Blackout! Blackout!

School
Lawndale Community Academy

Poet in Residence
Cai Sherley

Date

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. In addition to words, they played with images. Here not only will you see innovative erasures, but also rainbows, flowers, and people falling from the sky. To see the poems students created plainly, go to the footnotes.

 

School
Lawndale Community Academy

Poet in Residence
Cai Sherley

Date

Ms. Barker

6th Grade

Kamari W.
Jiyah M.
Noel C.

Ms. Barker

8th Grade

Priscella H.
Geane C.
Jaylenah L.

 

  1. sleep
    came upon him
    “Spare Me!” “Please let me go”
    he was generous and finally let go
    a kindness is never wasted
    ↩︎
  2. one day
    a mocking
    Tortoise
    was amused
    how ridiculous
    to take a nap
    not always swift
    ↩︎
  3. Somewhere over the rainbow blue
    Someday I’ll wish upon a star
    and wake up where the
    tops
    ↩︎
  4. can you see through the fight
    the bombs proof our flag
    yet wave freeseen
    the foes in silence
    the breeze blows
    the beam now shines
    O’re the homewhere war leaves us
    Their blood pollution
    the terror of the grave
    And in the land
    and the home
    shall standthe war with power
    when God is
    the star in triumph
    the land free
    ↩︎
  5. over the rainbow
    there’s a land
    and dreams you dare come true
    I’ll wish upon a star
    That’s where you’ll find me
    Where happy little bluebirds fly ↩︎

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