Anxious Blues; Upbeat Raps

Good poetry, however figured, tells the core truths of its community. The ones that had not been spoken in this way, that had not quite been put like that before. Among my seventh and eighth graders, the best blues poems are less weary than those of Langston Hughes. The texture of the sadness of our youth is more fearful and gloomy than mournful or happy-go-lucky. Their lyrics in a more contemporary form, by contrast, are optimistic and admonitory, rather than angry. Some of them rap about recycling; one, the pleasures of a school book fair.

Muzzammill R.
7th Grade, Room 109

Recycling

There are many ways we can use
Reduce and Reuse
Another way is recycling
No cars but bicycling
Stop polluting the air
We should have a day called earth care
Factories, busses, tracks, and motorcycles
Start using solar powered transportations--recycle
Start reusing, start recycling
And if you can’t do it, stop blabbing
A ton of paper can save 17 trees
You can be a hero if you wanna be
Plant some trees if you can
Trash bags go in the trash can
Make the earth green
By keeping it clean

Lois G.
7th Grade, Room 109

My Sad Talking Blues

Nothing to talk about
But I talk too much
Nothing to talk ‘bout
Yep, I said I talk too much
I get in trouble with my teachers
Can't walk but I talk lame, way too much.

Shouldn’t talk at all
Tape & zip my mouth
Shouldn’t talk at all
Tape and zip my mouth
With my split personalities
I should move down south.

Nothing to talk ‘bout
Shouldn’t talk at all
Nothing’ to talk ‘bout
I shouldn’t talk at all
But I talk too much, so tape and zip my mouth
And just like me fall!

Ahmad A.
7th Grade, Room 112

What You Fight For

My mama always said be careful what you fight for
Battles open windows but peace opens doors
Every day on the news
Teens go out for a cruise
Soon one gets shot & it gives you the bues
And always during night some kids get in a fight
They won’t stop won’t drop
Such a pitiful sight
When one of them get into critical height
It soon becomes serious and you can tell I’m right
Racism & evil only come from jealousy
And soon the anger becomes a felony
What I’m trying to say is just have it your w ay
But be careful what you fight for
& have a good day
Peace out war in y’all!

Ciahara S.
8th Grade, Room 124

No Good News Blues

Monday I got suspended
For no reason at all
I’m tired of this stupid school
And I can’t wait to next fall
Cause I got the blues
I got the blues

Silly girls trying to fight me
For some stupid stuff
These girls have no reason
They’re just trying to be tough
Cause I got the blues
O yeah I got them blues

The spring is coming
The winter is gone
Can’t wait till school’s over
So I can party all night long
I got the blues
Oh yeah I got the blues

I got the blues
And lately I ain’t there cause
There ain’t been no good news

Jia H.
7th Grade, Room 112

Violence

Our government sponsors all war and hate
Don’t think no lawyer can argue this debate
Born where Al Capone lived, I know I can relate
Our world will die out soon at this brutal rate
Those ghetto gangs waiting for the kill
They lost all faith, all goodness, all power of will
They got no real gun fighting skills
These bloody streets are making me ill
All this violence got no reason, no rhyme
One day we’ll all run out of time
The trees won’t grow and the sun won’t shine
And into this dark world we’ll be confined

Javeria N.
7th Grade, Room 109

Loneliness

My name is loneliness
I am a sorrow
That has many attitudes
I am at home
All alone, left in your dome

I am a very sad feeling
That is always left alone
Like a very lonely smelling cologne
That is never used
And left alone

Yet I follow almost everyone
One by one
At a time almost everyone needs me
I don’t stay for long
I just come & go

It’s like a heavy emotion
It makes your heart rip
It’s the worst thing ever
And its called being lonely.

Juritzy H.
7th Grade, Room 109

Fighting with My Friends

Having fights with my Friends
It’s a horrible thing
Having fights with my friends
It’s a horrible thing
It gets me upset--I say
The bad thing is it’s raining.

When we try to talk to each other
We ignore each other’s voices
When we try to talk to each other
We ignore each other’s voices
And feel like crying with sadness
Yet make the difficult choices.

Dorothy M.
7th Grade, Room 112

No More

This world is depressing
This world’s not safe anymore.
It’s true this world’s depressing
It’s just not safe anymore
And every single person here
Is like a rotten apple core.

Judgements don’t care about ya
And war don’t care about me
Judgements don’t care about ya
And war never cared about me.
The leaders are letting this slip by
And wave us off like fleas.

This world is dying
Near its end its true.
I said this world is dying!
It’s near its end--it’s true.
There’s no salvation ready there
And there’s nothing left to do.

So tell those close that you love them
And forgive the people you can
Tell those close you love them
Forgive the people that you can.
For this world is heading nowhere
TO THE PROMISED LAND!!?

Amelia S.
8th Grade, Room 124

Book Fair

Runnin’ low on stuff to read
Gotta get me some sustenance
My mind starts to bleed
& other dire consequence
Been savin’ my dough
Since the day I turned fo’
Gotta buy me some book to entertain my mind
If I wait too much longer, I’m finna unwind
I’m finally there--a feast to behold
Got books & books seem through visions of gold
All this info’s played out to my likeness
Entertainment so valuable, fit for your highness

DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADADADADADADADADADADA

Tristan Tzara, one of the founders of DADA, celebrated controlled nonsense.

The DADA poem allows you to see yourself in the newspaper; it reflects your own "unique qualities" (about which Tzara & John Cage & Jackson Mac Low & I remain happily uncertain) back to you in a haze of half-understanding.

Long Live D A D A !

These poems by my 7th & 8th graders prove the case w/out forcing it into foreclosure; like Tzara's poetry, they preserve the case by postponing it:

Michael F.
8^th Grade, Room 124

PROBLEM TIMESHARES

Mr. Bush didn’t discuss policy, but
the event reflected how housing and

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President Bush, under pressure
from congressional Democrats to do
more to help the troubled housing sec-

VOLUNTARY PROGRAM

MORTGAGES To

form, Republican may be open
to some kind of compromise,
given the severity of the fore-
closure problem and political
pressures.

The White House and Demo-
crats in both houses of Congress have
tor, touted results from his administra-

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ITALY from $499
7-8 Days All-Inclusive
First Class Tours

While the bill has little pros-
pect of passing in its current

Narda O.
7^th Grade, Room 112

Domestic Life

People treasure gangster money

It’s fascinating how The arms look fragile enough to snap

LOUISVEILLE CENTER CAN’T begin work

I can’t afford hot dogs sold from carts

watching operas on TV is very typical of us

The company offers new malls

class is empty

Sabir A.
7^th Grade, Room 112

CLIMB WALL IN NEPAL not winning

suits high and unhid

With things in flight;

To what end does this easy and cry

Shut and gone

of a small ere be miracles)

at a kiss

the same time.

bride increased—In Arizona

has hit a wall.

Fruitless, the fruit of mine own flesh

Obama

nuclear

head

blind, war

swallowed me that in mindless passion

there is no substance at all.

Rigoberto A.
7^th Grade, Room 109

3 DADA Poems:

1.

“This morning I woke up and walked
out, turned the key and there was a noise
People who might have
thought their lives had nothing to do with

Exactly how much depends on the size

2.

let him tell you, in its Underwear and the wife
was “sexy looking” at extremely high temperatures.
with vivid description of hot flashes

3.

Selling stolen converters to Whoopie Goldberg with John Stewart.
it’s “really expensive” the way things are set up
in a very big city

Fausto S.
7^th Grade, Room 109

a microfilmed roll of government
learned to taunt cops into hitting
criminal skills to the side of law
secrets from a fallen woman
of Soviet agents. Smirkingly
mark is Skip McCoy, a New York
and a shadowy new cold war had
him, as a way of invalidating
workers, prompting police to chase
Sheriff Joseph L. Mankiew
great swamp of moral ambiguity
merable bogus complaints.
In the fall, four states in the American
grants, a state that is the nation’s busiest
not a single reported citation. Not even
where in the middle—in that
gateway for illegal crossings, imagine
where those that placed him some
can’t find a single lawbreaker in a state
there have been thousands of
ruining businesses.

Mexico is Homeland of
Latinos. Books for only three months. But if they
that four years of active conflict
And don’t forget: since 1986, it’s been
Hall of Fame.

Maryam K.
7^th Grade, Room 109

Before/After

A faint echo of the
2002 sniper attacks
that terrorized the
Washington area.

stops with a jolt,

turns off his lights,
did you ever try to get around a girdle
women. Why should women be
required to know the names of flowers

Dethroned; dispraised, disseated; and my mind

with friends, she recom
mends against sharing prob
lems, saying it is best

toward--& naming the passage time or

Perhaps Non-Violent Action

Who can or could be can be sure
mixed into anesthetic, and drove it home.