Team 20 Poetry

How We Made Our Poems

By Mimi

Our poetry project began outside in the Lewis

Garden. We made a series of visits with the goal of
collecting poetic images.
As we collected the images we focused on the
Poet’s Tool Kit. Our tool kit helped us remember to
have a theme and use strategies, including
alliteration, simile, adjectives, verbs, repetition, and
rhyme. We focused on senses and form, two concepts
that we have learned about during our science time in
the garden. This meant we were using both the heart
of the artist and the eye of the scientist.
Once we had our collection, we began to grow
our images into a poem. We highlighted the seeds
that we got from the garden, that we thought would
make a good poem, and typed them up in Google
Docs. This process included a lot of rewriting and
editing, lots of copy and paste, lots of searching for
just the right word in the thesaurus.
After that we conferenced kid to kid then with
Mr. Mark. Then we printed them up, and made this
book.
We hope you enjoy our poems!
Sitting in the Garden
By Team 20
Sitting in the garden
Nestled beside flowers
We planted, still in buds,
Green and brown,
Waiting to blossom
Sitting in the garden
Underneath a tree
With branches shooting over me
And purple and pink bleeding
Hearts, blood spilling from inside
Sitting so still beside
A tattered wooden ladder
A bumble bee lands on my leg
While I am picking up leaves
That are fuzzy like Dad’s beard
Sitting in the garden
And noticing how cobwebs
Stick weightless,
Shaking in the wind,
Without color except
For what sticks to them:
Pine needles, bits of bark,
Greenish-yellow pollen
Sitting in the garden
Beside a beautiful red rose
“Most plants are pollinators”
Mom said. Touching one,
A rose thorn stabs
Into the flesh of my thumb.
It is still there.
It is Very Hard to Climb a Tree
By Gus
It is very hard to climb a tree.
Ian watches, writing something
As I try to ascend into the branches above.
It is very hard to climb a tree.
Slimy sticky sap sticking to me,
Unwilling to release.
It is very hard to climb a tree.
All the branches and limbs out of reach.
Nothing farther down.
It is very hard to climb a tree.
Just wanting to write a poem
Up in the branches.
It is very hard to climb a tree.
Trying to find something to grasp,
A foothold available to me.
It is very hard to climb a tree.
Other people have found a spot.
Now writing about the ground
And soft things around them.
I just want to get in the tree.
Wait, I’m finally in the tree.
It’s time to go inside.
It is very easy to climb a tree.
My Falling Pencil
By Adam
I drop my pencil!
It falls to it’s inevitable doom
Like a missile ready to strike
It goes down falling point first
Ready to unleash it’s terror on the world
No way to stop it
3…
2…
1…
BOOM!
And the pencil skewers the ground
I go to pick it up surprised at what it just did
Piercing a couple leafs
Creating a hole in the mud below me
Almost like a worm made it
Or it was stabbed by a tiny spear
I pick up my pencil and I try to write
But I make a brown mark on my paper
Like a big muddy scar
I climb back into the tree
I see that the mud is hardening
It gets harder and harder
Until it becomes like clay
and hardens into rock
The rocky mud falls off my paper
Onto the ground from which it came
In the Garden
By Jaime
In the garden it’s peaceful,
Looking down at the ground
Realizing the floor is covered
In dead leaves of many varieties,
Slowly extending my hand I feel sticky
Wee little white flowers that look like lanterns
With orange and yellow stars in them.
Breaking the silence
I hear a lawn mower eating away at the grass
It gets louder and LOUDER and SOFTER
And softer over and over again
Suddenly it becomes absolutely silent
Then the silence is broken away
Once more by a weed wacker
Attacking the weeds wack-wack-wack-wack.
This follows with the crow of a rooster
Like it's trying to speak to us

I suddenly want to know the time

Because it’s scorching
With the glorious sun beaming down on me,
It’s starting to get even hotter,
Now it’s getting cooler and in the garden
It’s peaceful once more

It’s Really Cold

By Lucy

It’s really cold and

I don’t have a jacket. I’m stuck
Outside with the cold,
Cold, bark that’s as
Dusty as sand on a beach
On a HOT sunny day.
Oh how I wish I was on that beach…
I’m stuck outside with
Leaves as soft as fluffy pillows.
My favorite type of pillow.
All warm and fuzzy, like clouds
In the sky. Wait… I’m outside,
In the cold, damp weather.
There are no pillows here,
Just rock hard branches on trees.
Oh, look at that, a small baby slug!
How cute. I want to keep it
But the teacher says,
“No.” There is slime
All over the leaf, sticky like glue
And shiny like sparkling diamonds.
I see leaves next to the small slug,
They are spiky. I touch them, they are
Soft. Yay! -- Ouch! Nevermind
They hurt. Now I have a leaf stuck
In my finger. Don’t touch those leaves.
Brrrr, a breeze of cold wind brushes past me.
Then I remember…
It’s really cold.
Diamonds Sparkling in the Water
By Aphia
Leaves all around me
I touched a post, it is wiggly
There are three holes in the plank
That look like bowling ball holes
There is a cobweb on my pencil
And it is making it hard to write this poem
I smell a tree, it smells like vanilla
I smell a leaf, it smells like pencil lead
The tree feels rough and smooth
The leaves are smooth and cold
I am laying on a tree
It is sturdy but not that sturdy,
I feel like it is going to break
I look up in my tree and see sun rays
Peeking through the leaves
I switch trees and this one seems to be more sturdy,
I don’t feel like it is going to break anymore
The leaves seem very solid
Like cardstock paper in this tree
I look up the sun rays look
Like diamonds sparkling in the water
I feel like I am underwater and free
From all the things all around me
I am getting sleepy on my tree
And I want to sleep, and then I shut my eyes
The lawn mower has finally stopped,
And so has the dogs barking
The lawn mower starts and then it stops again
I am perplexed and smiling
Because the lawn mower kept going ROM
And then silence
Then my teacher calls us inside
I hop out of my tree and feel relaxed
And happy all at the same time
Relaxing in the Garden
By August

Relaxing in the garden

Beneath a tiki sculpture
With lots of faces
I count seven
Different colors
Nearby I see a couple
Of flies fighting
One falls downs
Looking deceased
I keep watching
Slowly it jumps
Back into action
And gracefully flies away
Overhead a bird lands
On the tree
That I was sitting on
I think it was a blue jay
There are some tall
And small plants
Green and colorful
Relaxing in the garden
At the Same Time
By Bella
Dead crippled leaves
Soft sound of crippled leaves
Like a mouse
Softly flowing over them
Breaking them
Into itty bitty pieces of dead leaf
Smell of old rotten leaves
Makes me think
Of a soft rotten apple
Brown old delicate leaves
Falling off by touch
Old soft brown leaves
Covered in cobwebs
Very dark brown tree
Not very big
Not very small
Right in the middle
With many branches
All coming out of the same place
If you look at it
In a certain way
It will look like an octopus
Large silver fence
Covered in little specks
Of green mold
And thin small cobwebs
The fence is cold
It feels soft
But spiky
And bumpy
At the same time
A Quick Touch
By Anna
The flowers on a neighboring tree
Are small and delicate
I see the wind move them around
And then they fly away and I can't
Help but wonder where they will go.
The fragrance is flowers entangled in mint.
Then I look the other way
And I see tulips that are a mix
Of Valentine pink and a grand red.
The tulips are calm and mellow
Like a sculpture, frozen in place
Like it will fall apart from a quick touch.
Looking, Seeing, and Finding I have an obsession
By Lucian With trees,
Inspired by Gus Let me see a tree,
As I watch
When I look up From my spot
And around me, With no trees.
All I see
Are trees,
Trees, Being in the Garden
And trees. By Ian
When I examine those trees,
I see moss, Its green like leaves
Climbing up that tree. It’s as tall as four humans that are about six feet
I also see leaves, A nice oak tree
Swaying in the wind, The arms are big
And birds, The leaves are kind of bouncy
Being free. The leaves are big like an umbrella
But when I look down, It looks fake but its real
What I see is worth dirt. It’s like my sculpture in my room
It is dirt. When I was in third grade
Sometimes I come across plants,
When I inspect those, I hear the rumbling of the lawn mower
I see ants, Vrrrrrrrrrroooooom!! Vrooom!!!!
Carrying food to the anthill. It went for about 15 or 20 minutes.
I still think watching trees is better I hear a weed wacker as soon as the
Than watching ants, Lawn mower turns off
And dirt. I hear dogs barking in the garden
And now Like my dad hears every morning
That I think From our dogs going barrrrrrk!!!! Barrrrk!!
A minute in the garden
The sun dims in thinking of summer.
In the garden the great
Smell of nature its appetizing
It’s a great view
A great one
Now I know what it’s like
being in the garden
I see a leaf
On the ground I picked
It up I started feeling the textures
It felt crispy like cooked toast,
It feels like…
I felt a breeze as a car drove by me
Being in the garden.

Forest
By Joah

Leaves in the trees are dangling with the bees.

Some Breeze on my face.
Tiny trees big trees and
BIG BIG trees. I see leaves, spiky leaves,
There is a bird feeder hanging on a tree
Swaying by my class window.
Small white bugs, and pinecones on the ground.
There is a lawn mower behind me,
A very NOISY lawn mower,
If that stopped… then this forest Dirt lots of dirt
Would be really, really, quiet. In chunky rock size pieces
Moss on the rocks and ground Very jagged like wood misshapen
Are growing everywhere. Like some rocks you find outside
Here is a bird feeder hanging on a tree Many rocks covered in dirt
Swaying by my class window. Look like dirt balls
There is green all around me, Little buds maybe from a flower
There is green in almost everything that I said. Sitting under the tree
I look down and see a humongous bee on my journal,
I recoil as it flies away. I look up at the sun,
It's so shiny and bright, just like that bee Then I Looked Up
That was on my journal, so yellow, By Patrice
I look away as it stings my eyes.
“Some trees smell like vanilla,” Anna says,
The trees smell like old wood to me
Sitting Under the tree
The wood of the tree feels like I could smooth it out,
By Alex
The tree has many branches in different directions,
Sitting under the tree
There is something in the tree,
Weird white stuff
I desperately want to touch it,
Thin, soft and smooth
But there is sticky glossy stuff defending it,
With old tattered bark with aged silk
It is sap all around the tree,
Like a cobweb with nothing sticky
Super soft wood feels carved
The garden smells like wonderful things,
And also sanded to a perfect silky softness
The chicken was boking like a wild hen,
A creepy crawly bug stung me
There is a flower that smells so good that I want to
It started to swell up fast
eat it,
I didn't feel it when it happened
Then I looked up
Now hurts looks like a cut
But feels bumpy
Up
By Gus

Up is great. Lots up there,

But also nothing.
Lots of birds in the sky.
As I lay, I notice birds
Through the branches of the tree.
Trees like up.
Reaching for the stars.
Other plants stay low
To the ground like green blobs
Being held hostage by gravity.
Birds like up because it is free,
Nothing in your way
Or loud things to hear,
Only the occasional plane.
Birds can be birds in the sky,
Not a spider or dog
Stuck to the ground.
Down is good too…
But up,
Is UP!
Wonderful Brick,
By Wolf Cold and flat,
smooth but rough,
Small red ant, my fingernails vibrate as I slide them across,
crawling up a moss encroached tree, rough and feels like how I imagine vampire skin.
uneven,
with white speckles like splattered paint, Soral,
the ant knows where he is going, Tangy and sour,
but yet he is still exploring, bright green,
dark green moss, almost black, viney and scentless,
against bright green leaves, wonderful.
with the light shooting through them.

Robin, The Ground is Like a Blanket

black small head, By Sophia
bright yellow beak,
brick colored belly, The ground is like a blanket
long tail, Soft and comfortable
small light bouncy hops. The branches
Hang over my head
Sun speckled ground, Like a canopy or a low roof
covered in dead leaves, The sunshiney light peeks in
long and stringy, And then peeks out
light brown, Illuminating tiny golden
spreading flat against the ground. Flowers all around me
Within reach is this tiny patch of plants
This one leaf shaped like a withering
Heart that lies within the patch
It’s green with blue spots
It has these beautiful
Vine like stems entwined
Like thin ropes
Knotted and unknotted
Several times
Nearby bleeding hearts
Loom over my leg
Pink with a touch of purple
Blood cascading from the inside
The green stems holding them
Above the dark brown earth
Surrounded by leaves
That look like green ribs
The fragrance emanating is lovely
It’s of blossoms and rain
But to be able to smell
The perfume-like smell
You must kneel
And put your face close to the flower
Drawing in deep breaths
Sucking in the smell
I see all of this
I smell all of this
While the earth's aroma
Drenches me as I lay in my bush
As I Sit Down in the Garden
By Aylaa
As I sit down in the garden
I see an apple on the ground
Red and yellow with a touch of brown,
A greenish yellow spit bug
Laying there in a leaf,
White, thick, bubbly spit everywhere,
Crunchy leaves under me
Crunching as I move,
A tiny baby spider making a web
On the plant next to me
As I sit and watch,
A brownish tan slug leaving a trail
Of greenish yellow goo
In some dirt next to me,
A little red spider crawling
On the ground and on my shoe,
Cobweb carry
All Little droplets of water,
Pine cones and rocky
Light brown dirt
That looks like dust
I noticed a roly poly
Rolled up in a gray ball
As I sit and watch,
A small black spider
Traverse a big web
With a little bug in it,
An oval shape stink bug
That is brownish yellow
On a rock next to me
A gross maggot
Next to me in the dirt
A hard shell, kind of scaley
With a deep reddish color
Really gross and still as a rock
As I sit down in the garden

Sitting in the Garden

By Dima

I’m sitting in the garden,

By a ripped off petal from a flower,
The petal lay sadly on the ground,
Like it’s crying,
I detect the first graders with Ms. Kathleen,
Sitting on the garden bench,
Waiting loudly to learn something new.

As I sit in the garden,

I see a brown snail curled up
With a fuzzy shell on a sign,
I hear chimes ringing on a house,
A tree with apple blossoms just now to blossom,
They smell so good like fresh apples but even better,
I love the smell of apple blossoms,
Just love them so much.
I’m sitting in the garden,
Smelling the air,
It smells so good like I want to drink it,
I love the air because it’s fresh
Like you’re eating a juicy fruit.
I’m sitting in the garden,
I see a red robin made out of clay,
But with only one wing.
It feels like it’s crying for help,
But no one could help it,
I see a broken stick lay sadly
On the ground in a bush,
Full of spikes and other spiky stuff.
As I sit in the garden,
I see a truck carrying logs from an oak tree,
The oak tree is probably crying,
I feel so bad for that poor ol thing,
I hear a loud lawn mower mowing the lawn,
VROOM, VROOM,VROOM goes the lawn mower,
I see a power line connecting to a house,
(Don’t dare touch that thing)
I’m sitting in the garden,
The wind is blowing very warmly against my skin,
It feels so good like I’m swimming in a jucuzy,
I see a sign that says “Do NOT climb,”
I found a soccer ball from Ms. Elissa's class,
It’s laying on the ground beside me,
I love to sit in the garden.
I’m in the Garden
By Reuben
I’m in the garden
I touch a leaf
It’s pointy like a sword
It cuts my face,
The edge is fuzzy like my dad's beard
I look at the back of the leaf
It is pale and white like a ghost
It has roots like a tree
It reminds me of a tree
Which makes me look up
A pine cone falls on my head
from a giant tree
It has branches shooting
From every direction
Looking to my side I see a plant
With red stalks that remind me of crayons
I touch the leaf
It feels smooth like plastic
It Flies Away
By Riley

Unbloomed flowers
With green oval buds
Curved line openings
I can’t count how many
Soon to grow and open up
Soon to be pink little flowers
A metal fence laying down by the shed
A bike wheel laying
On a old tattered wood ladder
A wet floor sign just sitting there
Little bugs in a plant that look like lice
In hair but on a plant
A bee attacking another bee
An ant walking around on a wood flower bed
Just beneath it is a tiny white caterpillar
Near me is a flying ant just doing its business
Jaby leaves are all around me
Poke poke poke
There’s a feather right next to me
Probably from the annoying rooster
There’s a nail in some wood
And some tiny snails wanting to join me
A tree about ten feet from where I’m sitting
A cobweb probably a few years old
Looks a little tattered
There’s a little bug
 Smells like mint
I don’t know what it is As I look around in the garden
On my paper Reaching my hand forward
I see a glass butterfly standing on a pole A new bud looks round
Plants all around it And feels cold like a snowball
I hear a rooster
(Cockle doodle doo) Smells like pine
At that moment I see a weird yellow bug As I rise in the garden
Half of it looks like a ant When the sun beams
But with a yellow back Through the leaves
And the face looks like a centipede It’s like I’m under water
A spider has made a web
But not as many legs
Upon its leaf the buds are captured in it
It goes into the dirt
The leaves look like little umbrellas
I try digging it out to see it more When the sun shines through them
But it's missing
Then I see another Suddenly, rowmmmm-rowmmm-
It flies away Rrrrrrrrrooooowwwmmmm
My silence is shattered
I hear a lawn mower
As I Sit in the Garden Rom rooowwwwm
By Izzy RRRRRRRRRROOOOOWWWWWMMMMM
RRRRRROWM
Smells like fresh flowers It gets louder
As I sit in the garden It stops and goes
The sun gleams through VROM a car passes
The spring green leaves
Making them look tie dye I hear someone saying WOW
Like green ink has spilled on them When the leaves are dry they feel like fish food
With a dark green middle Crushed in the palm of my hand
I blow them off
It floats to the ground like snowflakes

All Around the Garden
By Kara
The leaf is a soft green
shining in the sunlight,
Lime green moss is spreading
around the trunk of the tree,
Dead flower the color of a dark pink
feels like a plastic
bottle getting crunched,
The earth is a pleasant place to be
Dead leaves, bits of bark,
and pine cones
Like it’s camouflaging
in the ground
Dandelions looks like
a white microphone,
I blew on it and it looked
like tiny flowers flying away,
The garden is a pleasant place to be
Plants look like a small tree
with lights hanging around,
Trees with many leaves
But many are still developing,
The nature smells
Like a sweet flower blooming,
The birds are chirping a sweet melody,
The garden is a pleasant place to be
Tiny sharp thorns
Are all around a rose stem,
A spider caught a fly
And a spider web sticking on me,
The garden is pleasant place to be
Outdoors in the Garden
By Luka
I am outdoors in the garden.
I see a cobweb with small
White flower petals inside,
And pine needles too
The bark on a cedar tree
Feels dry and crumbly
I hear a rooster in a nearby yard,
Going cockadoodledoo!
I see big fluffy purple flowers
Sitting there on the ground
They look like poofy purple pom-poms
As I am outdoors in the garden.
I see a rusty metal screw
Piercing a piece of damp wood
On a wood plank.
I can see the sunlight glaring
Through the branches, leaves,
And other trees above me
I feel the bark on a tree
That I am not familiar with
The bark is extremely smooth,
With little brown spots on it,
And it looks like fake wood
I am outdoors in the garden.
I Must Be Special
By Mikey
I see a spider web calmly
Flowing in the breeze
I see a few ants
Scouting out for food
I squished them and now
It reeks of DEAD ants
I see a plant that appears
To be sharp but it's soft
Flies keep surrounding me
Wherever I go
There is a large amount of moss
Taking over a tree
There sure are a lot of pine
Cones on the ground….
73 to be exact
There’s a few bees pollinating flowers
I see an ant with a golden abdomen
I poked it with a twig and it ran so fast
It looked as if it was teleporting
And then I scream inside my head,
“I CAN SEE GOSH DARNIT!
I and I guess I can see the gold ant
I must be special.
Sights and Sounds of the Garden
By Silas
Ants on the ground carry food to their home
Cobwebs tremble in the wind
Like a weightless strand of string
They almost have no color
Raspberry bush tangled inside a tree
The thorns are pointy and sharp
On the tip of one of the bush’s branch’s
Sits one closed green flower bud
The soft but loud hum of the lawn mower,
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
The silence is shattered
The louder whine of the weedwacker,
GNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
The sounds wonder in and out
Like waves in the ocean
The smell of freshly cut grass fills my nose
The lawn mower stops
So does the weedwacker
There is silence again
Sitting on a Cob Bench
By Paloma

Sitting on a cob bench

I see a lot of little
red flowers all formed
together and that look
like a little perfect circle
I see pointy green leaves
with little red balls
the little red balls look like berries
but they also look poisonous
I see a green leaf
On the ground
with white bubbles that look
like they’re from a spit bug
I see a lot of tree worms
all over the place
And there are
still a lot falling from the tree
I hear a fly buzzing around me
so close to my ear
I can hear it so loud
buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
that’s the sound I hear
I see lots of spider webs above me
every time I look up I see the spider
that's on the web, moving so slowly
Sitting on a cob bench I see a lot