poem – The Mint Girl Blog

Where I’m From- Holden Caulfield

Recently, for my English class, we wrote a poem based on “Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon and based on Holden Caulfield, the main character of “Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger. I hope you enjoy my poem!

I am from boarding schools
from cigarette smoke and rain
I am from fencing competitions
(loud, angry,
everyone’s disappointment as sharp as the swords)
I am from the vastness of DB’s room compared to the smallness of Phoebe’s
the unable-to-be-placed smell of home
whose indecisiveness I remember
as if I was standing there right now

I’m from phony steak and odd hats
from Allie and Phoebe
I’m the not-good-enoughs and the geniuses-of-our-time
from try harder and life is a game
I’m from Grace be with you all
with friends that make you feel warm and fuzzy
and essays about your brother’s baseball glove

I’m from touchy fathers and nervous mothers
malted milk and a swiss cheese sandwich.
From the cancer that spread through my brother’s small body,
the words and phrases that are piled onto my sister’s pages.
At the back of my brain lie my memories
hidden from both the world and myself
a handful of stars
whose light has been forced to dull.
I am from those shattered shards of time
broken before I was even born
distancing myself from the person I was and the person I am meant to be.

Imaginary Friend: A Poem

I wrote a poem for the prompt ‘Imaginary Friend’. I hope you enjoy!

they want me to hate you
they want me to be rid
they want me to not love you
anymore

i could never hate you
i could never lose you
i will always love you
for evermore

but they want me to hate you
they tell me to be rid
they force me to not love you
anymore

i tell them i can’t hate you
i promise them i’d never lose you
and i swear i will always love you
for evermore

Did you have an imaginary friend growing up?

The Jack of Hearts: a Poem

I recently tried a prompt about pulling a card from a deck and writing a poem based on that card. My card was the Jack of Hearts, which represents young love and playfulness. I hope you enjoy the poem I wrote!

The Jack of Hearts walks eagerly along a path,
plays with his crowns, tossing it
up, down, up down.
He surveys the courtyard, plucks a rose,
tucks it into his hair.
Sits on the swing, lets
the breeze push him
back, forth, back, forth.
Lets himself relax, lets himself
hear the beat of his heart.
Lets himself feel free,
allows himself a moment to
fall in love with the world.

Hermann Park- a poem

Recently, I got to go to Hermann Park and I had a fun, relaxing day! I wrote a small poem about it, where the goal is to start with 10 words and decrease one each line, eventually ending with 1. I hope you enjoy!

a stroll through the park, a waltz on the lake,
oh, how joyous you can be if you let
the weight of the day not weigh on
your shoulders and instead let the ducks
feed your joy, feed your existence,
as you drift by. be
free, be light, be
truly who you
want to
be.

I really enjoyed being able to go to the park! I got to feed the ducks, as well as boat on the lake (on a paddleboat). I got some really cute photos and in general, had fun during this free day.

Joshua Tree National Park

Recently, we visited California, and there, we went to Joshua Tree National Park! We got to see some amazing sights and to commemorate, I wrote a poem in the style of a Golden Shovel. A Golden Shovel poem is when the ending word, usually bolded, of each line (when read from top to bottom) forms a line from another poem. In my case, I used a line from the poem, “Joshua Tree” by A.R. Ammons. I hope you enjoy!

as i stood by the
trees, the wind
whistled by, past the rounding
of the
rocks, through the gap
of the stones and found
me
standing still there
listening to the weeping
of too-heavy branches under
the magnificence of a
true blue sky. there it was, a Joshua
tree

Black-Out Poetry

Recently, in my English class, we learned about Black-Out poetry. Black-out poetry is when you take an article, books, existing poetry, or any written material and black out some of the words to create new sentences and poetry. It’s a really fun creative exercise and I enjoyed it a lot! Here’s some of the black-out poetry that I did.

Poem 1:

Poem 2:

Poem 3:

The first poem was created out of an article about basements, the second was about a musical, and the third was about wild turkeys. As you can tell, none of the poems really stick with the themes of those articles, which is what makes black-out poetry so fun. You can play around with your topics and what’s important in your poem.

If you’d like to try black-out poetry here are the simple steps!

Find an article or piece of writing that you enjoy or would like to try writing with. This can be any article and does not have to align with your end product!
Start blacking out swathes of text so you are left with words or phrases that you enjoy and you think add to your poem.
If you find yourself getting stuck or are not sure what to black out, try a pattern! Maybe black out every ten words, then save the eleventh! Even just by trying, you can create something extraordinary.
You can also try to be artistic! Many poets who do black out poetry drawing pictures or make illustrations out of their work and it can end up looking beautiful.

Have/Will you try blackout poetry? What other kinds of poetry do you like?

Winter Break in Chennai

Lazy morning,
Sitting on the couch,
Playing games on devices that
Aren’t mine
Chennai is the best

Eating my comfort foods,
Surrounded by my family
What new adventure
Do we have today?
Chennai is the best

Cards in my hand
Shhh…don’t show anybody
Who’s the winner?
Yes! It’s me!
Chennai is the best

Staying up late at night
What movie shall we watch today?
Laughing with my grandparents
All night long
Chennai is the best

Never wanting to go back
Feeling so sad while arriving
at the airport
I can’t want to see everyone again!
Chennai is the best

Being in Theater

I know I recently published a blog about my experiences in theater and a recent musical I went to, but I wanted to elaborate more on a specific year of theater.

This year, I was chosen for UIL theater, a class with 20 students who each have a special passion for theater. For some of us, it’s the acting, while for others it’s directing or backstage work. It’s a tightknit class and on the 3rd and 5th, we got to perform the play we spent 2 months working on. It wasn’t perfect, but we were ok with that! We still had a lot of fun and learned valuable lessons from it. Our theater teacher has promised that for our next play, in the spring, we’ll get even more time to work on it, meaning we’ll have an even better play.

Here’s a short poem I wrote about my UIL theater experiences so far.

Circle up, circle up
A routine we know so well
Set the set, markings clear
Circle up once again

Places, places
We know exactly what to do
Get ready to head on stage
And make sure you just be you

Lines, lines
Etched into the brain so deep
No doubt about what comes next
We could do this in our sleep

Curtain, curtain
The play is now done
Strike the set, put it away
Could we have won?

Waiting, waiting
Holding hands, scared
Hold our breath as they call out names
Four people from our school won medals, they declared

Laughing, laughing
Packing up our stuff
We might not have won, but we had fun
And that is always enough.

Banned Books

This week is Banned Book Week! In honor of that, I wrote a poem and decided to share it with you. I hope you enjoy!

If books around the world are getting banned?
Who is there to represent?
Must we only learn about the classic,
Fair skin, straight, with no problems?

Why do books get ruled offensive?
So what if characters aren’t the norm?
Isn’t that why they were put into these books in the first place?
Isn’t that what makes people happier to see them?

To see yourself reflected in books,
Isn’t that a marvelous thing?
But banning books, the opposite
Removing all the reflections

Moving forward, past these bans,
Seems impossible, a nightmare to face
But we keep reading banned books
And we keep learning, and growing, and being reflected

What are some of your favorite banned books?

Kites at the Beach

This summer I got to spend some time with my cousins! It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it a lot. During this time, we went to the beach and we got to fly kites! I really enjoyed this experience, so I decided to write about it.

Windy beach, kites
flapping through the clouds, dipping
up and down then up

Strings, reeling out as
the kites fly high over
the waves, up and down

Laughs, as we run side
to side, hoping the wind will
move our kites up

Tired, ending the day
with games, winning small prizes,
thrilled with this fun day

What’s your favorite beach activity?