Here are some of my favorite personal poems...
Thriving
After Valerie Worth
​
First
A small seed,
Then the sprout,
A small white bell appears,
To h
a
n
g, a moment,
Upside down, before
It stretches to face the sun, it's keeper
Protected by a smooth plastic coat,
Breaking and billowing into bloom,
Spilling out an array of colors against the eye,
Spraying the satisfying scent of the farmers market.
A Metal Fork
After William Carlos Williams
​
so much depends
upon
​
a metal fork
bearing its scars from years of use
​
designed with different prongs to complete its purpose
even though people never tend to notice
​
meeting new and repeat customers
in a variety of sizes and strengths
​
it looks forward to its baths at the end of each day
as its stains are wiped away
​
​
Sea Turtles
After Paul Fleischman
​
Tide's rising
Ground’s cooling
Sea turtles are Sea turtles are
hatching out hatching out
tiny flippers
such determination
crawling
to their new home
Sea turtles Sea turtles
swimming swimming
gracefully
Sea turtles’ Sea turtles’
body body
hard
protecting them
from the ocean's friends
mighty strong mighty strong
it holds them near
never leaving
a guardian friend a guardian friend
flapping
glidding
exploring the sea exploring the sea
from the shallows
to the ocean floor.
Where Poetry Hides
After Georgia Heard
​
Poetry hides
in the bookshelf
with books stacked to the sky.
Poetry hides under your hat
in your eyes.
Poetry hides
in a bottle
on the beach of an unknown shore.
​
Poetry hides
in the world around your phone.
Poetry hides
in a summer
picnic.
​
A Happy Meeting
After Joyce Sidman
​
Pancake mix meets water:
round, fluffy kisses.
​
Quick, wispy courtship,
then marriage: delicious
Twisted
My best friend and I
Rummaged through the toys:
A skateboard, jump rope, go-cart
​
​
T K
I N
E O
T
T D
E
D
Off to conquer the h
i
l
l
ENORMOUS
I lea ped
Myself as the pilot
f
f
f
3..2..1..blastof
Flying
Hearts racing
Hair blowing
Screams that echoed the trees
The exhilaration UNimaginable
Found Poem: From Prose to Poem
Growing up, my best friend Madeline and I were always doing crazy things and having fun. One day, we decided to invent something so cool that had never been invented before, or we thought. We rummaged through the toys in the garage finding a skateboard, jump rope, and my brother’s new go-cart, which he was not very happy about after the fact. We twisted, tied, and knotted the jump rope to the back of the go-cart the best we could. After attaching the free end of the jump rope to the skateboard, acting like a rope holding the two vehicles together, we were off to conquer the hill. To some, the hill may not look very big, but to two 10-year-old girls, it was enormous. As we eagerly sprinted up the hill with our contrapment lugging behind us excited to try it out, the top of the hill seemed to grow and get farther away. Once we finally reached the top after what seemed like 30 minutes of running, I leaped into the go-chart, establishing myself as the pilot, while Madeline boarded the skateboard. Not even seconds after she was situated, “3, 2, 1, blastoff”, we were on our way. From the moment we took off, we started flying down the hill- our hearts racing-our hair blowing in the wind- screams that echoed through the trees- our knuckles turning white as we held on for dear life, the exhilaration unimaginable.