Palomino Learning Center Poetry Camp, June 2006

For two weeks in June, YWP partnered with the Palomino Community Learning Center to host a Summer Poetry Camp at Palomino School. The camp was comprised of 20 Palomino students from fourth and fifth grade who were nominated by their teachers to participate in the program. Campers divided their day between writing exercises and art projects that were designed to compliment one another. On the final day of camp, the students held a poetry reading for their friends and family and then went on a field trip to the Phoenix Art Museum.

It might look like a game of Charades, but Palomino writers are really pointing out their subjects for an upcoming writing exercise.

Palomino writers get down to business.

Girl
By Dulce Gonzalez

I am a girl who has happiness in my heart like a girl.
I am a dancing girl around a ball.
I am a girly girl that is half mean and half nice like the girl I am.
I am a strange girl, not a strange thief girl.
I am a girl that is American, but I am a girl that talks Spanish.
I am a pink girl, not a pink girl crayon.
I am a thinking girl, but not a really smart brain girl.
I am a fashion girl on dressing, but not popular like the ones that think they are all that.
I am a healthy girl that eats 2 times a day. Not like a pig that eats 7 times a day.
I am a girl.

Whining
By Diana Lopez

Wasting time sounds like
Oh, I’ll do it later
I will watch this show and then do my homework.
Doing my homework is like doing chores.
Doing homework is like having to change a dirty diaper.
Pew! Smells like rotten bananas.
Doing homework is punishment.
Why do we have to do homework?
Uh man, I just wasted my time whining.

Lost
By Gladys Ramirez

Being lost is like losing your mind in a hospital,
and in your mind, you’re in a wonderland.
Being lost is like being on a rollercoaster but never getting off.
Being lost is being in a forest with a two-way path that doesn’t lead out.
Being lost is as sad as a pencil losing its point.
Being lost is as if you were never even born, but you only believe that in heaven.
Being lost is like running through a door in heaven trying to figure out why you passed and how did you come here.
Being lost is being in love with two people but don’t know which one to pick.

A Simple Breath By Tommy Campbell Joy is like sitting on a chair in the hospital because you just got the best news in the world, you have a new family member. It’s a girl. And ever since the first day of your life you have been planning how many brothers and sisters you are going to have. But in the middle of school you feel a sharp pain in your heart, it’s just an ordinary pain, it feels like a part has just fell apart but then after school you hear a voice it’s in the stars and then your dad tells you, “Son I am so sorry and me and your mom did not know, but your sister has passed away and you and I know she is in a better place now and you should not cry.” But you’re sorry for her anyway and tears fall and an innocent baby goes to sleep.

YWP instructor, Kriste Peoples, works with a young writer during Palomino Poetry Camp.