Can You See It? - The Chicago Poetry Center

Can You See It?

This week Brennemann 2nd graders joined me on the carpets in their classrooms, to think about places where poems are found. Students said poems can be found in books and on walls, in computers, on worksheets, and in libraries, among other places. They agreed with me when I said that poems can also be found inside of us. I read Karla Kuskin’s “Finding a Poem” from one of my favorite illustrated anthologies of poems, Wonderful Words, illustrated by Karen Barbour. We looked at its colorful and unusual illustrations and came up with phrases to describe what we saw, such as “a handful of colorful birds,” and “a city of abc’s.” Our theme was imagery, and after reading the poem “Someday I Hope to See,” students practiced creating phrases that invite the mind’s eye to see unexpected images, or pictures.

“a handful of colorful birds”

“a city of abc’s”

Ms. Okones 2nd Grade

Jamal

I wish I had a chair made of chocolate chips
I wish I had a marker that writes down “word”
I would like to see a handful of fishes swinging
and a water bottle full of cotton candy
a toy full of apples
a cloud that rains kittens
a house made of slime
a bicycle made of tears

Ava

I would like to see
bagels in a printer copier
a house of cookies
a pizza of milk
a clock of pizza
a door of water
a grape of chocolate milk
pages of a book filled with rain
a clock that lets
you know it’s time to do
homework

Azeneth

Un libro hecho de globo
Un buso lleno lego
Un casa de papel
Un perro hecho de cinta
Un amiga hecho de flores
Una nube e cho de malvavisco
Un libro e cho de palo
Una silla echa de zapato

Brooklyn

I would like to see
a sink of chocolate milk
a bed of pizza
pages of a book filled with cotton candy
raining clouds of spirit
a teddy bear of body parts
a human of pencils in a school
a snowflake of computers
a marker full of wood
glue that’s not sticky
a book with no pages

Mrs. Richter 2nd Grade

Ashley R.

desearia haberlo hecho
a flower made with candy
a table of crayons
a tv full of chocolate
a book of tea
a Mrs. Richter of tea
a Ms. Leslie of gummies
a bike of coffee
a cloud that rains gummy bears
a girl of cheese
a bear of letters

Jason

I wish I had a pizza with
a hundred pack of diet coke
a ketchup of toes
a city of numbers
a car of pizza
a chair of rocks
a paper of candy
a pencil of cheese
a[n] eraser of headbands
a water bottle of clouds

Kevin

desearia haberlo hecho
a house of instruments
a car of chicken
a bike of penguins
a guitar filled with money
monkeys moving a car
a train of numbers
a backpack full of pencils

Meklit

I would like to see
a house of pizza
a rug of fur
a school made of apples
cloud made of marshmallows
a tree that grows soup

I would like to see
tacos fall out of the sky
and hearts fly around in the sky