“Poetry makes me look at everything in the world from a different perspective.
It lets my brain open and lets my imagination grow.”
~ Ben, 4th grade

Poem to the Barn Owl

Barn owl,
I sense you breathing in the
knowledge
of the abandoned barn,
throwing shadows into the
northern star,
and gliding through the wise
wind.
Teach me the unteachable
moonlit dance of fire, ice and
mist.
Fierce as the sun, loyal as the moss,
and filled with memory,
you escape elusively,
your curiosity luminous
in this cool, autumn night
of silent sound.

~ 6th grader

Romancing the Word, Inside the Classroom

Anyone who thinks of poetry as quaint, as quiet, as something flat on a page has never witnessed a word artist work a classroom into a literary frenzy. That feat takes only minutes for irrepressible Irish poet Tony Curtis, who arrives in a third grade Anacortes classroom with a strumming guitar and wicked grin, warning children he is a wee bit “mad.”

Within