Dreams

This week we read “Eating Dinner Alone at the 163rd Street Mall” by Ariel Francisco for both our English class and after school poetry club. Sometimes students shift around from different classes at LYHS, and I’m really glad that I got to share this poem with both groups today. It’s a beautiful piece and makes it really easy to talk about so many poetic elements, from metaphor, to imagery and rhythm. We discussed the importance of tone in poetry and how Francisco does such a great job of conveying a sense of nostalgia in this piece. We also talked about dreams that we may have had at some point in our lives, and what it feels like to come to the realization that they won’t come to pass, or that maybe our dreams have changed into something completely different. I asked students to be mindful of the tone they wanted to convey in their pieces, and I think these students did a great job. Enjoy this weeks poems!