Mythical Poets - The Chicago Poetry Center

Mythical Poets

For their 12th week of poetry O-School students explored myths. A myth is an ancient story or legend explaining the early history of a group of people or about a natural phenomenon. Students were familiar with Greek Gods and Goddess such as Aphrodite the Greek Goddess of love and Zeus with is thunderbolt, the ruler of Gods on Mount Olympus. Every culture around world has their own unique myths, stories that tell how things came to be. Students watched a short video clip of the Sky Woman myth and the creation of Turtle Island.

Together we read the poem, “My People,” by Pam Thompson. In her poem Thomas explores the origins of various animals. The poet is being told this story by her mother, explaining how animals were once humans, before they underwent a supernatural transformation.

Inspired by Pam Thompson, students wrote their own origin myths, creating stories about how certain people, creatures, and things came into existence.

Group A Middle School

Demon

There was once a man who would sit in the park,
and listen to the quiet, that was happiness.
But day by day his life grew louder with hatred.

Finally, when he couldn’t take it anymore,
he screamed and the hatred consumed him.
transforming him into pure hatred, the demon.
The demon terrorized the hateful, whose
hate turned him forever.

Sky

Rain. The Sky cries a sound, soul.
Pain is in the creation of the sky.
The world creates the sky.
Nature, it lies quietly, making
more and more

Group B Middle School

Mythical Pencil

What if all inanimate objects were alive?
An object would be put in a laboratory
to be given a human brain.
Some good things that would happen
to the world, would be having less
responsibilities.

First Flowers

It was a long time ago,
when all over the world it rained
for 1 year straight.
The people begged and prayed
for the rain to stop.

1 year later…
endless flowers grew all
over the Earth.
The people were so happy.

The Earth and Death of Ymir

When the world first started, it had two sides,
The place Nifelhiem, which was very cold,
and the other place, Muspell was very hot.
In Niflheim, a giant of frost was formed
in the cold. It melted, as Muspell met
its icy ridges. The giant was name Ymir.
Soon, a cow was formed and more giants
formed with its every move. The cow
found some salt and being a cow, it licked it.

By three days the cow had created a whole
being from salty ice. This was Buri, the first
God, who had a child with a frost giantess.
This became Bor, who had three children
Odin, Vili, and Ve. They killed Ymir, and
in spite of the death, created life with
his body. They created the world using
every, single, part, of his body.
None went to waste.

How It Started