So much depends upon the words gathered here in this collection of your work. This collection of poems means that we worked together on something bigger than ourselves. This collection of poems was “born” from passing around a zebra can while listening to crazy music and asking ourselves questions about all the parts of our lives. This collection of poems means that the 6th graders were able to break down a teeny tiny poem written by Williams Carlos Williams and then write about the everyday things in our lives that we all “depend upon.” This collection of poems shows that you were able to use concrete descriptive details and even metaphors and similes in your Odes and love poems. This collection of poems means you read Victoria Chang’s poem, “I Once Was a Child,” and thought about the changes that have happened in your lives between the years of being babies up until now— pondering change and maturity. This collection means that your teachers have strengthened your work ethic and have worked hard with you to give you a love of language, creativity, and yourselves.
For the 8th graders, this collection means you went real deep, real quick, and gave me goosebumps in most of our classes. We read symbolic birth poems written by Nikki Giovanni and Gregory Pardlo. You wrote “Because” poems thinking of significant choices you made in life after reading Ross Gay’s work, and many of you wrote poems that created portraits of key moments in your lives, modeled after Barack Obama’s poem, “Pops.”
I hope all of you enjoyed playing Poetry Jenga, Poetry Hot Potato, and making poetry statues to the words of Langston Hughes, Nikki Giovanni, and Mark Strand. I hope the words of Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes will live with you forever because your dreams are gold, and they do need to really happen; they are not meant to be “deferred.” And, I hope, as in the words of the great poet Kayla in Ms. Tasher’s class, that “your positivity can stretch beyond where the rainbow ends.” Please continue to find ways to bring life to your truths, to preserve your thoughts, and to stretch your positivity— because so much depends on it, and you!
Melanie Maria Goodreaux
Writer-In-Residence
Photo (top) by Jade Triton
Teachers & Writers Magazine is published by Teachers & Writers Collaborative as a resource for teaching the art of writing to people of all ages. The online magazine presents a wide range of ideas and approaches, as well as lively explorations of T&W’s mission to celebrate the imagination and create greater equity in and through the literary arts.
