We extend our special congratulations to these poets and their classroom teachers without whom this project would be impossible. We also extend a special thank you to the teachers who selected the poetry for this anthology, our graphic designer, Michael Purdy, and the graphics shop at Plymouth South High School. Their help with this project is invaluable.

Welcome once again to the poetic voices and visions of the students of Plymouth. We are sure you will enjoy them!

Jacqueline B. Winokur,
English Language Arts Coordinator
Spring 2001

Table of Contents

Kindergarten Poetry

The two poems in this group delight us with what the poet Georgia Heard calls "little surprises inside of little truths." These ensemble pieces play with language and with images in very effective ways.

The poets in this group reflect on reading, writing and artwork, capturing in powerful images the ability of these art forms to transform and transport both artist and viewer. Poetry is a song, a lost balloon, a million wild horses, a beating heart; pencils skip and jump and dance; chalk collides with blackboard; and readers and writers waltz to new places.

The poets in this group capture the importance of music in their lives. Fingers frolic over keys; horn and player become one voice, one soul; the flute glimmers like an iridescent jewel. The language of these poems is a kind of music in itself, capturing in sound and image the love these talented youngsters have for both words and music.

Creatures of this and other worlds are often favorite subjects of poetry. Here we meet magic bunnies, splashing snakes, slinking, pouncing cats, whales, a turtle, cheetah, rooster, dragonflies. We view a snowy yard full of paw prints telling tales of backyard encounters. We cry with the bleeding dove and are moved by the polar bear's prayer.

Poetry is frequently the vehicle for expressing strong emotions - fear, anger, humiliation, sadness, loss. It moves us to tears as well as to laughter and enables us to share in a vision of tranquility.

Poetry is both sound and picture. In these powerful poems, the poets have created sensory images that help us to see, hear, and feel their worlds and visions. Crackling flames hopscotch, crayon warriors shed blood, illuminated steel curtains the stars. These and other images bring the worlds of these poets to life.

The poets in this group share with us their passions - for baseball, hockey, ice-skating, basketball, racing, kayaking, even for computer drawing. Again, they have captured in lilting language and vivid image the passions they know so well.

A critical element of effective poetry is the use of figurative language - the simile, the metaphor and personification. The poems in this group all use figurative language in fresh new ways that delight and surprise us. Here we see waves roll like soft serve ice cream, snowflake acrobats hang in the sky, lawn chairs become hospital cots, and clouds meander like lily pads.

Nature is a favorite subject for poets and here with this group we view storms, travel the beach and nature trails, see trees, flowers, and clouds, and witness the eruption of a volcano. One of our poets even dances with the moon.

The power of the poetry in this group helps us to appreciate the moving or troubling relationships the poets describe. An angel, parents, grandparents, lovers, ancestors and classmates all move our poets to share their deepest feelings.