Student poem - inspired by Banksy

Student poem - inspired by the art of Alice Pasquini

Icarus 

The city was alive. My eyes burned as I watched the bright neon lights lovingly mingle with the dark clouds. Intimacy. It’s been a long time. I inhaled, and the city exhaled, we’re one and the same. In sync. I am the bird and sky above, the buildings my nest and roots below. 

I was alone, strictly speaking, but I wasn’t lonely, there were others before but they left; plucked by the invisible hand. They were not clever enough; I am. I will not be culled, I will fly. I am a mind and the city is my body. My thoughts resonate with the city, and as the fire flows in my veins, so do the blurred streaks of light throughout the streets, and the growing, blaring sounds of traffic were but a soft murmur, a lullaby. 

It is time. Wings spread, aflame. The people will look up to the charred sky and finally see the stage concealed by this curtain of blue. This is my inferno, my final act of defiance. To set the world ablaze is to end myself, but I am prepared. 

I can feel time becoming physical, it bends, breaks, and loops back on itself. This is where I stay, in a fall where I miss the ground. The wind whistles past my ears and smears the world around me, the city is running paint on a canvas. However, I am no longer part of this composition. I am not the subject, I am not the paint, and I am not the artist. I am the madman and his flame; burning this masterpiece. 

The invisible hand is helpless, a lost child sobbing for its mother, but these cries of an orphan are wasted; resounding across the cold concrete, a mute echo. The hand cries wolf, and nothing cries back. 

I’ve crossed the line, the event horizon, I can no longer escape and neither can the city. What was once a lullaby is now a cacophonic elegy. The smoldering remains of the hand laments and so does the city, but one mourns the revolution and one mourns the martyr. 

The flame has died, and only now may the ashes settle.

Poem by student in English 5

Student poem - inspired by the street art of Banksy

Here another student, wanting to be anonymous, presents her poem inspired by Banksy's art. 

Photo credit: Getty Images

A Heavy Heart 

Her body was overflowing with happiness

With a heart as light as a feather

Sparkling eyes shining brighter than all the stars combined in one

The sun threw its heat to the surface of the earth forcing the spring to bloom

The laughter and singing of playing children outvoted the buzzing of the city

Children just like her

Glowing smiles 

Free of worry

Dreaming of their future lives 

Pretending to be doctors, musicians and teachers

Waking up to the real world 

Dreams of a future she was never able to grasp, slipping out of her hands

Aching limbs and muscles

Her world instantly turned upside down

Love replaced with hate

Laughter overturned by screaming cries of sorrow

The howling wind echoing over empty streets 

Filling people’s hearts with colorless dust

Forcing out every good feeling that could possibly be left

The sounds of screams and murmuring streams of blood replacing the music of laughter

The world, a cruel place

Snatching the happiness of an innocent child in the blink of an eye

The bitter blast of a bomb buried her hope at once 

Erased the smiles on people’s faces

Opened up the doors for disaster and suffering 

Why would this little girl, out of every person on the planet, experience this hate

This lack of love and liberty

The taste of hate in the air makes the girl on the dusty streets shiver

The absence of peace is making itself reminded

When demons haunt their minds and bodies

When blood spills and tears fall

The life in the war zone is difficult 

Will it ever change? Will the life of the little girl ever go back to how it was before?

Before she was stained with blood

Before the tears were crawling down her cheeks, making marks in the dirt

Before the streets were drowning in dust and again dust

She closed her eyes, slumbering into a sleep that she hoped would last forever

Student poem - Creative writing inspired by Alice Pasquini

Here student Aphinya Kam-Asa presents her poem, inspired by Alice Pasquini's "Deep Tides Dry."

The Abyss 

Falling into the cold dark abyss, into the emptiness of his heart

The stars that were close to me were now too far apart

The things he told me were merely figure of speech

He gave me the half of his heart but yet it was far from my reach

Now I’m waiting for the darkness to devour my soul, waiting for the memories to swallow me whole

The moments I spent up there are not to be told

Secrets are kept and kept until old 

I will not forget what once was the truth

and the stars will sing for him and forever preserve his youth

He was the stars, the dust, the moon, the light

He blew me away into the darkness of the night

Now he shines brighter than the sun

Those who can reach him are; none

I waited for him, I opened up my heart

and the moment I saw him; I knew that he had me from the start

He played me like a cello, with every stroke I sing

He played me until I broke but still I call him my king

Words can not describe him, he was the wings on my back

Now he has left me and my wings have cracked

I’m now falling, falling and infinitely falling into the black

Student poem - creative writing inspired by artist Alice Pasquini

Poem inspired by Alice Pasquini's art, see below:

Flickering lights 

The first warm tear left her eye and found its way down her red cheek.
Slowly, like a snake finding its way through a landscape, 

leaving a trace of black like a tail. 

Soon the lonely teardrop got company 

and the tears began to stream down her face in black lanes. 

She tried to wipe away the teardrops with her hand 

and felt her dry skin scratch against her cheek. 

When her fist was soaked and started to ache like salt in an open wound,
she gave into the waves of sadness rolling over her. 

She tried to breathe normally, 

but every time a wave crashed, 

it felt like someone put a hundred stones on her chest, 

making it hard to breathe. 

A cold hand of panic grabbed her heart, 

it felt like she didn’t get enough air, 

causing her pulse to race and beat like a sledgehammer. 

Her attempts to calm down by counting to ten felt worthless, 

the only achievement was not losing control over her whole body. 

She still had a part of her mind 

and she used it to dream away. 

Letting her thoughts drift away in the right direction to calm her mind, 
picturing her family, 

best friend, 

the cute guy in school, 

school, 

exam, 

failure. 

No, wrong direction. 

Her thoughts bounced like balls, 

and the monster from the deepest part of her soul slowly crawled out in the light. 

It fed off her biggest fear, 

failure. 

And now it was feasting in her dark thoughts and insecurities. 

The black shadow spread in her mind like sun rays in the morning, 
hitting everything visible and affecting it. 

Her body reacted immediately, changing her pulse from human to rabbit, 
as fast as a lightning striking a tree. 

She had to start all over with the counting to ten to handle it all. 

With her hand pressed against her stomach to slow down her breathing, 

she tried to escape the terrifying monster of darkness again. 

This time her soul floated like a butterfly through the dream world, 

built of clouds, rainbows and valleys filled with flowers. 

Containing animals playing around her in the green grass and she imagined the feeling of their soft fur against her hand. 

But especially she dreamt about the stars, 

oh how she wanted to see the burning lights in the sky. 

Looking so weak with their faded, flickering flames, 

yet so powerful. 

Millions of lightyears away, 

still their light cut through space, 

finding its way to her. 

And maybe they knew, 

maybe they didn’t. 

That their flickering light had saved her life. 

Suddenly she felt it in her bones, 

like wolves’ instinct to howl at the moon. 

She heard them screaming her name, and then she soared. 

She cut through the air like an arrow, 

feeling the wind dance in her hair and the cold tickle her body. 

Flying so high that she didn’t bare to look down, 

soon so far away that she slowly faded to a glowing dot on the night sky. 
Becoming a star in outer space, 

able to save someone else’s life with her own flickering light.

by Alice Helstad

Snapshot from today - reading different text genres

We are focusing on reading in English 6 - different kinds of genres such as scientific articles, poems, short stories, non-fiction texts and integrative texts. These are the ones we are using, practicing before a reading comprehension test in early January. Discussing reading strategies too.

Poem about America - by student in ENG 6

Right now we are reading different types of text genres in English 6, and after reading "Let America be Great Again" by Langston Hughes, one student decided to write a response poem. I thought this poem pin-pointed a lot of current things in today's America...what do you think? 

Poem about America

America portrayed itself with all the good things it used to be. 

A home for the brave, land of the free. 

A land of pioneers and a people of adventurers. 

Nowadays, a nation controlled by business ventures.

Because all things great will decline, which is a must.

Why? Because mankind has arrived with his greed and lust. 

- Anonymous student ENG 6

Peek of the week 5 - Canva

This week's "peek" into something, is the digital tool Canva. During the past week a few of my students began composing poems about emotions and illustrated them with the help of Canva. I found the interesting assignment in a discussion forum on Facebook and there was a link to Sara Bruun, who had her students do a similar thing. I am very pleased with how they started working with this, and we will continue next week creating more poems.

First, we quickly talked about what kind of emotions we can experience..and examples like "fear, anxiety, joy, sadness..." came up. The students chose one emotion, worked with a friend, and followed the following guidelines for the structure of the poem:


Title (emotion)
Line 1: ....(emotion) is (color)
Line 2: What does the emotion taste like?
Line 3: What does the emotion smell like?
Line 4: What does the emotion feel like?
Line 5: What does the emotion sound like?
Line 6: What does the emotion look like?


Here are some examples of what was made, and how Canva can be used:

Canva is easy to use, can be totally free of charge (there are elements that cost, but you can do without them) and is a lot fun when it comes to visualizing words like poems, stories or if you want to make a poster etc. Give it a go! :)