Bucket List Poem

 History Presentations

Posted Reading

Poem Below

Bucket List Poem       

• Stanzas of four lines
• Six stanzas
• Rhyming scheme, such as aabb or abab. 
• Rhythm 

Don't worry, you have poetic license, so don't get too stuck on the rhymes. Important that your poem has rhythm. 

So many things to do in my life

Such as learning how to make a knife

I will appear on Forge in Fire

Of that show I never tire

I might try and get some quiet out of 6A

Who am I kidding, there is no way

I can use TEAMS, and mute them ALL!

Go yet on another Canoe Trip rhythm?? 

And maybe lift some weights to get a grip

Pretty ugly

You are all special and beautiful people, but sometimes we forget that. Sometimes people, because of their own issues, want us to feel bad about ourselves. Remembering that we are special and wonderful is sometimes difficult and takes a positive view. How does the poem below convey that simply changing your viewpoint makes all the difference? Blog below if you think you have the answer.

I'm very ugly

So don't try to convince me that

I am a very beautiful person

Because at the end of the day

I hate myself in every single way

And I'm not going to lie to myself by saying

There is beauty inside of me that matters

So rest assured I will remind myself

That I am a worthless, terrible person

And nothing you say will make me believe

I still deserve love

Because no matter what

I am not good enough to be loved

And I am in no position to believe that

Beauty does exist within me

Because whenever I look in the mirror

I always think Am I as ugly as people say?

- Abdullah Shoaib

Yay for Vlada

via GIPHY

Success

 The Meaning of Success

"To laugh often and much; 

to win the respect of intelligent people

 and the affection of children; 

to earn the appreciation of honest critics

and endure the betrayal of false friends; 

to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;

 to leave the world a little better; 

whether by a healthy child, a garden patch

or a redeemed social condition; 

to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. 

This is the meaning of success."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson (but probably not)

“Speech to the Young: Speech to the Progress-Toward”  

Say to them,
say to the down-keepers,
the sun-slappers,
the self-soilers,
the harmony-hushers,
“even if you are not ready for day
it cannot always be night.”
You will be right.
For that is the hard home-run.

Live not for battles won.
Live not for the-end-of-the-song.
Live in the along.

-By Gwendolyn Brooks

First They Came For

                               First They Came for

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—

     Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—

     Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—

     Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Martin Niemöller was a U-boat commander in the First World War and a Protestant minister who initially supported Hitler's rise to power. He was later imprisoned in 1937 for criticizing Hitler and his government. 

1.Who are “they” that Niemöller writes about, as in, “first they came for…”?

The Facists, Hitler's people, The government of the day in Germany 

2. What does it mean when he says, “came for”? Came to take them to concentration camps,.

3. Why does he repeat the phrase, “Then they came for…” several times? To emphasize

4. What effect does the repetition of this phrase have on the listener? Makes the listener focus on that phrase

5. What other groups did the Nazis “come for” before and during the 2nd WW?

Gypsies, Polish priests, Russian solders, Socialists, communists, Mental and physical challenges, Jews, Slavs, 

6. The narrator of Niemöller’s poem is obviously himself. But the narrator is also somebody else. Who? YOU, THE READER

7. What does he mean by, “I didn’t speak up”? What are some ways he could have “spoken up”? Stating your opinion, Participating in Pride Parade, BLM. Protests, Going to people who can help change things. 

8.  "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Do you think this quote is accurate? Explain

9. Margret Mead spent her life studying cultures and how people relate. She said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Do you think a few people can change the World? Defend your answer. 

Cinquains

 Cinquain Steps (sin-kan steps)

Cinquain Steps are much like Haiku in that they are a "syllable count" poem.  Your subject can be

about anything, and it doesn't even have to rhyme.  

Cinquain

     1st line:   2 syllables        Title, Usually One Word                   

     2nd line:  4 syllables        Usually two words

     3rd line:  6 syllables         Usually three words

     4th line:  8 syllables         Usually two words

     5th line:  2 syllables         Restates the title

6A

A Lovely Class

Sometimes Loud, Sometimes Loud

They Think, Read, Write, Articulate

Clever Class

Haikus

 Haiku Poem

Haiku is a type of Japanese poetry that has seventeen syllables and just 

three lines.  It is a short poem that traditionally captured a moment in nature.

Line 1         Five syllables

Line 2         Seven syllables

Line 3         Five syllables

Examples:

     A bitter morning

     Sparrows sitting together

     Without any necks

    How beautifully

     That kite soars up to the sky

     From the small boy's hand.

    6A plays outside

    How they love the fresh air above

    And the grass beneath

Write three haiku poems. See if you can write all 3 about one aspect. For example, 

you could write three haiku poems about three different types of birds or 

three different types of flowers or three different members of your family or three different sports.  

Shape Poems

 

You are going to write two shape poems.

Below are the two different ways of doing a shape poem. Try each way OR just use one style. Try two different poems OR one poem done in two different ways. If you use someone else's poem, or parts of their poem, you MUST give credit. You may also do this without the use of Photoshop. 

A poem outlining a shape

A poem filling in a shape

Putting words onto a picture from your phone/internet

First, create a word splash, using an application at this link https://monkeylearn.com/blog/wordle/

Then add the words to your picture

dontwannabeyouanymore

Billy Eilish wrote this song when she was 15, when like many teenagers, and others, she lacked the confidence to appreciate the person that she is. 

idontwannabeyouanymore

Don't be that way

Fall apart twice a day

I just wish you could feel what you say

Show, never tell

But I know you too well

Got a mood that you wish you could sell

If teardrops could be bottled

There'd be swimming pools filled by models

Told "a tight dress is what makes you a whore"

If "I love you" was a promise

Would you break it, if you're honest?

Tell the mirror what you know she's heard before

I don't wanna be you, anymore

Hand, hands getting cold

Losing feeling is getting old

Was I made from a broken mold?

Hurt, I can't shake

We've made every mistake

Only you know the way that I break

If teardrops could be bottled

There'd be swimming pools filled by models

Told "a tight dress is what makes you a whore"

If "I love you" was a promise

Would you break it, if you're honest?

Tell the mirror what you know she's heard before

I-I don't wanna be you

I don't wanna be you

I don't wanna be you, anymore

 Below is one of the Poems mentioned in our book POSTED. It was published during the First World War,  and  became even more popular and relevant with the passing of time. 

Mending Wall

BY ROBERT FROST

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing:

I have come after them and made repair

Where they have left not one stone on a stone,

But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,

To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,

No one has seen them made or heard them made,

But at spring mending-time we find them there.

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

We have to use a spell to make them balance:

‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’

We wear our fingers rough with handling them.

Oh, just another kind of out-door game,

One on a side. It comes to little more:

There where it is we do not need the wall:

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it

Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offense.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That wants it down.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him,

But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather

He said it for himself. I see him there

Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top

In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me,

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

He will not go behind his father's saying,

And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’

Poetry Music Video

 Poetry Music Video

Find a song whose lyrics you find to be particularly artistic and is teacher approved. Perhaps you can get a song from here

Put into Kidblog the name of your song, what the song is about, and at least 3 examples of figurative language in the song. 

Now put the song into you movie program and find pictures to go with the lyrics, as show below. 

Also below is an example, from Evan. 

Click here for an example of a finished project

Anxiety

 Anxiety

By Michaels

My friends, they wanna take me to the movies

I tell 'em to get lost, I'm holding hands with my depression
And right when I think I've overcome it
Anxiety starts kicking in to teach that stuff a lesson
Oh, I try my best just to be social
I make all these plans with friends and hope they call and cancel
Then I overthink about the things I'm missing
Now I'm wishing I was with 'em 2

Feel like I'm always apologizing for feeling
Like I'm out of my mind when I'm doing just fine
And my exes all say that I'm hard to deal with
And I admit it, yeah

But all my friends, they don't know what it's like, what it's like
They don't understand why I can't sleep through the night
I've been told that I could take something to fix it
Damn, I wish it, I wish it was that simple, ah
All my friends they don't know what it's like, what it's like 4

Always wanted to be one of those people in the room
That says something and everyone puts their hand up
Like, "If you're sad put your hand up
If you hate someone, put your hand up
If you're scared, put your hand up"

Feel like I'm always apologizing for feeling
Like I'm out of my mind when I'm doing just fine
And my exes all say that I'm hard to deal with
And I admit it, it's true 6

But all my friends, they don't know what it's like, what it's like
They don't understand why I can't sleep through the night
And I thought that I could take something to fix it
Damn, I wish it, I wish it was that simple, ah
All my friends they don't know what it's like, what it's like

I got all these thoughts, running through my mind
All the damn time and I can't seem to shut it off
I think I'm doing fine most of the time
I think that I'm alright, but I can't seem to shut it off
I got all these thoughts, running through my mind
All the damn time and I can't seem to shut it off
I think I'm doing fine most of the time
I say that I'm alright, but I can't seem to shut it off
Shut it, shut it, yeah 8

But all my friends, they don't know what it's like, what it's like
They don't understand why I can't sleep through the night
I've been told that I could take something to fix it
Damn, I wish it, I wish it was that simple, ah
All my friends they don't know what it's like, what it's like

Li-i-i-i-ike
What it's like, what it's like
Hmm-mm-mm, mmm
What it's like
I love this song 10

When I am an Old Woman

 

When I am an Old Woman

Warning

(When I Am An Old Woman)

Poem by Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple

With a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired

And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells

And run my stick along the public railings

And make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

And pick the flowers in other people's gardens

And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

And eat three pounds of sausage at a go

Or only bread and pickles for a week

And hoard pens and pencils and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

And pay our rent and not swear in the street

And set a good example for the children.

We will have friends for dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now

So people who know me are not surprised

When suddenly I am old and start to wear purple.

The Red Hat Society

 

Die Slowly

He who becomes the slave of habit,

who follows the same routes every day,

who never changes pace,

who does not risk and change the color of his clothes,

who does not speak and does not experience, dies slowly.

He or she who shuns passion,

who prefers black on white,

dotting ones 'i's rather than a bundle of emotions,

the kind that make your eyes glimmer,

that turn a yawn into a smile,

that make the heart pound in the face of mistakes and feelings, dies slowly.

He or she who does not turn things topsy-turvy,

who is unhappy at work,

who does not risk certainty for uncertainty,

to thus follow a dream,

those who do not forego sound advice at least once in their lives, die slowly. 3

He who does not travel,

who does not read,

who does not listen to music,

who does not find grace in himself, dies slowly.

He who slowly destroys his own self-esteem,

who does not allow himself to be helped,

who spends days on end complaining about his own bad luck,

about the rain that never stops, dies slowly.

He or she who abandon a project before starting it,

who fail to ask questions on subjects he doesn’t know,

he or she who don’t reply when they are asked something they do know, die slowly. 5

Let’s try and avoid death in small doses,

always reminding oneself that being alive requires an effort by far

greater than the simple fact of breathing.

Only a burning patience will lead to the attainment of a splendid happiness

by Pablo Neruda

Sound of Silence

 You are not alone. As Frost said in the book we are reading, you may feel lonely, but that is different than being alone. With Covid and physical distancing, feeling lonely is becoming a pretty common feeling for many of us, but you are not alone. The classic song below, which came back as number 1 recently, is about people having trouble communicating with each other, though they may make a lot of noise. 

The Sound Of Silence

By P.Simon

Hello darkness, my old friend,

I've come to talk with you again,

Because a vision softly creeping,

Left its seeds while I was sleeping,

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sound of silence.

In restless dreams I walked alone

Narrow streets of cobblestone,

'Neath the halo of a street lamp,

I turned my collar to the cold and damp

When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light

That split the night

And touched the sound of silence. 2

And in the naked light I saw

Ten thousand people, maybe more.

People talking without speaking,

People hearing without listening,

People writing songs that voices never share

And no one dared

Disturb the sound of silence.

"Fools" said I, "You do not know

Silence like a cancer grows.

Hear my words that I might teach you,

Take my arms that I might reach you."

But my words like silent raindrops fell,

And echoed

In the wells of silence 4

And the people bowed and prayed

To the neon god they made.

And the sign flashed out its warning,

In the words that it was forming.

And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls

And tenement halls."

And whisper'd in the sounds of silence

Corrected in class. Marks given for handing in your corrections. Need some help? Click here

The Road not Taken

From our book, Frost reads the Road not Taken, and he thinks it makes him feel sad, but his Dad says that feeling is regret. With school application forms being handed in, students all around us are making choices that will have an impact on their future.

The Railway across Canada

 There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run

When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun

Long before the white man and long before the wheel

When the green dark forest was too silent to be real

But time has no beginning and the history has no bound

As to this verdant country they came from all around

They sailed upon her waterways and they walked the forest tall

Built the mines, the mills and the factories for the good of us all

And when the young mans fancy has turned into the spring

The railroad men grew restless for to hear the hammers ring

Their minds were overflowing with the visions of their day

Where many a fortune lost and won and many a debt to pay

For they looked in the future and what did they see

They saw an iron road runnin' from the sea to the sea

Bringin' the goods to a young growin' land

All up from the seaboards and into their hands

Look away sad days

Across this mighty land

From the eastern shore

To the western strand

Bring in the workers and bring up the rails

We got to lay down the track and tear up the trails

Open your heart let the life blood flow

We got to get on our way 'cause we're movin' to slow

Bring in the workers and bring up the rails

We got to lay down the track and tear up the trails

Open your heart, let the life blood flow

We got to get on our way 'cause we're movin' too slow

Get on our way 'cause we're movin' too slow

Behind the blue Rockies the sun is declinin'

Stars have come stealin' at the close of the day

Across the wide prairies our loved ones lie sleeping

Beyond the dark ocean in a place far away

We are the maries who work upon the railway

Swingin' our hammers in the bright blazin' sun

Livin' on stew and drinkin' bad whiskey

Bendin' our backs 'till the long days are done

We are the maries who work upon the railway

Swingin' our hammers in the bright blazin' sun

Layin' down track and buildin' the bridges

Bendin' our backs 'till the railroad is done

So over the mountains and over the plains

Into the Muskage and into the rain

Up to St. Lawrence on the way to Gaspé

Swingin' our hammers and drawin' our pay

Drivin' em in and tyin' 'em down

Away to the bunkhouse and into the town

A dollar a day and a place for my head

A drink to the livin' a toast to the dead

Oh, the song of the future has been sung

All the battles have been won

On the mountain tops we stand

All the world at our command

We have opened up this soil

With our teardrops and our toil

There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run

When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun

Long before the white man and long before the wheel

When the green dark forest was too silent to be real

When the green dark forest was too silent to be real

And many are the dead men

Too silent to be real