All posts in Poems

“Joy is half love and half regret”

This week at Henry Elementary, we looked at a poem by Melissa Lozada-Oliva titled “My Spanish.” We discussed personification and repetition, and how these can change or strengthen a poem. We shared how it […]

All of Us Are Poets! | ¡Todo Somos Poetas!

In celebration of all of the poems we’ve written this year, and Poetry Month, we are hosting a Café de Poesia/Poetry Cafe! Here are some of the poems students will read this week! Why […]

What Lives | What We See

We read On the Pulse of Morning, by Maya Angelou, and then drew the story we heard in the poem. Here is what lives, here is what we see!

[…]

Around The World At Lawndale

Not but hours ago, Lawndale traveled around the world and the US in a workshop inspired by Joy Young’s travel poetry lesson and John Balaban’s “Passing Through Albuquerque”. We started with a game of […]

Sensing A New Season

We have been thinking about our senses and noticing new smells, sounds and even colors as the weather is changing to spring. These are some poems we wrote, thinking about our senses! El paisaje […]

What is shiny, hot, yellow, and orange?

Today Brennemann 2nd graders put on their imaginative thinking caps to meet the challenge of creating their own comparisons and writing similes (a comparison that uses the words “like” or “as.”) We talked about […]

A Look At Us

This is a collection of some of the poems students have written through out this year. Students write about what makes them feel alive, what makes them feel inspired, the memories they have and […]

Can Poems Take Care of Someone

Today, we read Naomi Shihab Nye’s “The Red Brocade” and discussed the way the poem tries to take care of the reader and the generous ways it makes offerings to us. We talked about […]

“a fire alarm that sounds angry”

For our 2nd sessions, Brennemann 2nd graders sat with me on the rugs in their respective classrooms, as I read the poem “Collecting Words” by Pat Mora, from her book Bookjoy, Wordjoy. The poet […]

Our Favorite Objects

At Smyser Elementary in our 4th grade classrooms, we looked at the poem “Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo. Students learned about personification and used word bubbles or word maps to help […]

Donate

Support our student poets today!

CONNECT WITH US!

Twitter Facebook-f Instagram

STUDENT POETRY

Click on a school name below to browse student poems from current school partners.

POETRY ARCHIVE

Click on a school name below to browse student poems from our archive.

RECENT FACEBOOK POSTS

TESTIMONIALS

“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.

“Writing poetry makes me feel free.”
-Buenda D.

“Writing poetry is like your best friend.”
-Jessica M.

Search

CONTACT US

General Inquiries
info@poetrycenter.org

Programs (School & Organizational)
programs@poetrycenter.org

Reading Series and Events:
curator@poetrycenter.org

The Chicago Poetry Center is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
FEIN: 23-7400515

SEND US A POSTCARD

Chicago Poetry Center
1448 E. 52nd St, #256
Chicago, IL 60615

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