{photo by Maya Hampsey}
Since April is National Poetry Month, before it’s over we wanted to share a few poems written by students here at SLO Classical Academy. The Upper Middle School students have been working on a year-long poetry book, and a few students have allowed Down Home to share one of their poems. We received several, and will post another series of student poems at a later date. Thank you to all the students who contributed – it’s fun to see the variety and creativity expressed by this group of young writers!
(If you are in UMS and would like to share one of your poems from this year on the blog, please email it to Down Home.)
Here are the first three works we received. The first is by Maya Hampsey, on Track A. She submitted her poem Between Worlds to the Hanging Lantern Review writing contest and won first place for Middle School poetry! Congratulations, Maya!
Between Worlds
by Maya Hampsey
The Change of Gilgamesh the Hero
by Brigitte Rein
The Aliens
by Scott Scharlach
I was walking down the road one day,
When suddenly I saw,
A pretty spaceship descend from space,
As colorful as a macaw.
It landed on the ground nearby
And opened up its door,
Its heavy hinges rattling
As it opened with a roar.
Out of the saucer came a man
No taller than my thigh,
I thought he’d speak in a foreign tongue,
But instead he just said “Hi!”
“I am Mr. Widdlebop,”
The small blue person said,
“And this is Mrs. Boolydoop,”
As he pointed to one that was red.
“Come aboard!” the thing went on,
“It’s nice and fun inside!
“We’ll give you snacks and soda
And then take you on a ride!”
I stepped into the spaceship,
Expecting something cool,
But WOW! MY GOD! I couldn’t help,
But open my mouth and drool.
I saw some bean bags,
And a chocolate fountain,
Video games and
A candy mountain!
“It’s very nice,” a green man said,
As he stood up from his chair,
“The paintings here are quite pricey
And the Persian rugs are rare.
“So take a seat!” The red one said,
And as I did so,
The green one turned the engines
Onto full throttle- WHOA!
Up into the sky we sped,
Above the hills and trees,
So tiny looked the cities
And so tiny looked the seas!
Above the clouds, and into space
Zoomed our Alien craft,
The entire earth looked like an ant,
The thought so funny, I laughed.
Past the planets! Through the stars!
The flying saucer cruised,
Into the asteroids! Around the sun!
By, golly, I was amused!
When the trip came to a close,
The aliens and I came back,
Right back to where we started,
So I took my coat off the rack,
Said “thank-you” to the kind-hearted hosts,
Who so graciously took me aboard,
I hopped out of the ship, and then- ZOOM!
They had left without a word.
I never learned where they were from,
Or why they came to me,
But all I know is that my encounter,
Filled me with lots of glee.
