This week, however, is a special treat, featuring work from some talented fifth-graders. They are in sixth grade now, but these poems were composed for a project this past spring.
Creative writing teacher Tom Painting teamed up with Kate Murray and her 5th grade chorus class at The Paideia School in Atlanta.
“The idea was to have students perform their haiku to music as part of the spring choral concert” he says. “The book, one small candle, features one haiku from each of the 40 students in the class."
Stanford M. Forrester (Sekiro), publisher of haiku, senryu and other small poems at bottle rockets press, designed the small book and published it under buddha baby press.
It features the lovely line art of Ajanta Ferrell on the cover.
The title comes from this entry by Audrey Felske:
one small candle
warms the room
cold shivers down my back
Here is a larger sampling of the many fine poems:
sunset glowing
cows in the field
chewing their cud
Sean Zheng
autumn afternoon
sun burning
the golden field
Duncan Kelly
autumn
wrapped in a blanket
by the candlelight
Morgan Cobb
autunm day
golden leaves fall
on the dirt road
Luna McCauley
leaves fall
I sweep them
from my shoulders
Reid Celestin
In addition to the poems above, the following four haiku received recognition in the United Nations International School Haiku Contest this year:
smell of pine
lingering in the air
faint whisper of the woods
Ajanta Farrell
winter’s night
an owl hoots
through the silence
Jesse Chang-Friedan
the flower
opening up
shared secrets
Emma Delman
winter’s end
ice on the river
gives way
Sean Zheng
All poems © their respective authors. Posted with permission.
Congratulations to each student poet, whether highlighted here today or not. Your haiku warms the room and helps light the darkness!
For poetry of all temperatures today, please visit the incredible Sylvia at Poetry for Children for this week’s Roundup. Sylvia has recently returned from South Africa, where she’s been sharing and receiving all kinds of poetic light.
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