By:Mr. Kevin Coyne (NEIU English Student Teacher at APHS)

The third annual Poem Power Day was truly an inspirational event for the students and myself. Despite the frigid snowstorm that was pummeling the city, everyone arrived ready to create and share poetry. The students were bubbling with excitement with the opportunity to work with many great Chicago poets. We were all very impressed by Hector Rivera, the keynote speaker. He tantalized the audience during his opening speech by sharing some of his poetry. First he read a poem slowly with dramatic pauses and then he took the same poem and sang it. He demonstrated that, "every song is a poem, but not every poem is a song." As he sang his poem, you could see his body sway to the musical beat in his head. His performance started the day off on a good note.  After he finished, the students were broken down into small groups. Each group was assigned a different workshop leader which rotated throughout the day as groups transitioned from session to session. I had the opportunity to venture with the students into numerous workshops. After we finished our complimentary breakfast and absorbed Hector Rivera's electric speech, we moved into the first session which focused on drafts. In this workshop we discussed use of imagery, rhythm, line breaks, and sound devices such as metaphors and similes. Students developed topics while free writing ideas and numerous poems. There was time for everyone to share their work before moving on to the next session which focused on revision. Editing and revision is a challenging yet essential piece of writing. Students reviewed and revised their poems in groups and with partners. Even though most of the students didn't know each other, the peer revision went smoothly. Once everyone polished up their work we went forward to the third session on performance tactics.

Part of the art of delivering a poem to an audience lies in the subtle techniques of performance.  Students were able to practice delivering their poem in front of a small group to help prepare them for a larger audience. There were several tips that we learned to help enhance a performance such as gestures, pauses, state presence and pronunciation. This last workshop installed confidence and helped establish voice in these young poets before the final stage, the performance. Each group picked five of their best poets to go on stage in the auditorium and perform their work to a large audience. Out of twenty performers, three brave students from APHS were chosen to take the stage. Each student had a very different and unique poem. Jorge Rodriguez shared his rhythmic poem loaded with fantastic imagery, Jordan Benavides read his thought filled work displaying an emotional side to his peaceful personality, and Alicia Ligety showed her creative talent by blending two separate haiku poems into one peace. Their poems were collected at the end by the facilitators for consideration to be included in an anthology. I hope they will take away new ideas and techniques to help them progress as writers and performers. Surely this was a day they will always remember because not only did they learn a lot but they had the opportunity to perform their work with a real audience like true poets.

Below are some poems from our students:

Abyss
A world that is surrounded by the dark
Politics lying
People dying
Greed is all around
Because money is more important to people
In the news nothing but bad sounds
Terrorism all around
Nothing but bad sounds
We ask when it will end
When darkness takes over
Like a world of war
A world that tastes bitter
A world that feels like crap
A world that looks like an inferno
A world that hears of gun shots
A world that smells of land fills
 
---by David Benavides (APHS student)

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There will always be those people that are just there to try and bring you down, those people that just wanna see you drown.  But as long as you believe that you can fly, that you can make it through your worries without having to get high, you better believe your dreams will never die.  But if you fall and the whole world laughs, don't drown in misery, get up. Show the world what they don't wanna see, show them that you can still take more than what you have, you can do it.  It's not impossible.  I know, because I've crashed and burned.  But I've also risen from the ash.

---by Jordan Benavides (APHS student)

Never
I'll never forfeit
Won't be what you want me to
I am my own being
              
---by Alicia Ligety (APHS student)

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