"build a boat, and then/ they see...": Table Poems

“build a boat, and then/ they see…”: Table Poems

Students discussed what happens around their eating table and then crafted these beautiful poems inspired by ‘Perhaps the World Will End Here’ by Joy Harjo.

Lesson Note: ‘My approach to writing has this belief at its core: To become…a more confident writer is to take a learning journey. Learning through practice-repeating an activity over and over has always been one of the main ways humans learn. To be on a learning journey as a writer means moving from one place to another.’-How to Be A Writer: Building Your Creative Skills Through Practice and Play by Barbara Baig.

The Table

At this table we eat good food
At this table we play Uno
At this table I play the ukelele
At this table we make new friends
At this table we party
At this table we make new family
At this table we share our love

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At this table papers rustle
and we we eat we don’t talk
At this table we fight
when homework is done
at this table we read at this
table we party.

Interesting Dinner

At this table we watch TV
It’s very entertaining
At this table, we talke to each other
With very interesting stories

At this table
We eat.
Healing us.
At this table
We are all
Family

At This Table

We play games
while the kids run
I help the little ones
build a boat, and then
they see if it can float

The adults
and teens
gossip around the
table about some new crime
While we grab a dime
to pay the pizza man
and at last, kids and
Adults sit around eating
together forever and ever