"We use tools" - The Chicago Poetry Center

“We use tools”

For our 2nd sessions, I showed up in Brennemann 5th grade classrooms all set to introduce them to the Gwendolyn Brooks poem, “We Real Cool,” but they were already familiar with it from a poetry unit that they had done with their teachers! (That did make me happy!) Nevertheless, students were willing to re-visit the poem with me. We looked at its unique structure and rhyme scheme, and talked about the poem’s meaning. Students shared words that could be used interchangeably with cool, such as lit, fire, awesome, and alpha, before writing their own “We Real Cool”-inspired poems.

Ms. Birkeland 5th Grade

We Use Tools Nancy S.

We use tools. We
real cool. We

fix. We
use tricks. We

never fail.
Even in hail. We

make cash. We
clean ash.

The Real World Philip D. K.

It don’t matter if you’re black or white.
Just like a chess piece you gotta play it right
When the time comes are you gonna make it tight?
Then you gonna make it cool because you ain’t a fool.
When you gonna take it high? Then you gonna fly.

Victor

We real cool
We go to school.
We’re done with work
We go to search.
We stay up late
We have a debate.

I get up to tell
It turns into hell.
My friend Letrell
runs outside
We run with him only
to find a lime.

Ameerah K.

I’m respectful
I feel joy as
I sing this poem I’m eating
an almond joy, not cuz
I’m hungry.
I eat cake but the
cake has a special ingredient:
!Happiness!

Ms. Keuten 5th Grade

We Are Not Cool Jocelyn

We are not cool. we
skip school. We
too dumb.

We are not cool. We can’t be bothered
to get a job and instead beg.

We are not cool. We
try to kill people over little things.

We are not cool. We
will die early. No one
will miss us.

Young and Dumb Monroe

young and dumb
the name of the game that everyone
plays

unseen and unloved, not everyone has
pain like this

Pain: it’s like getting shot but the world
can be heavier at times.

I miss the old life. No pain no
worries . I miss my old life
my old friends, my old family
but not everyone can stay the same.