Today, I am featuring a new and upcoming poet, Kaylie. She was my student for 3 years. This year she is in middle school, but she has joined the class as we participate in the Slice of Life Story Classroom Challenge. Her mother teaches across the hall from me. She came in one day earlier this week and said, “Thank you.” She told me that Kaylie has not been writing much at school this year, and she forgot how much she loves it. She now comes home every day and goes straight to the computer to write her Slice of the day. Kaylie is a poet. She has an amazing sense of language for her 13 years.
Now she has returned in spirit as a leader to the others. She is lifting lines and writing poems. In her slice yesterday, she wrote, “I don’t know why I am ADDICTED to writing lift a lines. I guess this is just a great way to make someone else feel good because you like their writing.” Kevin Hodgson has started something. He stopped by yesterday and left a poem response. And, yes, as Kaylie said, “It made me feel good.”
Her feelings come and go
As quickly as leaves fall
In the brisk autumn months.
Her spirit will always be with the earth.If you are quiet, you can hear her heart thumping, thumping,
Dancing to the beat of the cicada song,
Steady and slow, on time
You can see her eyes, the starsThat glitter in the twilight,
Inconsistent as the moon.
She is restless,
In the ocean that crashes toward shore,Always there, always churning
To the gull’s cry, to the burning sand,
She is present.In the winter, her heart is cold as ice
Her heart thumps slow, quiet, soft
The snow falls, her whispers
Her secrets that we catch on our tongue
Only to be melted away.In the spring, she is generous.
It is a time for life and rebirth,
She lets her children frolic among the daisies
In the sweet breeze she blows.
She is everywhere, she is invisible.
She is the Earth.–Kaylie
See more of my students’ Slice of Life writing (Maybe even steal a line.): http://kidblog.org/SliceofLifeChallenge/
Wonderful, Margaret & thank you Kaylie. I’m sending this on to my colleague whose middle school age students are slicing this year. Maybe you can find some lines from their posts, & we’ll send them on to you too!
Kaylie has started a line lifting craze on our blog. What is your colleague’s blog site?
Durn, this brought tears to my eyes. I am very moved. What a blessing Kaylie is to the future of this world.
Thank you for everything you are doing to mentor her.
That was beautiful, Kaylie – so many lovely images to feast upon. And, thank you, Margaret!
Margaret, thank you for sharing Kaylie’s gorgeous poem. I especially love the imagery of spring!
This is so cool. I was commenting on your post at the same time you were on mine. I wrote a response poem about it. (Enter Twilight zone music here.)
Wonderful images in this poem, Kaylie–I especially like the ocean that’s “always there, always churning to the gull’s cry, to the burning sand, she is present.”
And thanks for sharing this Margaret!
Thanks for sharing Kaylie’s wonderful poem, Margaret! I especially like the stanza about winter. Great imagery!
Wow! Kaylies’ “amazing sense of language” is astounding. Thank you for featuring her poem, Margaret. = )
[…] One of these is the return of a former student, now in 7th grade. I’ve shared her poetry before. Her talent is admirable. All I have to do is open the door, and she walks through. We’ve been […]