]
- BY: Joy Young
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For our sixth session of poetry, the O School Group A and B students were asked to transform into different objects, animals, or people using metaphors. Metaphors are direct comparisons, saying that one thing […]
- BY: Josie Levin
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This week in class we read “Glossary of Terms” by Franny Choi and discussed how form affects poetry with a new and unique form. Students filled in their own categories for Choi’s terms as […]
- BY: Larry Dean
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This week we read “Burning the Old Year” by Naomi Shihab Nye. As the titles suggests, the poem is about the New Year celebration, though it focuses on its subject obliquely, through a central […]
- BY: Ola Faleti
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Ah, the joys of revision! As every great poet knows, much of the “work” of poetry takes place through the revision process. With Waters 6th graders, we talked about some different ways to make […]
- BY: Ola Faleti
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Ah, the joys of revision! As every great poet knows, much of the “work” of poetry takes place through the revision process. For Waters 7th graders eighth week, we talked about some different ways […]
- BY: Russell Price
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This week the young viking writers were eager to try their hand at love poems–a topic they have been excited to write for weeks. They read and thoroughly enjoyed Matthew Olzmann’s “Mountain Dew Commercial […]
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“Writing poetry makes me feel like I can see myself, like I can see my reflection, but not in a mirror, in the world. I write and I know I can be reflected.”
-Oscar S.
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“Writing poetry is like your best friend.”
-Jessica M.
