Category: 08th

Rhyming

Rhyming is overrated.
Rhyming poems are childish and dated.
Free verse is far superior.
Rhymes are often so much drearier.

I say we extinguish the rhymes
We’ve used them on too many times.
Free verse is for the more artistic,
An art system that is truly mystic.

Rhymes are childish and creative,
Free verse is so spectacular and imaginative
Rhymes are tasteless they’ve out done their use,
Free verse is powerful, complex, and abstruse.

Children make rhymes, they’re old and tasteless,
Free verse are convoluted, elaborate, and audacious.
The definition of art is the application of skill and ability.
Free verse poems show my artistic agility.
Not some poem with rhyming, that’s easy!
Free verse is so intricate we only covered it briefly.

Murchison

8

Sam

Sam was supposed to be small,
But that was not the case at all.

Even though San is so diggity
We treat him with much cordiality.

He can almost jump the fence
he treats my dad with much eminence.

Without him our family is not complete.
He can run so fast he is practically an athlete.

Sam is really great,
To live with us is his fate.

Murchison

8

change

we, humans, walk around the earth with no regards for anyone or anything. we stomp around like elephants with no care.
selfish beings, we want everything to ourselves. we are all hypocrites, but the worst kinds of humans are the ones that think they are not in any wrong. the ones that think they do no wrong.
be the human you want everyone to be. be the change.

St. Mark Lutheran School

Eighth

Letting Go

Have you ever just wanted
To let go to not be here
That the feeling you have
Makes you feel miserable and not loved
That the thing you want
Could be deadly but you hold back

That feeling that you’re hated
Nor loved but also abandoned by everyone
You feel like it’s over
You imagined a world without you there
You think they will be happy
Because you know it’s a way out

In the end it’s truly
Extremely sad when it comes to that
Point in your life when
When you have made the choice to
End it all for yourself
Because you know that suicide’s right there

Postscript from DaneS’s mom:

He wrote it for all the people who feel bad but don’t have a voice to share. He did not write it about how he feels.

Perhaps his poem will spur conversation and let some child know there are others who struggle like they do and reach out.”

Murchison

8

Family is like a Tree

“Family” is old oak with long branches —
That stretch across many places —
And will crumble when one breaks —
And will continue to grow — and never stop —
And family — is everywhere — all around you —
And the pain must be in the breakage —
That could rip apart the family
That kept so many of us connected —
I’ve heard it in the earliest of day —
And the great dead of night —
Family is always around you,
just like old oaks and fresh pines.

St. Mark Lutheran School

8th Grade

blue

dark as the depths of the sea
slow as a deadly glacier
royal, powerful, grounded
cold as an icy blizzard on bare skin

blue is the deepest of sleep, dreamless
blue is the grace of a ballet dancer on stage, nameless
blue is a salty taste on your tongue
blue is steady breathing, calling out in silence
blue is creases crowning eyes of an elder, frameless

unsettling as bruises, beaten badly backwards, black and blue
wicked as the plot of a movie, retching your heart, warping your mind
calm, quiet, in control
shocking as the thunder, preparing for petrifying pops of lightning

blue is mesmerizing paint drenching fingers, now hued
blue is pouring rain, lingers a sombering mood
blue is the calm before the storm
blue darkens the sky towards night
blue is unknown faces in a crowd, untouched and nude

blue drags you down to the beach to watch the waves
‘cause you may only be alive a few more days

Bailey Middle School

8th

Like Elephants

Like elephants
forcing themselves into cardboard boxes,
a vessel desperate to be filled with belonging
snags its fluttering spirit
and plucks away the wings,
consulting society’s step-by-step handbook
for cutting away passionate errors,
slicing off rebellious streaks,
stitching on content and blinding unbiased sight
and throws the corpse
up, up, up,
expecting it to sprout wings and fly.

Bailey Middle School

8

books

open a book and you will find
people and places of every kind;
open a book and you can be
anything you want to be;
open a book
and you can share
wondrous words you find in there
open a book and i will to
you read to me
ill read to you!

bailey middle school

8th