Story Time - The Chicago Poetry Center

Story Time

This week the students at Amundsen had a classic story time lesson. We talked about fairy tales and family memories we enjoyed. The poems we read this week for inspiration were Marie Howe’s “Gretel, From A Sudden Clearing” and Kayleb Rae Candrilli’s “My Mother Believes in My Marriage and this Shows Me Her Heart Can Forgive Even Years Spent Dancing Alone.” The students then brainstormed the characters and plot of their narrative poem. They were then tasked with writing either a fairy tale retelling or a family memory. For fun, I provided them with a wordbank from the Lumberjack Lingo: A Dictionary of the Logging Era by L.G. Sorden and Jacque Vallier. I’ve pasted the word bank below and am so proud of the students I’m publishing this week! Go Vikings!

Ms. Widman High School Creative Writing

A Beautiful Saturday Morning Giselle S.

The sun was shining and flowers were blooming
My family decides to take a walk
Unknowing walking into the unknown
As time goes by I wander off
to chase a butterfly
despite knowing the consequences
walking into the unknown
alone and afraid waiting for someone
anyone who can help me
Crying for my mother
stranded and alone
thinking I would never see them again
walking past tree by tree
walking in circles
Endless unknown things to come
how helpless I felt
Hours go by making it
cold and dreary
Until I hear my Mom
Running to a glimpse of hope
waiting for someone to come
Anyone who can help me.
I saw my Mom
and that’s when it became
warm and Sunny.

Thief Octavia C.

A fiddle young girl barely making her
way into the world.

A weary and tired out man
with a target for an ethnicity.

I feel your pain.

The bond unfolds like a creased piece of paper.

Misunderstood words finally understood.
Survival being the one word they worried for.
Would he survive?
Or would he be captured in the
dark basement in which he slept.

Th bond only grows,
words finally interpreted.

The Nazi getting warmer.

Survival is the only instinct.

Humpty Dumpty except in a sandwich on the Great Wall of China Dom H.

A man began his walk down the Great wall of China.
It was peaceful and beautiful scenery.
He saw a couple weather balloons.
Waved at the balloons.
All this waving got him hungry…
Luckily, he brought brunch.
He whipped out a breakfast sandwich.
Delicious! But where to sit?
He had no choice but to sit on the edge.
The weather spy balloon walked up to him
and told him to be careful because that’s not safe.
The man said there’s nothing dangerous bout eating brunch.
He gripped the sandwich and went in for a bite.
Woosh! A HUGE BREEZE SLAPS THE EGG OUT
THE SANDWICH. It must’ve fallen 10,000 ft.
The man realized the danger the balloon spoke of.
He could’ve choked on that egg.
He thanked the balloon and the egg,
then ate his sandwich.