Arts & Humanities Bainbridge Presents Poetry Vibes 2021 – Youth expressing themselves through poetry

Margaret Millmore | Posted on March 18, 2021 |

Hi kids! What do you miss this year? What do you wish for when the pandemic is under control, and life begins to return to normal? Here is a chance to send us a poem you wrote about what you hope to see or do. It can be any kind of poem, and you can make a video of it, put music behind it, record a dance you’ve created about it, or any number of other great ideas you might have. So, sit down with your computer or pencil and paper, and begin to create your hopes for the days to come. One poem will be featured in each publication of Currents, and it could be yours! Imagine how much fun it will be to see your creation in a place where all you friends and family can appreciate your art.

Please complete this Photo/Video Release Form. You may also upload your recordings within this form or submit them to admin@ahbaibridge.org.

*content must be age-appropriate & not explicit

Here are just a few types of poems you may use as reference while writing a poem of your own:

Haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a kireji, or “cutting word’, 17 on a 5,7,5 pattern, and a kilo, or seasonal reference….Wikipedia. Haiku are usually about simple moments in life

5 – An ocean voyage
7 – As waves break over the bow.
5 – the sea welcomes me.

Free-verse poetry is a literary device that can be defined as poetry that is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm, and does not rhyme with fixed forms. Without these limitations, they still provide artistic expression.

My heart burned with grief for those
Who wandered the streets alone and cold.

Blank verse is poetry written with a precise meter – almost always iambic pentameter – that does not rhyme…

As I wandered through the woods,
I thought I saw a maiden fair.
She gathered berries from a bush
And whistled as she carried them.

Rhymed poetry. In contrast to blank verse, rhymed poems rhyme by definition, although their scheme varies.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.

Rap is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates “rhyme, rhythmic speech, and the street vernacular” which is performed or chanted in a variety of ways, usually over a backing beat of musical accompaniment. The components of rap include “content’, “flow”, and “delivery” (For the entire poem, google Trayvon Brown, Walk with me)

Don’t …SHOOT
Cuz I don’t wanna die young,
I want grow old and have
A daughter or a son, or maybe both,
To live…

Amanda Gorman performed her 2021 inauguration poem, which is a beautiful example of free-flowing poetry, combined with a rap style. It uses a lot of rhythmic beats that move emotion, as well as the subject of her art. (For the entire poem, google Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem)

When day comes we ask ourselves,
where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry,
a sea we must wade
We’ve braved the belly of the beast
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace
And the norms and notions
of what just is
Isn’t always just-ice……………….

Ballad is a poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas. (For the entire poem, google The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill, by Robert W. Service)

I took a contract to bury the body
of blasphemous Bill McEye
Where-ever, when ever, what-so-ever
The manner of death he die………….

Cinquains is a class of poetic forms that employ a 5-line form, defined by specific rules and guidelines.

One form of the Cinquains is a Limerick – a light or humorous verse form of five chiefly anapestic verses of which lines 1,2, and 5 of three “feet” and lines 3 and 4 are of two “feet” with a rhyme theme of AABBA