Today the G7s held a poetry reading as the final day of our poetry unit. Here’s a poem I wrote about this event:
From Zombies to Pomatoes to Billy Collins
A single stool
No mic
Plenty of seating on
The wooden floor
A projector beaming
The setlist of
33 seventh graders onto
A Screen behind the performers–
The minimalist stage for
An hour of reading
Favorite Poems
Recently scrawled (or the keyboarded equivalent of scrawled) poems
“Inspired by” poems
Encouraging laughter in response to
That Zombie apocalypse poem
“EWW!!! green colored undead!”
Song Lyric poem read out by
A girl who may know nothing of
The intended meaning of
Birds held high
pomatoes are real
The pomatato shape poem maybe about
Genetically engineered vegetables
Brought down the house when read by
The boy whose beloved thermos was found in
A poopy toilet
Only a couple weeks ago.
Unexpectedly
Similes and
Metaphors join the party with
Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins.
Each performer applauded onto the stage by friends
Saranghe (“I love you” in Korean) 사랑합
Interludes of St. German
We snap instead of clap because
Mr. Jeremy told us that’s what happens at
Poetry Readings.
Did everyone memorize their poem? No.
Did everyone read their poem dramatically? No.
Did we have fun? Yes.
Snap Snap Snap
Don’t forget about this one from 9gag:
jakartajackie 
I love this poem about an hour of sharing poetry. Such great community time for middle schoolers and their teachers. And your poem references left me with a list of poems I want to go read.
Lisa, the poem references are mostly poems written by the students. But the one about the “bird held high” was from MKTO “Thank you” read by the sweetest, most hard working girl originally from Taiwan. As a native English speaker myself, I am constantly amused by the innuendos in lyrics blaring from taxis, in restaurants and from the mouths of my students that are the most incongruous in a a predominantly Muslim country-I live in Indonesia.