A group of our six older students were part of a poetry class inspired by Amanda Gorman’s spectacular presentation of “The Hill We Climb” at President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2021. Gorman’s poem provided a natural extension for our year-long study of systemic racism in America.
After reading Amanda Gorman’s poem, students were asked to respond to the following prompts, which were then discussed and shared in class:
- How does the poet make us think about the past?
- How does the poet make us think about the future?
- What are the poet’s dreams for the future?
- How does the poem reflect the times during which it was written?
- Cite two examples of figurative language used.
- Share your two favorite lines in the poem.
For the next two months we studied and compared other inaugural poems written by Maya Angelou, Robert Frost, Richard Bianco, Elizabeth Alexander and Miller Williams.
After brainstorming the common themes of these poems, it was finally time to write. Students were assigned to write a poem that spoke to the themes they identified:
change, togetherness, hopefulness, unity, working together, encouragement, urge to, make a change, prosperity, keep the Earth good for the children, reflect the times in which the poem is written, thinking about the past, and thinking about the future.
Below are 6 remarkable poems by our students.
Better by Vincent
Unattainable dreams of a unified world,
Hopeful ignorance,
Just wanting people to come together,
I doubt we’ll ever be unified,
I say it unhappy but it is an unfortunate truth,
For as much as we scream and preach ignorance remains,
No matter how many rivers are cried and then stained with our own blood,
No matter how many people die for rights that still need to be attained,
But, love is the guiding candle, flashlight or torch,
The light that has and will guide us into the better.
The better people who are taught love and acceptance.
The better age where our weapons are laid to the side.
The better conversations,
The better world that is closer to the ideal,
The unattainable ideal that we’ll pretend is near.
I hope that with all our efforts after the grey generation is out of office,
That we will make our world truly represent us.
That when we see with our eyes,
With no rose tinted glasses on,
What is truly there,
What is truly left of us.
That we will stand together for a second
And look around at each other and who,
Who has survived to tell our stories,
Who is still fighting for rights,
Who needs a helping hand,
Who will say their names and remember them,
Who hasn’t become another hashtag on Twitter.
Whomever is left I hope will teach our history,
My history,
Black history,
Trans history,
Jewish history,
Muted history,
Indigenous history,
Gay history,
All history.
I hope that this country will remember that it was built for and by the disenfranchised,
I hope that history doesn’t repeat itself,
I hope we find a way out,
I hope love will guide us to the best of at least slightly better.
By Theo
2 million trees cut down
In 24 hours
Is this a warning?
10 thousand people dead
Just to air pollution
That same day the trees had been slaughtered
Is this a warning
Over 5000 people
Die each year
From the smoke of gas cars
Electric ones are an option
It appears that this is a warning
Is this a warning?
And those who say racism isn’t an issue
Tell that to George Floyd’s grave
Society is a falling cave
Is this a warning?
Waves wavering and tide rolling all cause global warming
Is this a warning?
100 people shot dead today
Is humanity here to stay?
Is this a warning?
By Jorge
As the sun sets, hundreds of eyes look out.
In a world that has not changed.
People still go about their days.
Yelling and screaming like an angry chef,
Barking orders ravenously,
No one is paying attention to the real problems.
People ignore the problems until they kill them.
But they need to see.
They only open their mouths and eyes when the screaming gets loud.
Just because they don’t include them doesn’t mean they’re not seen.
Their vision is shrouded by their wealth.
The hope is that people might see.
That their selfishness does nothing to solve anything.
Their greed flows through them intertwined with their blood,
A plague that infects entire family trees.
I hope these angry wasps will turn into generous bees,
Or they’ll need to make way for a new generation of people who won’t be absorbed by greed.
This generation will make decisions that will exact change
It’s time to start a new chapter in this book that is our history
By Mari
The mountains watch the world that they rise above,
Weeping that beautiful peace the land once had cannot be reclaimed.
We came to this land to make lives for ourselves.
We mastered our environment we created, we created buildings, cars, we created a system of living that we all must follow to be happy.
But are we? Is this the life our ancestors wanted for us? If we asked the mountains that witnessed the evolution of the world from up high,
If we asked the rivers and and the rocks and the wise old oak trees that were here long before we were
What would they say?
Instead of seeking to master our world and everything in it we should seek to be at peace with the environment,
At peace with each other,
And at peace with ourselves
Only then can we be truly happy,
Only then can we have the life that we came here for,
Only then will this country be whole.
By Escher
Many animals are going extinct,
they are being hunted, habitats destroyed.
The touch of man harms the cycle of many species.
Leopards, rhinos, monkeys, and turtles.
All being harmed, all going extinct
Deforestation causes homes to be destroyed,
cities being built causes disturbance greater then before
Elephants, tigers, ferrets, and whales.
Without humans there is a cycle,
When they came, it became cracked,
Like a mirror that fell on the floor.
Fish, dolphins, pandas, and hippos.
Oceans polluted, seas poisoned.
If we don’t act soon, they could be lost.
Fish are dying, whales are getting sick.
We need to act, or all could be forgotten
By Evan
To the heroes. To those who keep the blood in the people of this nation pumping, doing the things that must be done. These are those who should be given our respect. For a nation’s people are its lifeline.
In the wars between the Persians and the Greeks, our democratic role model of Athens, and our military examples of Sparta, the Athenians did leave their homes, their shops, and they were burned to the ground.
But the city lived on, as is evidenced by our great nation, molded on the base of Athens. But now, in this very day and age, our nation is struggling to keep its blood from dying off, or worse, splitting into parts that by their very nature will try to do each other harm, and in splitting, shall kill the greater whole that they heretofore inhabited. That they prospered in. That they were born in.
That, if we do not act, they, we, shall doom to the pages of forgotten history, the oppressive darkness of the past, never to be realized again.