This Is a Sun

Happy Monday! Here’s another poem in celebration of National Poetry Month. This poem was written by Carlos, a fourth grader in Ms. Esbrand’s class at Oak Springs Elementary. Carlos paints a picture for us in his poem—one with a vast array of colors and images that are uniquely beautiful and chilling at the same time.

With red fire around it
and a red blanket
and a yellow pillow
and an orange ground.
it is like a smooth bed
but it is not blue.
This is a house
wood, brown, smooth, big wall
glass, clear, smooth, big as a door
chair, tan, smooth, small as a kid
couch, brown, soft.
This is a house
it feels safe
it will change by being dark, trash
everywhere, broken windows, table
broken in half.

Carlos, fourth grade, Oak Springs Elementary School

Good Luck in This Year of the Dragon

People born in the year of the dragon are thought to be brave, innovative, and driven. In Chinese mythology, the dragon is legendary: it is powerful, majestic, and revered.  And so we begin this new lunar year with the finalists of our New Years’ poem contest, who show us how we can approach the coming months: with the power of forgiveness, with our majestic senses, and a reverence, as always, for hope.

New Year’s Forgiveness

It’s a cool windy midnight
as my dad pops open the
sparkling apple juice. I
think: should I let all
of my arguments go
and forgive?

Should I just ignore
them forever? Or maybe I’ll
just apologize for the
arguments I started.
As I drink I decide right
when school starts things are
going to change

Jordyn, Ms. Rich’s fourth grade class, Pioneer Crossing Elementary School (Manor)

What Time Is It

I am a clock. I am a very big clock.
I am in the town.
I hear people yelling, bell ringing,
gold bell,
red, blue, purple fireworks.
I feel big.

I hope I can change time.

Carlos, Professor Esbrand’s fourth grade class, Oak Springs Elementary School (Austin)

Make Room for Hope

We’re officially halfway finished with this first month of the new year. Some of us made promises to ourselves a short two weeks ago. Some of us may have already broken them. And that’s OK because here’s the thing: every single day can be a new beginning. That’s the feeling we get when we read the remarkable poems that won Badgerdog’s New Years’ Poem Contest. Fourth graders Eugene, from Pioneer Crossing Elementary, and Rebecca, from Oak Springs Elementary, know what it feels like to want a new start. They know how important hope is—how a new start can’t happen without it. And their poems are a great reminder that even if we fall behind, even if we didn’t get out of the gate fast enough in 2012, there’s always time to put a little bit of sadness away to make room for some happy.