It’s magic to watch our poets-in-residence work a classroom, and magic to see what comes from their efforts. Here are some poems from fifth- and sixth-graders, inspired by resident poets, that get deep into the business of trees.

 

To The Mysterious Tree That Resides In My Front Yard

Your mottled limbs,

twisting,

turning,

thrusting,

stretching up in impossible motions.

Swaying,

waving,

channeling the whistling wind.

Your thick bark,

splattered

with tiny canyons and crevasses,

offers footholds for tree-climbing

on the warm days during the summer months,

when you can feel the life in you

just by touching your surface.

Your green leaves

flap with the breeze in spring,

glow with the sun in summer,

flutter onto the sidewalk below during autumn,

and in winter,

disappear.

Your sturdy trunk curves gracefully,

ever reaching towards the clouds,