Reply and provide feedback to each classmate poem.
Poem 1
Rascal
I am a member of a family that loves me so,
I have watched all the children come and grow.
The warm sun is where I like to lay,
Until my master comes out to play.
He takes me on rides in the car,
Unfortunately, we don’t go very far.
When they all come and go,
I’m the only one who knows.
For I stay behind to protect our home,
It’s my duty to stay and not go roam.
I march around the yard at night,
Ready at any minute to put up a fight.
In the dark I stay alert and awake,
Because protecting the chickens is my fate.
The little girl loves to hug and ride,
Sometimes though I go and hide.
The boys come out to play ball,
But to me it’s not a game at all.
I love my family and will continue on,
As the guard of this land thereupon!
Poem 2
Gym Bros
Books for the mind
But what for the body?
Puddles of salt water
Pain for the gain?
Determination is a mind state
Shades of iron
Reflections catch reps
Abandoned water bottles
Tangled headphones
Monstrous strength like a bull lunging
Poem 3
Norma Jeane Mortenson aka Marilyn Monroe
My smile,
so big and bright,
took me further than a mile
from home. Conforming to the norm,
despite my name stating otherwise
was not me, as I refused their molded form
of the small-town subliminal lies.
My smile is
so big and bright.
It felt sometimes it was
a curse. A birthright given to oneself-
taken from me more than once-
I may have taken from myself
some say, I was a dunce.
My smile was
so big and bright.
Like a phoenix
I rose, from the ashes-
of my own demise, some say,
only to feel the painful new lashes
of the future analyses of the way
My smile is
no longer caged-
nor is it
earning a wage.
Poem 4
Grandma’s Gift
Scratchy kisses, surrounding me like Yves Saint Laurent’s Opium,
Cling to my torso in a delicate embrace.
Deep, like the low rasp of my name sung in admiration,
You sit waiting to be seen.
Saltwater breezes send me reaching for your woven protection as
Saltwater droplets mark you, mark us.
I glide open that oak drawer;
Will I choose to remember you?
The seasonality of a cool breeze,
The eternity of a comforting warmth —
Faded but loved,
I choose to remember you, forever.
Poem 5
My eyes are shut but I am not asleep
I keep them like this as long as I can to block out the fact I can’t see you
I sleep in your shirt, that smells like wood and fire
I hear nothing but silence
I wait with my eyes shut
In complete darkness hoping to drift
to a place where I can see you again
A simple place you believed in
You would have called it heaven
I stretch out my hands to pretend I touch clouds where you are
Trace golden gates that I can only feel
Everything else is dark
I quickly realize all of its a dream
just like the day feels
since you left
