Lafayette School Poetry on Parade

“The poems were cool. The best ones were like bombs, and when all the right words came together it was like an explosion.” -Kwame Alexander

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Find It in This Blog!

For Poetry Paraders

For Poetry Paraders
Bring your original poems and/or artwork to the LMC and we'll publish and post your work!

What To Do With a Dinosaur

What To Do With a Dinosaur
This morning a dinosaur tromped into school,
ferocious, atrocious, and dripping with drool.
He had to be practically twenty feet tall,
and banged around looking something to maul.
He stomped and he snorted, he bellowed and roared.
His head hit the ceiling and busted a board.
That beast was undoubtedly ready for lunch.
He snatched up a chair in his teeth with a crunch,
Then stopped for a moment and thoughtfully chewed;
it seems he had smelled cafeteria food.
He spit out the splinters and plowed down the hall,
his tail swinging wildly and smashing the wall.
He burst through the doors of the lunchroom to see
the lunch ladies clutching their hair nets to flee.
He found the lasagna and gobbled it up,
then lapped up the lemonade, cup after cup.
He ransacked the salad bar, plundered dessert,
then stiffened and yelped as if suddenly hurt.
He let out a howl as he clutched at his side,
then gave out a gasp and fell over and died.
So next time a dinosaur comes to your school,
I think you’d do well to remember this rule:
Get out of the way of his bad attitude
and make sure he eats cafeteria food.
— Kenn Nesbitt

Becoming Muhammad Ali

Becoming Muhammad Ali

Before the Fight

a reporter asked me
if I thought
I was as good
as Joe Louis
or Sugar Ray was
at my age
and I told him,
I don't think
I'm as good,
I'M BETTER
Got more FLOW
than Joe,
more SLAY
than RAY.
I'm sweeter,
stronger,
and faster.
As a matter of fact,
I'm so fast
I can't even catch
MYSELF.
Becoming Muhammed Ali-Kwame Alexander

Vacation

In my head I hear a humming:
Summer, summer summer's coming.
Soon we're going on vacation
But there is a complication:
Day by day the problem's growing-
We don't know yet where we're going!

Mother likes the country best;
That's so she can read and rest.
Dad thinks resting is a bore;
He's for fishing at the shore.
Sailing is my brother's pick;
Sailing makes my sister sick;
She says swimming's much more cool,
Swimming in a swimming pool.
As for me, why, I don't care,
I'd be happy anywhere!

In my head I hear a humming:
Summer, summer, summer's coming.
Soon we're going on vacation
But we have a complication:
Day by day the problem's growing-
Where oh where will we be going?

Mary Ann Hoberman

Fishes' Evening Song

Fishes' Evening Song
Flip flop,
Flip flap,
Slip slap,
Lip lap;
Water sounds,
Soothing sounds.
We fan our fins
As we lie
Resting here
Eye to eye.
Water falls
Drop by drop,
Plip plop,
Drip drop.
Plink plunk,
Splash splish;
Fish fins fan,
Fish tails swish,
Swush, swash, swish,
This we wish...
Water cold,
Water clear,
Water smooth,
Just to soothe
Sleepy fish.

--Dahlov Ipcar

Changing

Changing
I know what I feel like;
I'd like to be you
And feel what you feel like
And do what you do.
I'd like to change places
For maybe a week
And look like your look-like
And speak as you speak
And think what you're thinking
And go where you go
And feel what you're feeling
And know what you know.
I wish I could do it;
What fun it would be
If I could try you out
And you could try me.

-- Mary Ann Hoberman

Running Song

Running Song
I am running,
running, running.
I am running
just for fun.
Through the grass
and through the gravel
running faster
see me travel
past the people
staring, staring.
They are thinking
something's wrong.
I'm not looking.
I'm not caring.
I'm just running
hard and long.

Now my feet are
pounding, pavement.
Now my heart is
pounding, too.
I can feel the sidewalk searing
through the bottom of my shoe.
How the wind is
whipping past me.
How the trees are
whizzing by.
Rushing rivers
run forever.
Maybe I can
if I try.

-- Marci Ridlon

Comma

Comma
Do commas have mommas
Who teach them to pause,
Who comfort and calm them,
And clean their sharp claws?
Who tell them short stories
Of uncommon commas
And send them to bed
In their comma pajamas?

--Douglas Florian

Check it out in the LMC 811 LOW

Check it out in the LMC 811 LOW
Collects twenty illustrated poems on the origins of various sports.

Homework

Homework
It rustles it
shifts with no wind
in the room to
move it
Listen!
The blank white
paper
needs your attention

"Where are the words?"
It whispers
"I'm lonesome
for words and circles
and
spelling your name and
assignments"

Put you hand on the paper
to calm it Pick up
your pen Say
"Paper I'm here
when you need me!"

Begin

-- Barbara Esbensen

Tour America: A Journey through Poems and Art 811 SIE

Tour America: A Journey through Poems and Art  811 SIE
Poet Diane Siebert and illustrator Stephen T. Johnson team up to celebrate the scenic treasures of the United States.

Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings 811FLO

Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings 811FLO
A collection of twenty whimsical poems about comets, the stars, moon, and the planets.

Nothing Beats a Pizza... 811 LES

Nothing Beats a Pizza...       811 LES
A collection of amusing poems, many about pizza and other kinds of food, which play with words and rhythms.

Science Verse P SCI

Science Verse P SCI
A student is struck with a strange curse, hearing nothing but science verses that sound very much like some well-known poems.

R Is for Rhyme 811 YOU

R Is for Rhyme  811 YOU
A collection of A to Z rhyming poems that illustrate poetic tools, terms, and techniques including the ballad, doublets, free verse, haiku, limerick, and metaphors.

Fold Me a Poem 811 GEO

Fold Me a Poem  811 GEO
A collection of poems about origami animals.

Stone Bench in an Empty Park 811 STO

Stone Bench in an Empty Park  811 STO
An anthology of haiku accompanied by photographs reflect nature in the city.

If Not for the Cat 811 PRE

If Not for the Cat  811 PRE
Presents an illustrated collection of haiku-style poems about different animals.

Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku 811 JAN

Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku  811 JAN
Contains a collection of illustrated senryu--short poems related to haiku--covering a wide range of subjects, including baby-sitters, jumping rope, snoring parents, spoiled pets, and more.

Check it out in the LMC 811 SID

Check it out in the LMC 811 SID
An illustrated collection of poems about famous and relatively unknown inventors from ancient times to the present.

Bow Wow Meow: It's Rhyming Cats and Dogs 811 FLO

Bow Wow Meow: It's Rhyming Cats and Dogs  811 FLO
A collection of short poems about dogs and cats.

Love That Dog 811 CRE

Love That Dog  811 CRE
A young student, who comes to love poetry through a personal understanding of what different famous poems mean to him, surprises himself by writing his own inspired poem.

Dogku 811 CLE

Dogku  811 CLE
Tells a story through haiku about a dog named Mooch and the many things it does, such as riding in a car, barking at the neighbors, and chewing on dirty socks.

FIC KOR

FIC KOR
Jeremy Bloom produces forty poems on sports in order to raise his grade from a D- to an A+.

The Proper Way to Eat

The Proper Way to Eat
The way to eat your lunch meat
is to roll it into tubes.
The way to eat your Jell-O
is to jiggle all the cubes.
The way to eat your Swiss cheese
is to nibble it like mice.
The way to eat your water
is to chew the chunks of ice.
The way to eat your doughnut
is to try to save the hole.
The way to eat your ice cream
is to overfill the bowl.
The way to eat your pudding
is to suck it through a straw.
The way to eat your peanuts
is to store them in your jaw.
The way to eat your apple
is to munch it like a hog.
The way to eat your spinach
is to feed it to your dog.
The way to eat your noodles
is in one unending slurp.
The way to end your meal
is with a record-breaking BURP.

-- John Frank

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Follow the Parade

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The Bluffalo

The Bluffalo
Oh, do not tease the Bluffalo
With quick-step or with shuffalo
When you are in a scuffalo
In Bluffalo's backyard.

For it has quite enoughalo
Of people playing toughalo
And when it gives a cuffalo
It gives it very hard.

But if by chance a scuffalo
Occurs twixt you and Bluffalo,
Pray tempt it with a truffalo
And catch it off its guard.

And while it eats that stuffalo
You can escape the Bluffalo
And with a huff and puffalo
Depart from its backyard.

-- Jane Yolen

Keep a Poem in Your Pocket

Keep a Poem in Your Pocket
Keep a poem in your pocket
and a picture in your head
and you'll never feel lonely
at night when you're in bed.

The little poem will sing to you
the little picture bring to you
a dozen dreams to dance to you
at night when you're in bed.

So--
Keep a picture in your pocket
and a poem in your head
and you'll never feel lonely
at night when you're in bed.

--
Beatrice Schenk de Regniers

Walk Lightly

Make the Earth your companion.
Walk lightly on it, as other creatures do.
Let the Sky paint her beauty-- she is always
watching over you.
Learn from the Sea how to face harsh forces.
Let the River remind you that everything will pass.
Let the Lake instruct you in stillness.
Let the Mountain teach you grandeur.
Make the Woodland your house of peace.
Make the Rainforest your house of hope.
Meet the Wetland on twilight ground.
Save some small piece of Grassland for a red kite
on a windy day.
Watch the Icecaps glisten with crystal majesty.
Hear the Desert whisper hush to eternity.
Let the Town bring you togetherness.
Make the Earth your companion
Walk lightly on it, as other creatures do.

-- from A World of Wonders: Geographic Travels in Verse and Rhyme by J. Patrick Lewis

Check it out in the LMC... 811 LEW

Check it out in the LMC... 811 LEW
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