The Persian Ninja Zombie Series

Yet another poem by Harry. His assignment was to write a poem of four lines, using lots of de words. It's not one of his poetry assignments, it's from his Latin roots book. The book said that it's okay if the poem is funny, so he took that as a personal challenge.

Zombie List
by Harry

Deceased Persian Ninja Zombie
descended to deposit brains,
decided to destroy decayed cranes,
found debris and defined undead.

(originally poster 2/15)

I've Created a...Zombie?

There are very few moments in a mother's life when she can pinpoint change. Kids grow gradually and seeing things change in an instant is rare. Case in point, Harry. Great kid, incredibly smart, loving, a great big brother, all of that. Not one though to relish the idea of a poetry assignment.

Until two nights ago. I was making dinner (oh, who am I kidding. I was standing in the kitchen in front of the pencil drawer trying to avoid making dinner) and Harry came up to me, "Mom, I need you to move. I need a pencil, I have to write a poem."

So of course I moved (fell over backwards) and let him write his poem:

If Zombies Made To-Do Lists (title inspired by my last blog post)

If zombies made to-do lists there would be no brains.
If zombies made to-do lists you must be insane.
If zombies made to-do lists there would be a lot of undead.
If zombies made to-do lists...watch out, Fred!


This was that moment. And actually I'm really, really proud of him. For real! He came up with this without any prompting on my part. He used what he's learned about meter and rhyme from his poetry studies, and did I mention that I didn't prompt him at all?

I wonder if they consider kids who write zombie poems for Poet Laureate?

They should.

(2/16)

Zombies Return

Ex Poem

Persian ninja zombies excavate rocks,
examine explosions, expel executioners,
expect explorers, exercise executives
in order to find Excalibur.

(2/23)

Don't worry, these zombies don't die either. He's working on one for the "spec" words. I actually love these and hope he continues writing them.

Harry's Third Poem

Originally posted January 24, 2011

This one was the trickiest by far. The assignment was way too open-ended for his liking. It basically said to use any poetic device you've learned and write a poem. But finally he came up with:

Packing
By Harry

I bring the tent to the car
We pack it in, it's going far.
Then we stuff the blankets in the back.
We're almost gone when we've started to pack.
Next comes the jackets, hats, shoes, and boots.
We put in the pancakes, stove and some fruit.
The Rocket Box goes way on top.
It holds sleeping bags and mattresses, we'd better stop.
So much stuff, we have no room to move.
Still, more comes.
Our games, nintendos and books.
We're finally done, we're leaving now.
On last question before we start.
Can we play our nintendos now, Dad?

Harry's Second Poem

Originally posted on my other blog January 2011:


Tanks
by Harry

Moving slowly, tanks are going
through the rivers into battle.
Made of metal, things bounce off.
Metal five-inch thick protects
Marines inside.



The assignment was to "pick a foot, pick a meter, write a poem!"

It's not a topic I would have chosen necessarily, but hey, I'm not a ten-year-old boy. Maybe we do need to get out into nature more.

Harry's First Poem

I just realized that I should have posted these poems on this blog since they really are Harry's school work. So, this is from November 2010.


Harry is learning about poetry and the different ways words and sounds are used to create images. The book we are using is great, but the assignment at the end of each chapter is to use what he's learned and write a poem. This is not easy for Harry who can talk 'till the cows come home, but has a really hard time coming up with something original.

The assignment for this chapter was to pick a sound or a couple of sounds and use them throughout his poem. He chose the hard 'c' and 't.' The poem was originally about playing with legos, but it quickly became about the bear that lived in the lego forest.

Bear's Kingdom
by Harry

Pick green like grass,
A brown tree trunk.
Click green brick to brown brick.
Bear tosses rocks,
trees creak and fall.
Salmon tricked bear into
picking soft illusion.
Back to the bricks
creating the bear's cave.