All posts in Cai Sherley

Hyde Park Is Sticking Together

This past Thursday was bittersweet, as it marked the final session of Hyde Park’s 2025 poetry club. The poets were presented with a chapbook, full of their favorite poems written over the year. The […]

America’s Nation

During our most recent workshop, Hyde Park began our session by attempting to fill in a map of the United States. This sparked a discussion about what it means to be part of a […]

Of Haikus & Murder

This week at Howe, we were murderous and full of sensation. On Monday, we talked about beats, stomping and clapping our way through the 5-7-5 form of the haiku. After reading haikus about racial […]

Exquisite Corpses

One of my favorite forms of poetry is the exquisite corpse (beautiful body) — a poem written by multiple poets, often without knowing what the previous poets have written. Last week, Hyde Park wrote […]

A Celebration

This past Monday was a bittersweet day at Lawndale. Our last session marked the end of a residency full of games, conversations, and yes — poetry. We also had the entire 8th grade reunited […]

Chicago State of Mind

This past Monday at Howe, we merged poetry & rap with their intuitive collaborator — basketball. We began by defining poetry — getting creative with words to express emotions. Then we explored other places […]

“This is class is not demure”

This past Monday and Tuesday marked the beginning of a new partnership with Howe School of Excellence’s after-school program. The group is made up of boys ranging in age from 2nd – 7th grade, […]

Farewell Centos

This past Monday was Lawndale’s penultimate workshop. To commemorate our time together, we are putting together a chapbook! Students returned to their favorite poems and each submitted one. Our tool for the week was […]

The Lasagna of Life

This week was all about similes as entrances to extended metaphors, specifically about life. Reading Langston Hughes’ “Mother to Son” inspired a conversation about struggle, growth, and change. These poets then used the extended […]

Life the Storm, the Rollercoaster, the River

This past Monday Lawndale explored the meaning of life in metaphors. We did an activity called “the river of life” where students mapped out their lives up to this point using the image of […]

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I’M FROM THE CITY LIGHTS / STREAMING OUT IN THE NIGHT / AND HUGE SKYSCRAPERS / TOWERING OVER THE LAKE – MELISSA E., 7TH GRADE POET