Wrapping Up the Year With Poetry

I am nature
I am a firefly that twinkles
like a star bright, glittery, and gold
I am sweet like just bloomed orchids
I bloom by cartwheeling up the sky
A shy white rose is breathing into the earth
a whole other dimension
I imagine many worlds blooming

–Honora, Age 9, Emerson Elementary School, Oakland CA

With June well underway, students are growing restless for summer. Though their attention has shifted to the long summer days that await them, we like to look back at the spring and all they have accomplished. For the past few months the third graders at Emerson Elementary School have been translating poems inspired by nature. Their translations were a great jumping off point, “prompting passionate discussions about our world’s environmental issues, such as fracking, drought, pollution, violence against animals, and climate change,” explained Poetry Inside Out instructor Tai Rockett. The class ended their unit by reflecting on their own connections to nature, producing an anthology of original poetry and illustrations.

Up in the hills of Marin County, a fifth grade class spent their spring tackling the theme of identity. Zigzagging between Spanish and English, Gina Valdés’ “Where You From?” was particularly powerful for the students. Instructor Brian Kirven noted that several bilingual students “felt culturally split” after working with the poem, and that, in particular, “two students in a group interpret[ed] “zurda” as “contradicted,” an expression of the pain of growing up between two cultures.”

Now is your chance to make a difference in a kid’s life! Your donation to Poetry Inside Out will keep the program in classrooms next school year.

Bay Area teachers interested in becoming part of a national network of Poetry Inside Out practitioners are invited to attend a workshop on Sept. 25 & 26. For more information, email Program Director Mark Hauber at mhauber [at] catranslation.org