Monday, September 29, 2014

Where I am From Poem


"Where I am From Poem"

Students studied a mentor text, "Where I am From" by George Ella Lyon. Students then wrote a poem of their own. The rubric for this assignment is available. Final drafts are due this Thursday.

Where I'm From

Where I'm From

I am from clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.
I am from the dirt under the back porch.
(Black, glistening,
it tasted like beets.)
I am from the forsythia bush
the Dutch elm
whose long-gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.

I'm from fudge and eyeglasses,
from Imogene and Alafair.
I'm from the know-it-alls
and the pass-it-ons,
from Perk up! and Pipe down!
I'm from He restoreth my soul
with a cottonball lamb
and ten verses I can say myself.

I'm from Artemus and Billie's Branch,
fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
to the auger,
the eye my father shut to keep his sight.
Under my bed was a dress box
spilling old pictures,
a sift of lost faces
to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments--
snapped before I budded --
leaf-fall from the family tree.

George Ella Lyon

1 comment:

  1. mrs.vogel your the best teacher ever this is why i like you and your class your fun to work with you give us haerd work you do fun games with the class room and i love how we bolth like to read

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