Student Writing

This page features some of my student's most poetic writing. These are some of my favorite excerpts and quotations from their essays and creative writing exercises. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. It is a rare feat when a student's writing surpasses or meets that of the original author or poet.

Jonathan Ngo (grade 7) from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: Decoded Version

The two lines are: "The river is moving / The blackbird must be flying."  A river moving doesn't necessarily mean a blackbird is flying.  These two lines are mysterious because the river's spirit could be contained within the bird; when the blackbird moves the river moves.

Ryan Bui (grade 8) from The Man With the Blue Guitar

The blue guitar cannot move the world, but it will change it as it can. The blue guitar symbolizes a force that changes universe. The audience represents the people that do not know much about themselves. The author, Wallace Stevens, says that, "A million people on one string? / And all their manner in the thing" (166). People are consumed by their own thoughts and they think they are changing, yet in reality they have not changed at all.

David Ngo (grade 5) from The Vow

I need to know how,
As my eternal vow,
To conquer deathly magic.
I'll be more extravagant,
I'll even be malevolent,
And never diminish one's presence.
Good am I,
To everyone who meets my eye,
That I should get a price.
But alas,
I'll pass,
For I only vow to conquer deathly magic.

Karen Pham (grade 5) from Find a Poem, Untitled

Abrian, a young Chicano, always bittersweet / is soulless.

Brian Lien (grade 9) from Find a Poem, White Magic

Shy away from travel in the winter,
Clear my mind of fears and doubts,
winter holds a wealth of secret pleasures.
     All the magic here is white magic.

The silence sounds so pure,
Through strands of silvery aspen
I stop to admire,
     All the magic here is white magic.

Through the windows
the moon continues to direct gaze.
It will vanish at times in near total darkness
It sits in the world of ten-thousand waves, because
     All the magic here is white magic.