Poetry Friday - Address Poems

     Happy Halloween!  The poem I shared with my fifth grade classes today came from The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School.  Our literacy contract this month is focused around the theme topics FEAR and COURAGE, so I found the perfect poem!  This poem, page 168 tells us, is a Poem of Address or an Apostrophe poem in which the poet/narrator addresses objects or animals as humans.  It's the perfect time to talk about personification, too.

The Fear Factor

by Sara Holbrook

I know you.

You.

Courage,

how you ask for what is mine.

How you swell in my chest,

speak up,

straighten my spine,

and whisper in my ear,

Okay, you say.

Okay.

It's going to be okay.

Read the rest of the poem on Sara's blog, here.

My class and I tried our own.  Check out mine and Maya's.  I hope to add more later, as they finish next week:

Hello, Halloween

You.

Halloween.

Oh, how you creep up 

on silent feet,

the autumn chill

trailing your

ghostly form.

You float after

children, whispering 

Beware!

Beware, you say.

Watch your back.

Bats, creepy crawlies, 

and skeletons rise up

to follow you.

A midnight

Pied Piper.

Clanking and clicking,

bones shiny with white.

Beware, you say,

BEWARE!

 

        Holly Mueller

P.S. Did you know the fear of Halloween is Samhainophobia?

FEAR

Scared,

you yell at me

demanding it to be felt

screaming in my ear

so I no longer hear

I cry and whine

you make me fragile

you follow me

I never see you

but I always feel you

when you come near

I don't know what to do

I scream I shout

nobody hears me

I sit alone

with you next to me

you scream in my ear

and I'm in a trance

making a dance

because of you.

    - Maya

Join Linda over at Teacher Dance for the poetry roundup today!