Mission Statement (of sorts).

The Poetry of Children.

Breaking schemas

And

The molding of tomorrow’s youth

Into plastic soldiers

With replaceable, interchangeable personalities,

Guns, and names.

Marching away into the eve

Of tomorrow’s dawn,

Our

Children’s poetry

Will be

Bullets and gunshots ricocheting off the walls

That once supported dreams.

 

Left trying to decipher,

Marks on the wall,

Messages in graffiti,

If there was ever any

Meaning.

Cavemen left their marks on walls,

But these new scars relate misguided, disenchanted,

disenfranchised urban youth, revenge on the concrete

built on superficial ideals,

Wasted energy, fading hope, and savage inequalities.

 

Historians will remain in awe

At stains of blood,

Of murder filled books juxtaposed with fairy tales.

And these stories are yet to be recorded and written.

Depending on who dictates the future,

And how much everyone’s allowed to know,

They may never get written.

 

Thus the

Children’s poetry

Must not fall on

Or off

Deaf ears,

So that deviant behavior and memory

Will continue to remind

History,

And perhaps the whole conscious

Of present society,

Of those ignored, gentrified, and pushed to the outskirts

Until permeating the psyche.

Being that truth cannot be

Hidden or buried,

Children’s poetry

Will come out beating

To rhythms the color of love

That most people have already long forgotten.

Beatings and rhythms,

Washing out

The bitterness the present has left us.

Or maybe it’s just me that keeps hearing

The same thing,

The same song

That everyone’s been singing.

All the radio’s been playing.

Dewey would argue what the schools have been teaching

For centuries since the Romans and Greeks,

Or what corporate entities dictate through promoting.

 

Because

Nobody’s been listening,

Nobody is listening,

Nobody is listening

To the

Children’s poetry.

 

Cause what could they possibly teach anybody?

 

The

Children’s poetry,

Strange mutterings,

Frequencies,

But transmissions

Have had a tendency of being

Intercepted,

And thus the message has yet to be

Fully understood.

But children still believe in poetry.

Translating messages for history,

Some must start then decoding these writings and movements

Before an eternal silence befalls us all.

Trying to figure

Children’s poetry,

Already hiding in alleys,

Break dancing, and drawing on walls.

Trained to be just like little adults.

Learning quickly to bully and scheme,

How to politic and maneuver,

Aaaarrrggghhhhh.

Next comes the nervous breakdown.

Screaming, shouting, shooting in schools.

  

Wait.

It’s already happening.

Wait.

  

Because

Nobody’s been listening,

Nobody is listening,

Nobody is listening

To the

Children’s poetry.

  

Listening to the static off the vinyl

Interwoven into the grooves

Until foundations come down crumbling

Off the bass

From the

Children’s poetry.

Yelling to be recognized

As a single living identity, entity,

Independent of society’s standards and schemas

Of how children are supposed to be.

The whole of society seems bent and content with silencing

What echoes tremble in the voice of

Children’s poetry.

Dancing, running, playing, exploring, discovering

Without guides, barriers, or grown ups

At peace to develop like haiku:

  

The child once had thoughts

Till order became borders

The child could not cross.

  

The child still has dreams,

But rules are raised up like walls.

Free the child in me.

  

Please.

 

Free the child in me.

Please.  Free the child in me.  Please.

Free the child in me.

  

Free the child in me.

Please.  Free the child in me.  Please.

Free the child in me.

  

9.24.04.

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Bibliography.

Thus far…

“About Feet.” Margaret Hillert.

“All You Need is Love.” John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

“Alone.” Edgar Allen Poe.

“Between Going and Staying the Day Wavers.” Octavio Paz.

“Bird Carpenter.” Leland B. Jacobs.

“Blowin’ in the Wind.” Bob Dylan.

“The Blues.” Langston Hughes.

“Books.” Arnold Lobel.

“Childhood.” Venu Arora.

City I Love. Lee Bennet Hopkins.

“The Cow.” Robert Louis Stevenson.

 “Def Poetry.” Except as a teacher you really have to view carefully and select most appropriate choices because of language, but there are some appropriate poems and really worth the effort in finding.

“The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee.” N. Scott Momaday.

“dive for dreams.” e.e. cummings.

“Dreams.” Langston Hughes.

“Drinking Fountain.” Marchette Chute.

“Ending Poem.” Rosario Morales and Aurora Levins Morales.

“The Face That I Keep in the Jar by the Door.” Harriet Fraser.

“Fog.” Carl Sandburg.

“How I Learned to Sweep.” Julia Alvarez.

“I Can.” Nas.

“I Loved My Friend.” Langston Hughes.

“Identity.” Constantinos Grigoriadis.

“If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking.” Emily Dickinson.

“Latinoaméricano.” Calle 13.

“Life Doesn’t Frighten Me.” Maya Angelou.

Looking Like Me. Walter Dean Myers.

“Lose Yourself.” Eminem.

“maggie and milly and molly and may.” e.e. cummings.

“Martin Luther King, Jr.” Kathleen M. Hollenbeck.

“Nonsenses III.” Edward Lear.

“Sometimes.” Mary Ann Hoberman.

“The Way I Am.” Eminem.

“Where in the World Am I?” Kathleen M. Hollenbeck.

“Where Will I Go?” Kathleen M. Hollenbeck.

“Who Am I?” Kathleen M. Hollenbeck.

“Young Poets.” Todd-Michael St. Pierre.

You Have the Right To.

Feel free to post any poems, raps, or lyrics.

Untitled Poem for a Poetry Club.

What is poetry?

What does poetry mean?

Why do we write poetry?

And what is the purpose of it all?

Does a poem have to be read aloud

To matter at all?

How many people have to listen to or read a poem

Before the poem can become a poem?

Can a shy person be a poet

If no one ever hears their poems?

Is rap or the lyrics in songs,

Poetry?

Does poetry need to rhyme

Or follow some sort of pattern?

Does it matter what others

Think about your poetry?

Or if they all think you crazy

Because of your poetry?

What is poetry?

What are syllables and stanzas?

Can it be funny or does it have to be serious?

Is it all about love?

Will it help me express my thought and feelings?

Hopefully we’ll find

That poetry can be anything

From spells and incantations,

To rants and tantrums,

Random thoughts,

And everything you want.

And you too can be a

Spoken word artist,

Poet,

Rapper,

Lyricist

Pulling words and thoughts like sounds on drums

To create your own magic

Of words from your heart and imagination.

And hopefully we’ll find this

In our afterschool class – 

“Spoken Word:

Poetry, raps, and lyrics.”

12.03.12