Student Samples: Elementary
 YTT
by Derek, fourth grade poet
Yesterday was odd and painful.
I cannot forget yesterday.
It just haunts me like a shadow.
I’ve lost friends and many things I’ve ever loved.
I have no regrets for anything I’ve ever done.
I fought by sides of many friends.
Most of them are truly dead.
Today is all my stress
Piled on top of me.
Today is success.
There is action everywhere I go,
Making things happen is what I do
Tomorrow is when all my hopes come together.
Tomorrow is a bright path of success.
I have faith in my future.
Tomorrow is new, a fresh start to make things right.
Tomorrow.
Tomorrow things will be alright.
Tomorrow.
Tomorrow things will go my way.
Tomorrow, Tomorrow…
(Click here to print/view Derek and three of his classmates' poems.)
Student Samples: Middle School
 Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
by Thomas, seventh grade poet
Yesterday was happy and carefree.
It held the sounds of birds singing and children playing.
The days would drag on and I could feel every second in my heart.
Yesterday was a time when mistakes were forgotten.
Today is a time when mistakes linger.
The hum of computers and the scratching of pencils R eplace the sounds of nature.
The green of the grass is r eplaced the beige and cream of T he walls around me.
The days now speed by at an overwhelming speed; days will go by without me noticing .
Tomorrow is a time of great mystery.
No one can predict what will come in my future.
Not even the greatest seer can see what is in store for me.
No oracle will tell me my fate,
For I make my own fate and fortune.
I will decide the path of my life.
That is why I say tomorrow is a good day.
(Click here to print/view Thomas and two of his classmates' poems.)
 Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
by Natalie, eighth grade writer
Yesterday, the world was painted in bright, vibrant colors
Every day was new and clean
The world was my playground, and even the color of the sky would change to match my
mood
Fairies lived in every bush, and the cardboard box our new refrigerator came in was a
magic fortress
While my parents were rocks stuck in mud at the bottom of a stream, I was a feather,
Spinning over rapids, whizzing around bends, and rolling over ripples
I absorbed the rays from the sun like a sponge, and I carried that light with me in my soul,
And it was the sunshine that fueled my imagination
Today, I am changing into something nameless
I’m somewhere between a caterpillar and a butterfly
The transformation is a terrifying thrill
I can remember the time when my life was what my imagination wanted it to be
I want to lock the memories of those times up and keep them in my pocket,
So I could maybe stay the child I once was,
But I can’t
The world is pushing me to grow-up
I’m a crisp green sprout, being excessively watered
The waterer thinks it will accelerate my transformation, when really, it’s just drowning me
Tomorrow is a blur of colors
I’m moving too fast to make out what the future will be like for me
Maybe tomorrow, I’ll be able to keep that sunshine that fueled once my imagination,
O
or maybe the sunshine will fuel something new
All I know is that tomorrow’s coiled up and ready to pounce, and surprises will lie around every corner
Like storms, tomorrow cannot be controlled, but it can be prepared for
I know tomorrow, I’ll be something new
(Click here to print/view Natalie and one of her classmates' poems.)
Student Samples: High School
 Yesterday; Today; Tomorrow;
by Janell, tenth grade poet
Yesterday was cold and rainy with the sun shining on a summer day.
It was a smile that came to tears.
It was days that grew into years.
It was love at first sight, with a broken heart at the end.
It was new heroes that grew over your lost ones.
There was laughter that turned into screams and hope and love
Found in only your dreams.
Yesterday was everything left behind you.
Today is beautiful.
Today is yours but also mine.
I won’t give up a second of it only because I’m slowly dying.
With every day brings another toward my last.
I may find you today, hang my head in sorrow.
Either way, happy or sad, lost or found, today is my day and I
Will live it better than yesterday because tomorrow might not come.
Tomorrow is a frightening fairy tale.
It can bring joy or disappointment.
I may become the next big thing or just someone you once knew.
Suffering is ahead of all of us only because it builds strength,
But also because you find happiness at the end.
My future will break me down and bring me back up, but at the
End of this life time I know I’m going to have had something to live for.
(Click here to print/view Janell and three of her classmates' poems.)
 yesterday, today & tomorrow…
by Jordan, 11th grade poet
yesterday
is the heavy, gray cloud that’s filled
w/your deepest darkest secrets.
it holds heartache and disasters
countless memories, good or bad
but either way it’s all in the past.
we can’t go back & undo, scratch out,
erase or change each thought, action or word.
yesterday is forever tattooed in your mind.
today
could be one of those good days
or one of those real crappy ones
but it’s the only day we’re sure of
so live like there’s no tomorrow
& make the best out of what you’ve got.
today is one step closer to your dreams.
tomorrow
is a clean slate, a new day, a fresh start.
it’s a way to fix your wrongs of yesterday
but it’s whatever you make it
who & what you want to be
the change you want to see.
tomorrow brings hope.
(Click here to print/view Jordan and one of her classmate's poems.)
|
