Lines from the Mind

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

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...

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.

  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.

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?

Black cat god arches, flicks her tail, art hieroglyphics revere felines across a thousand walls, centuries years old now. -----sand hourglass time trickle----- My black cat stretches Lazy in heated sun A God of just one family Scratching the door to be let out, to be fed. The mighty Nile Seasonal Floods Rich blessings for ------generations pass------ Dairy, cropping, forests, farms Stretch patchwork across Canterbury Plains Waimakariri scatters its braids sprawling to the ocean. Yellow Sand, clay walls seared in scorching sun, Neighbours crowded water carried dry the bones ----- existences come and go----- Christchurch city wood and brick dwellings stretched over flat plains,  meandering Avon Artesian crystal clear water piped  toilets, drinking, cooking Just turn the tap. Crowned Pharaoh supreme God of Pyramid, Sand and Nile Words that command life, death ------ time moves by---------- Commands wealth Captains of industry multinationa...

Dapples flicker leaf sheets wind blown branches dance shadows on the grass Torch reflecting light on words book hidden under the sheet with me reading late night parents asleep Darkness stolen centimetre by centimetre Sunrise. Hot sun through Sunday afternoon window Head nodding eyes drooping warm sleep.

In a vast universe room We are picked up By a giant hand Carefully placed on the glass slide. Lights blaze on And our opacity lowers Until self is revealed, Shadows inside out.

Mystery Not for the first time I sense something more It tugs at the corner of mist wrapped mind or maybe deeper than that somehow tugging at a corner of my mind that is connected to the universe. A mystery that is dark,  yet burns bright causes fear yet seems wrapped  in the deepest love imagined A journey that leaves me naked but wraps me in a wonderful light it opens, calls

Growing darkness Merges with the shadows of rustling, whispering trees Time of slow starlight reflection evolves into creation You stand cold wind edging your thoughts Looking at the stretched expanse shimmering star lights The world... universes... Made

Your browser does not support this audio GOLDEN MASK - Credit: Wikipedia Once I eternally slept nightmare tossing, dark traps sprung, death tonnes of pyramid granite fell on tunnelling robbers. I silently laughed but they relentlessly came for my riches. I am Mighty Pharaoh Army surrounding, protecting me, Servants entombed alongside ready for my royal decree. As robbers break last barriers I command; Disconnected Failed None responds My wealth plundered with pitch tar torches and scrabbling fingers, Even my face lifted in triumph Gone... Stolen security. Dreams now wrapped dry warmth again, Sensing walls once more Prying touching fingers, Unknown words painted on walls around, crude, not like the picture words that gracefully adorn my bandages, A tomb solid but disgracefully invisible like an empty soul window, They tap on my walls but so close to touching me they turn back. I laugh, The God's smile. I am stolen yet slum...

Wind rustled thoughts In grass heads fringe Life at a distance. Fat wood pigeon swish cuts the air From five finger to dark hill hugging manuka Wind pulls low threaded sounds Through overhead pathway power wires, Intimate and expansive I'm a traveller in the moment Guest of a slice of time. Hopes and dreams circle My connections to this land Tuned to bell bird stories Sung from ridge to bush, and voices of children carefree in play exploration Somewhere beyond the trees. A land with a thousand voices Present and past.

Picture remixed from Pixabay.com. Can you see my eys? Excuse my squashed writing For I am writing this poem From inside a couch, Just yesterday, I fell asleep in the sun Streaming hot through the window And I slipped through the cushion gap To join the lost coins, gathered dust and dried food crumbs. I hear the outside world muffled by leather and foam I'm interior, you're exterior I hope you can read this note I slipped out. For I'm squish writing this poem From inside a couch. Success Criteria We read, "It's Dark in Here" a poem by Shel Silverstein to inspire us in our "point of view" poetry.... The boys followed this model closely and then with larger variations as they produced two pieces to reflect how writers have a point of view. The montages were produced with creative commons images using layering, masking and montage techniques with Pages on their macBooks. To write in a poetry style that has been given. To tre...

A Friends hand... Credit: Pixabay.com  In the welcome smile quick, “Hi” Sharing a joke, An invitation to sit beside A game to play together Moments shared. I journey from a part to whole from alone to included A friend ship voyage.

Image from pixabay.com Time rises softly crashes in clangour of alarmbell intrusion Hand leaves warmth traveling cold air reaching bashing rude machine. Retreats to warm stillness, Restoring sleeps broken pieces Recreating cozy thoughts. Time rises softly drifting circling hovering on the edge, falls! Shattered mind rises rudely, First thought Late!

I lifted my right hand He lifted His Tears formed in my eyes He cried with me I smiled and His smile gave more I pulled a face to laugh at life, He laughed too for He created life. Reflections.... sometimes too much too personal too questioning too complex The hammer stole from my pocket I smashed, shards exploding, to find something else Behind the mirror, blankness The broken scatter spoke from the floor, "You are created in My image." I swept Him up, Carefully, so as not to hurt myself. Mirror pieces, rubbish hidden.