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Global Voices: Poems from Kids
We'd like to share some amazing poems written by students from Friends
School of Haverford, PA. These and other student poems were published
in Global Voices: Poets for the Planet and Her People, a children's
poetry journal that shares children's visions of our world. If you'd
like to share some of your poetry with Global Voices, contact
Leslie Hahne at LHahne@friendshaverford.org.
Untitled
only some see the lines
kill the dream
choose sides
who would dare to go
we run for our lives, from our lives
the next day
life is too much for our head
this dizzying world
making a difference
yet dying instead
- Colin Yarnell, gr. 6
It’s Between You and Me
It’ s between you and me to make our world
Cleaner than clean, finer than fine
And spiffier than spiffy.
Together we can turn pollution into pollen,
Trash into trees,
And garbage into green!
Our land is outrageously filthy,
Our oceans are significantly dirty,
And out minds are getting garbaged!
It’s between you and me!
- David Balderston, gr. 6
Hunger
Hunger.
People standing on the street wishing they had a piece of food
People crying from the floods of Mother Nature
People dying from the floods of hatred
The small rations of luck that are so unfortunate
People taking for granted what others cannot
Sharing of food to help it stop
Ignorance and greed making it grow
No money to buy food from the store with
No store to buy food from
Crops dying and pulling their owners with them
A horrible thing
That in too many places goes unnoticed
- Isaac Pedisich, gr. 5
Urban Child
Why should I dream?
Once I slip a good out of the door,
My hopes are in danger of being dashed to the cement
sidewalk by a Saturday Night Special.
I have no time for dreams,
only time for nightmares of guns and gangsters.
Nightmares filled with reality,
filled with ruby red bloodstains and family screams,
bleak clothes and black caskets,
tears and pain.
My dreams,
now hidden behind black walls of fear and heart
break,
are concealed from me.
Unless I can find the cloak of innocence again,
the fantasy of childhood,
the bliss in not knowing the worst,
I cannot dream again.
The sunny times when I was a child are long gone,
leaving me only with memories
of crayola-scribble filled papers,
bright sunlight,
and day-dreams that were never to happen.
I am now forced to grow up,
to watch things most adults will not ever see,
to experience a terror each day for a life,
for lives,
for death.
- Julia Gerton, gr. 6
Peace
Peace is sharing
with each other.
It sounds like
People laughing.
If feels like
an angel touching you.
- Annie Leonardi, gr. 1
Peace
Peace rocks the world
Peace needs to become more often
Peace is the ultimate ruler
Peace will win over all war.
- Meghan Stevenson-Krausz, gr. 6
Does Anybody Care?
Does anybody care? That people are starving.
Does anybody care? That children are homeless.
Does anybody care? That kids die from disease.
Does anybody care? That people are poor.
Does anybody care?
That we’re just standing here doing nothing.
Does anybody care?
- Philip Buckley, gr.4
Poetry Hides
Poetry hides in
sounds, sliding softly through my ears,
and in the wet water swirling swiftly.
Poetry hides in
big bubbles I used to blow every day,
and in time turning and telling.
Poetry hides in
color covering the world wildly
with striped stripes and popped polka dots.
Poetry hides in
the glowing green grass growing and
greeting lives as they come down to earth.
Poetry hides in
stars staring at the rigid rivers, teary trees,
mellow meadows, and hoping humans.
Poetry hides in
the dim dark getting darker
and in the loud light getting lighter.
Poetry hides in
the wind, whirling and sweeping off
the leaves of trees.
Poetry hides in
my imagination, imagining everything I love,
and in the future and the past that I learn about.
- Thomas Scullin, gr. 5
Untitled
Here
On
My
Earth
Forever
Roaming
On
New
Terrain
- Alex Slaymaker, gr. 4
Moon Friends
So many children
looking at the moon
all around the earth
and we all like each other
it’s peaceful to look at the moon
it’s peaceful to be friends
maybe older people
should look at the moon
then the whole world
would be peaceful
- Danny Moyer, gr. 2
Freedom
Freedom
is what calls a person to do
what they believe is right
to know the difference between good
and evil
Freedom is what tells a person to stand up
for what they believe in
and know
that it is for the best
Freedom
is the difference
between fighting
for your rights
and being controlled
never to be free
Freedom
- Megan Mount, gr. 5
Harmony
I sing to the sun!
I hope to see you
On the horizon.
I give you peace
And the joy of birds singing.
I feel as warm
As in my bath.
- Jameel Davis, gr. 1
My Future
What does my future
look like
Is it going to be
airplanes and
towers crumbing down
to my sight
War bursting out in
fury frustration
and fright
Firemen saving people
People crying in tears,
tears
Tears rolling beneath
their cheeks
BIG dark clouds forming
forming scared people running
from our people falling
falling down
- Elliott Robertson, gr. 6
The Meaning of War
What’s the use of having
peace when how to
get it is war?
They think it will
be peaceful if Bin
Laden is dead.
But until that
WAR! cries
of violence screech
in my ear. I can
hear!
We think we
are helping Afghanis,
but it is like
“Sorry” then no change!
Helping
Bombing
Helping
Bomb
Bomb
Bomb
after BOMB
- Marisa Lerman, gr. 5
SO MUCH FOR FREEDOM…
So much for freedom,
America’s a lie,
Freedom for all?
Maybe if you’re white.
Why is white right?
Why is Philadelphia called, “City of Brotherly Love”?
Because whites said so,
They gave Philadelphia its motto,
Even though our black brothers were made slaves,
Called evil because of their skin color.
Should we judge people by their physical appearance?
They had skin the color of the blackest raven,
We had skin the color of the whitest dove,
And yet,
Although out coloring was different,
our bodies, minds, and souls were the same,
locked in the struggle to survive in this cold and brutal world,
locked in the struggle to survive in this world,
locked in the struggle to survive,
survive…
- Julia Gerton, gr. 6
BLACK vs. WHITE
Arms open wide to desegregate,
BLACK vs. WHITE
Men are killed
Women are hurt
People suffer
Nobody dares to cross the lines
Police on one side
Blacks on the other
Jail for no reason
Slavery all over again but in a different form
People call out
For help
The say mean words
And
Curse as they like
All people have feelings
No matter what color
It doesn’t matter
What colors
All I see is love
- Hannah Minkoff, gr. 6
To Kill Another
One life lost
Why not another?
Is it correct?
Would God agree?
To see his creations killing each other for criminal acts,
Letting one more human die than necessary,
We lose five children to the mind of one,
We destroy a sixth with a verdict.
We say this is the right thing to do,
But is it needed?
Why don’t you lock ‘em up for life?
So they can think about what they have done.
Their acts will haunt them until their death,
Realizing the sorrow they have created.
Lynn, you think it’s alright,
You would kill a human with a thump of a gavel.
Are we helping the community if we are knocking off souls twice as fast?
What about you? Do you think it’s civilized?
- Andrew Kelly, gr. 5
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