Lines from the Mind

Sweat trickles, sticky shirt Hot air sears nostrils, Shimmering fried yellow hills in distance, Cicadas, a thousand chirps pressing in, Relief, cool ice-water laughs down my throat. Form I followed here: Line 1: Touch - Feel Line 2: Smell Line 3: See Line 4: Hear Line 5: Taste Success Criteria: Have followed the form but shown an ability to vary with intention as needed. Place in the poem strong thoughts about the topic Creating not just a random set of lines but using craft. I have correctly punctuated with complex sentences with comma/s. I have improved vocabulary by utilising a thesaurus. I can use and credit Creative Commons images. Images Credit: 5 Senses from Wikipedia , Summer adapted from Pixabay

Using the Extreme Poetry Resource, exemplar and the extension activity .. here is a poem you could create. WALT: To create a poem that captures a personal experience or topic in a summary form. Criteria: To write strongly and communicate. To use Thesaurus and Research to extend vocabulary choices and make sure every word is “precious” To collaborate with a partner to produce a shared experience by creating poems that impact readers. To understand and use alliteration and forms of grammar.

Remembered instants heartbeats of significance, recognition and recall memories shared, thoughts painted in our relationship capturing the moments: we laughed together, paused together, dreamed together, looked at life together through time's eye. These memories make us fully human, alive to the best and worst of who we are. Even as we remember do the memories change? Elusive wisps of clouds morphing into different colours and shapes, changing our thoughts feelings of treasured minutes or painful pasts. Credits: Image from: Pixabay.com Ideas from: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/memories http://www.human-memory.net/ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-our-brains-make-memories-14466850/?no-ist WALT:   To create a poem that captures what memories mean to people so your readers feel your emotion and thinking. Success Criteria:  The words we pick fit together  The ideas work together line by line  To use ...

Faleva houses dappled paint skin buried in bush pockets friends for twenty years leaning drunkenly, shoulders rubbing, rubbish skipping happily past, Mates sheltering the disenfranchised home for the poor, erratic power toxic water. Trapped in the corner surrounded by politics and rich people power decisions. The bulldozer chuckles forward teeth glinting Scars rusty flexing bully muscles, Carving swathes of pain through the falvela, Crushing hopes nightmares breaking bones. Either take our money and run or pay the price, of our batons riot police advancing, Pay the price of our Olympic dreams.

In grit of life, There are moments unwatched by others, small heroisms unseen, thoughtful touches, an honest thought, a definite decision to truth-give. Courage's genesis a straightforward heart, Strength of, "No" Power of, "Yes" No guilt, just assurance, Not other's images just yourself, Your public face mirroring private skin, character beauty unfading. In calamity integrity tested, In fear integrity trialled. Not slaves to ordinary, walk, stand tall - integrity.

WALT To communicate a thought in a few carefully chosen words. Success Criteria: Build pictures in your reader’s mind Communicate emotions Cut the small words Click below for my haiku !

Mother Three young mouths Meagre hope Threadbare cupboards Shanty corrugated cage Husband taken Choleras meal. Whispered words Propaganda hope suggested, Cash given Teenager traded, Bitten by the trafficker Real life zombie Taken to sea. Sweat fisherman blood. 4 hours sleep 20 hours work 4 hours sleep 20 hours work 4 hours sleep… Fingers to bone. No escape No words No life. Fear trap, Miles of ocean, Netted life, Broken arm if you speak out. Modern slavery Forty-five million cries in the wind, cries in the Dirt, cries in the Smoke cries on the ocean, Tears in the heart! WALT: to give voice to the voiceless. Criteria Use strong: new vocabulary, word images Protest against an injustice in our world Cut words not needed Be creative in getting my point across

This is a collaborative writing piece produced by all boys in 8G. Is child slavery good for our world? Child slavery is where a company or individual gets a child to work or labour, many hours a day, for very little money or none at all.   Some people say child slavery is good because it helps a country or company produce cheap goods so they can capture market and make more profit. Others say child slavery should be outlawed because of the mental and physical harm it causes. In my opinion, child slavery should be illegal. Child slavery kills! Child labourers die every minute around our world from accidents, physical abuse or suicide. According to the ILO (International Labour Organisation) each year 22,000 children die in hazardous conditions. 1 This is evil! It’s hard for child labourers to live a happy life. 115 million children live in punishing conditions. It is difficult for a child in this situation to have a good education because families don’t have enough money and ...

Scattered red, grey nylon tents, cheerful on grass patch clearing, surrounded by shadowy native bush, thin five millimetre pegs gingerly gripping stony soil. BBQ burger eaten, Sleeping bag ready, Pillow ready, Snooze ready, And the grey sky begins its torment. Bare foot through puddles to outdoor sink Teeth now toothpaste fresh ready, Paddle back to tent, mud flecks appearing on toes. Carefully creep into tent, trying to avoid dragging rain water inside, but drops gather holding hands on doorway floor entrance, laughing at my attempt. Cocooned in sleeping bag, only pummelling rain can be heard, the "haven't had rain like this in ten years" deluge. I smile, snuggle deeper mind embracing the storm, I will survive wind ripping at tent, rain, ground water searching seeking to drip inside. Sleep envelops my thoughts, the storm backgrounds to dreams of mountain biking through brown water puddles! WALT:  To communicate an experience, w...

Image Credits: WikiMedia, ClipArtCottage Light Emitted and absorbed light obvious and mysterious, These glimpses create more questions. Surface afterglows, in evening air Sunset, now gloomy place colours removed. City lights glow sky masking three thousand hesitant pinpricks, Cosmic energy flung clusters and scatters Universe wide. Particles float on turbulent atmosphere, Light is bent, Stars twinkle. W Grieve 2014 This poem came from a search at first on light, then sunrises and finally stars. WALT: To write a poem that communicates creatively my thoughts. Success Criteria: The words we pick fit together The ideas work together line by line To use punctuation to enhance the meaning and help the reader. I have added my own thoughts to put in my voice. To credit the sources that I used.

Images Credits: Wikimedia Cloud watching, formation fun, Puffy domed tops, wisp layers, vapour floating, condensed atmosphere, Science whiteness bringing ever-changing imagination, Cloud Gallery. This is a poem written using found words on this page. We picked words and phrases and crafted them using our own thinking. WALT: To write a poem that communicates creatively my thoughts. Success Criteria The words we pick fit together The ideas work together line by line To use punctuation to enhance the meaning and help the reader. I have added my own thoughts to put in my voice. To credit the sources that I used.

Image Credits: Wikimedia. A poem is not a chair, but it can make you comfortable. A poem is not a fridge, but it can leave you cold. A poem is not microwave, but it can heat the soul. A poem is not a carpet, but it covers life's flaws. A poem is not a curled cat, but it can make you feel warmth. A poem is not a LED screen, but it entertains. A poem is not a door, but it can open alternative thoughts. A poem is not a pathway, but it can take you to new places. A poem is not a gate, but it can break holes in barriers. A poem is not a pavement, but it can crack you up. A poem is not a flower, but it blooms ideas. A poem is not fresh-air, but it expands mind-lungs. A poem is not a walk, but exercises aspirations. A poem is not a scurrying ant, but embraces curiosity. A poem is not the dappled sun, but it powers creativity. A poem is not the universe, but it always expands the reader. A poem is not a bus-stop, but is an alternative beginning. WALT: To write a poem...

  It started... just a tickle of noise transferred through tin roof, then thundered louder as white marbles hit, bouncing also on tarmac. Boys faces lit with excitement, bodies quivered and reading Animal Farm was lost. Faces scrunched against windows, Asked for Release, Set free they ran into the pain shirt soaked wanting to experience hailstones on heads Crazy moments at school.

You think it's funny to poke out your tongue and show me your tooth paste smothered tongue, You look closely at pale skin and pop your zit, Some of you - usually the ones with longer hair, Spend forever Colouring in your lips, making black lines on eyebrows and brushing perming, brushing. I hear you practice the lie you will tell Mum, trying to see if, by looking at me, you can keep a straight face, As I reflect on humans I realise sometimes your face mirrors your heart hesitant smile, creasing frown, lip pout, other times your face lies, covering the feelings. But I always tell the truth, showing you for what you are.

Today I learned to elaborate and add detail. I was given this sentence: I got out of bed this morning, had breakfast and then drove to school. 2 minutes later.... Adding details I turned over and blearily looked at my wife as she slipped out of bed on her side. I really didn't want to go anywhere, let alone to school after a weekend away in Rotorua.

Part of Professional Development today was to write something...yay! We talked a lot about our beliefs of writing - here is a pic: We read a poem and asked what is the sense of the poem? How did she write? What are the words she used a lot of? - look for verb use. WALT: To capture a memory using the 'feeling' sense mainly.  To use commas to separate ideas for the reader  To use ellipsis (can be used to indicate a pause in the flow of a sentence), fullstops and capital letters. Bush Shadows On inside rain-trapped days.... My eyes remember Bush dark ferns, manuka trunks, Sunlight strokes, Shaping shadows, My feet remember dirt track, dust covered boots, My face remembers light breeze just stirring, My body remembers stationary silence- leaning to beauty, My heart, my mind remembers peaceful colours, tranquil contrasts. Sunset dips, Night bucket fills, Painting black.

Image Credit: pixabay.com It starts with a whisper a rustle of leaves breathed on by wind, Scudding clouds arrive gusts slam branches protest, bending pain to grey black clouds. Tree fingers are broken falling pain to sodden grass. Rain knives slash from overloaded buckets driving deep into my clothes. I stand waiting for a bus, Cold, excited loving the whipped movements, the power, the storm. WALT: Learning how to write free form poetry to capture in words an experience. Criteria: One idea per line Strong vocabulary Cut small words Use commas to set the rhythm of the poem Credit pictures

My beard stubble is grey your chin is young smooth but we all look the same to an alien. I'm taller You're shorter but we're both small in front of basketball player towers, and never ending space. I like touch rugby, thinking about God, my gorgeous wife and children, opening my eyes to new things and a thousand other likes, Your thousand passions are as different as sand grains, but we both have tastes. I hate graffiti the civil war in that country Not being able to connect with others, Your hates are as different to mine as snow flake patterns. If everyone was the same our colour would be grey and if nobody understood differences our colour would be black Can we be rainbows?