Christian Poetry and Spoken Word Media for Churches and Faith

rain_drizzle_two_word_poems_children_poetry_christian

Drizzle Soak

04.04.2016 Filed in: Poetry |Seeker | |Spoken Word Written by: W Grieve

Wet cold
Rain fingers
find holes,
clothes tightened
hunched smaller
head down,
hair trickles
eyes watch
puddle captures
Winter drizzle.

WALT: To write a poem to communicate how we can summarise thoughts two words at a time.
Success Criteria:

I have followed the form but shown an ability to vary with intention as needed.
Paired words intentionally and carefully
Creating not just a random set of lines but using craft.
I have correctly punctuated with complex sentences with comma/s.
I have improved vocabulary by utilising a thesaurus.
I can use and credit Creative Commons images.

Inspired by Extreme Poetry resource (131+ pages of poetry tips and ideas). Click to view and gain access to great poetry forms, lessons and activities.

A Poem is Not

04.04.2016 Filed in: Poetry |Seeker | |Spoken Word Written by: W Grieve

A poem is not a chair, but it can make you comfortable.
A poem is not a fridge, but it can leave you cold.
A poem is not microwave, but it can heat the soul.
A poem is not a carpet, but it covers life's flaws.
A poem is not a curled cat, but it can make you feel warmth.
A poem is not a LED screen, but it entertains.
A poem is not a door, but it can open alternative thoughts.
A poem is not a pathway, but it can take you to new places.
A poem is not a gate, but it can break holes in barriers.
A poem is not a pavement, but it can crack you up.
A poem is not a flower, but it blooms ideas.
A poem is not fresh-air, but it expands mind-lungs.
A poem is not a walk, but exercises aspirations.
A poem is not a scurrying ant, but embraces curiosity.
A poem is not the dappled sun, but it powers creativity.
A poem is not the universe, but it always expands the reader.
A poem is not a bus-stop, but is an alternative beginning.

WALT: To write a poem to communicate how poetry can be fun to play with words and to entertain people with it.

Success Criteria:
* I have followed the form but shown an ability to vary with intention as needed.
* Place in the poem two thoughts about 'me'.
* Creating not just a random set of lines but using craft.
* I have correctly punctuated with complex sentences with comma/s.
* I have improved vocabulary by utilising a thesaurus.
* I can use and credit Creative Commons images.

Inspired by Extreme Poetry resource (131+ pages of poetry tips and ideas). Click to view and gain access to great poetry forms, lessons and activities.

Science research turns into children poetry

Cloud Watching

04.04.2016 Filed in: Poetry |Seeker | |Spoken Word Written by: W Grieve

Cloud watching,
formation fun,
Puffy domed tops,
wisp layers,
vapour floating,
condensed atmosphere,
Science whiteness
bringing ever-changing imagination,
Cloud Gallery.

This poem came from research about clouds from this website.
WALT:
To write a poem that communicates creatively my thoughts and research.

Success Criteria:

The words we pick fit together
The ideas work together line by line
To use punctuation to enhance the meaning and help the reader.
I have added my own thoughts to put in my voice.
To credit the sources that I used.

Inspired by Extreme Poetry resource (131+ pages of poetry tips and ideas). Click to view and gain access to great poetry forms, lessons and activities.

Trapped

04.04.2016 Filed in: Poetry |Seeker | |Spoken Word Written by: W Grieve

Mother
Three young mouths
Meagre hope
Threadbare cupboards
Shanty corrugated cage
Husband taken
Cholera's meal.

Whispered words
Propaganda hope suggested,
Cash given
Teenager traded,
Bitten by the trafficker
Real life zombie
Taken to sea.
Sweat fisherman blood.

4 hours sleep
20 hours work
4 hours sleep
20 hours work
4 hours sleep…
Fingers to bone.

No escape
No words
No life.

Fear trap,
Miles of ocean,
Netted life,
Broken arm
if you speak out.

Modern slavery
Forty-five million
cries in the wind,
cries in the Dirt,
cries in the Smoke
cries on the ocean,
Tears in the heart!

WALT:
To give voice to the voiceless.

Success Criteria:
* Use strong: new vocabulary, word images
* Protest against an injustice in our world
* Cut words not needed
* Be creative in getting my point across

Inspired by Extreme Poetry resource (131+ pages of poetry tips and ideas). Click to view and gain access to great poetry forms, lessons and activities.

Memory Fragments

02.04.2016 Filed in: Poetry |Seeker |Pupils |Spoken Word |Video Written by: W Grieve

Remembered instants
heartbeats of significance,
recognition and recall
memories shared,
thoughts painted in our relationship
capturing the moments:
we laughed together,
paused together,
dreamed together,
looked at life together
through time's eye.

These memories
make us
fully human,
alive to the best and worst
of who we are.

Even as we remember
do the memories change?
Elusive wisps of clouds
morphing into different colours
and shapes,
changing our thoughts
feelings of treasured minutes
or painful pasts.

Credits:
Image from:
Pixabay.com
Poetry Type
Found Poem (small ideas from text print)

Ideas from:
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/memories
http://www.human-memory.net/
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-our-brains-make-memories-14466850/?no-ist

WALT:
To create a poem that captures what memories mean to people so your readers feel your emotion and thinking.

Writing with Pupils Success Criteria:
The words we pick fit together
The ideas work together line by line
To use punctuation to enhance the meaning and help the reader.
I have added my own thoughts to put in my voice.
To credit the sources that I used.

Inspired by Extreme Poetry resource (131+ pages of poetry tips and ideas). Click to view and gain access to great poetry forms, lessons and activities.

ANZAC

11.04.2015 Filed in: Poetry |Christian |Video |Spoken Word |Pupils Written by: W Grieve

White crosses
contrast to
Neat cut grass,
Buried memories.

Poppy fields
Blood red petals
Black heart centres,
Flower life tributes,
We remember:
Pain, sacrifice, pride,
courage,
mud soaked comradeship,
Betrayal, dark fear, numbness,
Shrieks of explosions
Broken cries,
Shattered lives,
Shattered limbs,
Shattered minds,
Incomprehensible carnage.

My soul embraces
emotion questions that
challenge the now.

In the stillness...
Mutilated reflections of
Ultimate price.

Blood poured out
Life given
Life lifted.
Life received.

Inspired by Extreme Poetry resource (131+ pages of poetry tips and ideas). Click to view and gain access to great poetry forms, lessons and activities.

Tags: anzac, war, values, pupils, honour

storm_tents_poetry_pupils_school_kids_rain_camping

Hail

04.04.2015 Filed in: Poetry |Seeker | |Spoken Word Written by: W Grieve

It started...
just a tickle of noise
transferred through tin roof,
then thundered louder
as white marbles hit,
bouncing also on tarmac.

Boys faces lit with excitement,
bodies quivered
and reading Animal Farm was lost.

Faces scrunched against windows,
Asked for
Release,
Set free
they ran into the pain
shirt soaked
wanting to experience
hailstones on heads
Crazy moments at school.

WALT:
To communicate an experience, with descriptive language, so that others can feel they are there.

Success Criteria:

Others can feel they are there, remember times like this themselves.
Short simple thoughts, one per line
Unnecessary and small words cut out.

Inspired by Extreme Poetry resource (131+ pages of poetry tips and ideas). Click to view and gain access to great poetry forms, lessons and activities.

If I Took Words...

29.03.2015 Filed in: Poetry |Christian |Video |Spoken Word Written by: W Grieve

If I took words
Combined,
connected into one:
Power
Love
Justice
Sacrifice
Significance
Freedom
Eternity
Brother, sister, friend, father, mother
Extremes
Life
Spirit
King
Cost
Change.

Would my mind cope?

If I had
All time
All words
They would not be enough
Just ebbing thoughts,
Inadequate shadows,
To describe the Great,
"I am"

Starting Thought
How could I start to try describing God with words?

Egyptian Canterbury

04.04.2014 Filed in: Poetry |Seeker | |Spoken Word Written by: W Grieve

Black cat god arches,
flicks her tail,
art hieroglyphics revere
felines across a thousand walls,
centuries years old now.
-----sand hourglass time trickle-----
My black cat stretches
Lazy in heated sun
A God of just one family
Scratching the door to
be let out, to be fed.

The mighty Nile
Seasonal Floods
Rich blessings for
------generations pass------
Dairy, cropping, forests, farms
Stretch patchwork across Canterbury Plains
Waimakariri scatters its braids
sprawling to the ocean.

Yellow Sand, clay walls
seared in scorching sun,
Neighbours crowded
water carried
dry the bones
----- existences come and go-----
Christchurch city wood and brick dwellings
stretched over flat plains,
meandering Avon
Artesian crystal clear water piped
toilets, drinking, cooking
Just turn the tap.

Crowned Pharaoh
supreme God of
Pyramid, Sand and Nile
Words that command life, death
------ time moves by----------
Commands wealth
Captains of industry
multinational trendrils
cut money from Canterbury.
In power
a party, a prime minister
and media bombardment of public relations.

WALT:
To communicate experiences, with descriptive language, so that others can feel they are there.

Success Criteria:

Showing understanding of Ancient Egyptians and us today.
Focus on strong adjectives
Use a wide range of contrasts in the poem
Use commas to set the rhythm of the poem
Short interesting thoughts, one per line
Unnecessary and small words cut out.

Inspired by Extreme Poetry resource (131+ pages of poetry tips and ideas). Click to view and gain access to great poetry forms, lessons and activities.

Same Different

04.04.2014 Filed in: Poetry |Seeker | |Spoken Word Written by: W Grieve

My beard stubble is grey
your chin is young smooth
but we all look the same
to an alien.
I'm taller
You're shorter
but we're both small
in front of basketball player towers,
and never ending space.

I like touch rugby,
thinking about God,
my gorgeous wife and children,
opening my eyes to new things
and a thousand other likes,
Your thousand passions
are as different as sand grains,
but we both have tastes.

I hate graffiti
the civil war in that country
Not being able to connect with others,
Your hates are
as different to mine
as snow flake patterns.

If everyone was the same
our colour would be grey
and if nobody understood differences
our colour would be black
Can we be rainbows?

WALT:
To communicate experiences, with descriptive language, so that others can feel they are there.

Success Criteria:

Others can feel they are there, remember times like this themselves
Use a wide range of contrasts in the poem
Use commas to set the rhythm of the poem
Short interesting thoughts, one per line
Unnecessary and small words cut out.

Inspired by Extreme Poetry resource (131+ pages of poetry tips and ideas). Click to view and gain access to great poetry forms, lessons and activities.

shadows_bush_dappled_sunshines_mirror_mirror_poem_poetry_pupils_school_kids

Alive in the Storm

04.04.2014 Filed in: Poetry |Seeker | |Spoken Word Written by: W Grieve

It starts
with a whisper
a rustle of leaves
breathed on by wind,
Scudding clouds arrive
gusts slam
branches protest,
bending pain to grey black clouds.
Tree fingers are broken
falling slain to sodden grass.
Rain knives slash
from overloaded buckets
driving deep into my clothes.
I stand
waiting for a bus,
Cold, excited
loving the whipped movements,
the power,
the storm.

WALT:
To communicate an experience, with descriptive language, so that others can feel they are there.

Success Criteria:

Others can feel they are there, remember times like this themselves.
Use commas to set the rhythm of the poem
Short interesting thoughts, one per line
Unnecessary and small words cut out.

Inspired by Extreme Poetry resource (131+ pages of poetry tips and ideas). Click to view and gain access to great poetry forms, lessons and activities.

Bush Shadows

04.04.2014 Filed in: Poetry |Seeker | |Spoken Word Written by: W Grieve

On inside rain-trapped days....

My eyes remember
Bush dark ferns, manuka trunks,
Sunlight strokes,
Shaping shadows,
My feet remember
dirt track, dust covered boots,
My face remembers
light breeze just stirring,
My body remembers
stationary silence- leaning to beauty,
My heart, my mind remembers
peaceful colours, tranquil contrasts.

Sunset dips,
Night bucket fills,
Painting black.

WALT:
To communicate an experience, with descriptive language, so that others can feel they are there.

Success Criteria:

Others can feel they are there, remember times like this themselves.
To capture a memory using the 'feeling' sense mainly.
Short simple thoughts, one per line
To use ellipsis (can be used to indicate a pause in the flow of a sentence), fullstops and capital letters.
Unnecessary and small words cut out.

Inspired by Extreme Poetry resource (131+ pages of poetry tips and ideas). Click to view and gain access to great poetry forms, lessons and activities.

Mirror, Mirror

04.04.2014 Filed in: Poetry |Seeker | |Spoken Word Written by: W Grieve

You think it's funny
to poke out your tongue
and show me your tooth paste smothered tongue,
You look closely
at pale skin
and pop your zit,
Some of you - usually
the ones with longer hair,
Spend forever
Colouring in your lips,
making black lines
on eyebrows
and brushing
perming, brushing.

I hear you practice
the lie
you will tell Mum,
trying to see if,
by looking at me,
you can keep a straight face,

As I reflect on humans
I realise
sometimes your face mirrors your heart
hesitant smile, creasing frown, lip pout,
other times your face lies,
covering the feelings.

But I always tell the truth,
showing you for what you are.

WALT:
To communicate an experience, with descriptive language, so that others can feel they are there.

Success Criteria:

Others can feel they are there, remember times like this themselves.
Capture an objects point-of-view
Short simple thoughts, one per line
Unnecessary and small words cut out.

Inspired by Extreme Poetry resource (131+ pages of poetry tips and ideas). Click to view and gain access to great poetry forms, lessons and activities.

Light

04.04.2014 Filed in: Poetry |Seeker | |Spoken Word Written by: W Grieve

Emitted and absorbed
light
obvious and mysterious,
These glimpses
create more questions.

Surface afterglows,
in evening air
Sunset,
now
gloomy place
colours removed.
City lights glow
sky masking
three thousand
hesitant pinpricks,
Cosmic energy
flung
clusters and scatters
Universe wide.

Particles float on
turbulent atmosphere,
Light is bent,
Stars twinkle.

This poem came from a search at first on light, then sunrises and finally stars.

WALT:
To write a poem that communicates creatively my thoughts and research.

Success Criteria:

The words we pick fit together
The ideas work together line by line
To use punctuation to enhance the meaning and help the reader.
I have added my own thoughts to put in my voice.
To credit the sources that I used.

Inspired by Extreme Poetry resource (131+ pages of poetry tips and ideas). Click to view and gain access to great poetry forms, lessons and activities.

Chestnut Fun

04.05.2013 Filed in: Poetry |Christian |Video |Spoken Word |Pupils Written by: W Grieve

Success Criteria: Poem written in Diamante form, high level choice of words used, captures the experience in words, designed with picture using great DTP techniques and skill.

Inspired by Extreme Poetry resource (131+ pages of poetry tips and ideas). Click to view and gain access to great poetry forms, lessons and activities.

6:30 AM Refugee

04.05.2013 Filed in: Story |Seeker | Written by: W Grieve

A 6:30 am refugee from our warm kitchen, I was thinking about how invisible blocks in the mind can stop you from trying something new. I had just emerged from the changing shed into the dark, having decided to give the outside fifty metre pool a try instead of the usual twenty five metre that I swam. As I walked across the tiles, I looked for a place that was open enough to view from the pool, to place my gear bag there. The signs around Jellie Park warned you about thieves although I thought thieves wouldn't be good at getting up this early for physical exercise.

The chlorine from the pool was rising in mist off the surface, mixing in the darkness and floating towards my nose. I then assessed the lanes for one that wasn't too crowded and didn't have someone who was a powerful swimmer who would want to keep passing me. The plastic red and white discs of the lane seperaters dipped from the edge and lead off down both sides into the dimness of the middle lane, the one I had chosen.

I imagined that this pool would be colder than the inside pools but I decided not to think too much about it. Pulling on the rubbery headgear, I fastened my googles with a slap of water from the pool to help seal them, to my face. I dived cleanly into the water.

The cool water crisped up my skin as I free-styled the first twenty. The outside pool was certainly different I discovered as I cleaved through swirling mixes of chilly water and then warmer threads. As I settled into the rhythm of the swimming lane I learned that the mental block I had about the pool was only a minor eddy in the whirlpool of life. The fifty metre was great. The tower lights dappled the bottom of the pool in patterns, you don't have to turn direction so often and it was much quieter than the inside pool, just the tempo sounds of my inhaling, fingertips hitting the water and exhaling underwater.

Half-way through the swim I said a cheery good morning to the hawk on the metal ladder tower who was huddled in her red and black jacket against the chilled air. The sunrise was creeping up behind her back and across the silhouette of the pool buildings and starting to hit the tops of the trees around the pool. The light patterns on the pool floor through my googles were even more interesting. Just the thing I like on a long swim, a few thoughts floating through the depths in my mind, but nothing serious.

As I picked up my bag and looked back at the pool the sunrise was hardening a line of light halfway down the trees and the water was gaining blue colour in response. Two kilometres of exercise finished and a new experience started, not world shattering but I gratefully decided that the fifty metre was good times that would be repeated.

[Success Criteria: In this recount writing we tried to use the five senses and some similes. We focused on telling a story, and slowing down the action. Some of us tried to use good sound words also.]

Tags: swimming, pupils, fitness, recount, pov

drowning_story_water_sea_child_recount_literacy

Walk the Plank

04.05.2013 Filed in: Story |Seeker | Written by: W Grieve

The clear blue sky had no hint of the blackness I would discover later as I clambered down the rocky path from the cliff-top to Pirate’s Bay in Dunedin. Behind me, my brother and sister had struggled to keep up and my parents who carried a picnic basket. On the beach and behind tussock covered sand-dunes were bunches of other families already enjoying the waves and sun drenched sand.
We unpacked our basket, spread out the rug and Mum and Dad started getting lunch ready. My brother and I grabbed our new inflatable beach-ball and eagerly ran over the last of the dunes onto the beach.
We started our epic brother battle with a game of force-back. We each tried to throw over the top of the other so they were forced back until they either stepped back too far or we were able to throw the ball past a certain point. As always I had the upper hand, maybe something to do with being older!
Suddenly, as I threw the light multicoloured ball, the wind picked it up and the next second on inflatable ball was floating in the gentle shore waves.
“Go and get it.” Graeme yelled at me.
I replied with a casual, “No. I threw, you fetch.”
“It wasn’t fair,” he moaned, referring to the wind.
“Just ‘cause I’m winning, you have to get it.” I countered.
Meanwhile the ball, delighted at its new found freedom and assisted by its friends the waves and wind, took an escape route to the sea.
“Get it,” I yelled at him, “before it gets out too far.” I was getting nervous as I was supposed to be the responsible older brother. He just refused and so I decided I better get our new ball back.
I shot down to the sea edge, splashed over the shallow waves and up to my knees. I pushed through the growing waves towards the ball. I remember thinking that I wasn’t too far from it when I found out a nasty surprise. The sand was no longer under my feet. The bottom was gone. The beach suddenly shelved into deeper water and down I plummeted.
I can still feel the panic that gripped me, the bands of pressure that started to burn in my lungs as I tried to claw my way back to the surface. Maybe the lady had seen me go under or saw my hand briefly break the surface but she stopped what she was doing and plunged in without hesitating to save me. She too discovered to her cost that the beach shelved and that this is not very good when you can’t swim, just like me.
I remember looking up through the sun beams in the water and thinking the top was too far away. Bubbles from my lungs were flowing up. It was a weird peaceful yet panicking feeling, a sweet and sour nightmare.
Unexpectedly, a strong hand seized my arm and I was first pulled from the water and then into the safe arms of a man. I don’t really remember him carrying me back to the beach, I do remember retching and throwing up seawater onto the beach as concerned people stood around. I can’t even say if I thanked them for helping me but I do have a vague memory of the lady, they pulled out with me, lying nearby.
My brother helped me on my wobbly legs back towards the dunes where Mum and Dad were and we were not at the beach much longer that day.
Someone must have told them what happened because not long after we had a whole series of swimming lessons. The bigger mystery is what happened to the ball. I like to imagine that it washed up on a beach in Japan somewhere or got pierced by a narwhale but then I have been told I am a bit of a dreamer. Certainly, I had some dreams about water surrounding and bullying me for quite a while.

Success Criteria for this recount: Follow recount form, use five senses, improve words with thesaurus and use similes.

Tags: swimming, pupils, drowning, recount, pov

Couch Potatoe

04.05.2013 Filed in: Poetry |Christian |Video |Spoken Word |Pupils Written by: W Grieve

Excuse my squashed writing
For I am writing this poem
From inside a couch,
Just yesterday, I fell asleep in the sun
Streaming hot through the window
And I slipped through the cushion gap
To join the lost coins, gathered dust
and dried food crumbs.
I hear the outside world
muffled by leather and foam
I'm interior, you're exterior
I hope you can read this note I slipped out.
For I'm squish writing this poem
From inside a couch.

We read, "It's Dark in Here" a poem by Shel Silverstein to inspire us in our "point of view" poetry.... The boys followed this model closely and then with larger variations as they produced two pieces to reflect how writers have a point of view. The montages were produced with creative commons images using layering, masking and montage techniques with Pages on their macBooks.

WALT:
To communicate experiences, with descriptive language, so that others can feel they are there.

Success Criteria:

Write about the topic from different points-of-view
To write in a poetry style that has been given.
Focus on strong adjectives
Use commas to set the rhythm of the poem
Short interesting thoughts, one per line
Unnecessary and small words cut out.
To design a montage to match your poem using layering, masking and alpha tools.

Inspired by Extreme Poetry resource (131+ pages of poetry tips and ideas). Click to view and gain access to great poetry forms, lessons and activities.

ancient_egypt_civilisations_poetry_children_contrasts

Stolen Security

04.05.2013 Filed in: Poetry |Christian |Video |Spoken Word |Pupils Written by: W Grieve

Once I eternally slept
nightmare tossing,
dark traps sprung,
death tonnes of pyramid granite
fell on tunnelling robbers.

I silently laughed
but they relentlessly came
for my riches.

I am
Mighty Pharaoh
Army surrounding,
protecting me,
Servants entombed alongside
ready for my royal decree.

As robbers break
last barriers
I command;
Disconnected
Failed
None responds
My wealth plundered with
pitch tar torches
and scrabbling fingers,
Even my face
lifted in triumph
Gone...
Stolen security.

Dreams now
wrapped
dry warmth again,
Sensing walls once more
Prying touching fingers,
Unknown words
painted on walls around,
crude, not like the picture words
that gracefully adorn my bandages,
A tomb solid
but disgracefully invisible
like an empty soul window,
They tap on my walls
but so close to touching me
they turn back.
I laugh,
The God's smile.

I am stolen
yet slumber in hushed security.

This was written following a visit to an Ancient Egyptians exhibition in a museum. We looked at the sarcophagus with an x-ray beside it of the ancient mummy.

WALT:
To communicate experiences, with descriptive language, so that others can feel they are there.

Success Criteria:

Write about the topic from different points-of-view
Focus on strong adjectives
Use a wide range of contrasts in the poem
Use commas to set the rhythm of the poem
Short interesting thoughts, one per line
Unnecessary and small words cut out.

Inspired by Extreme Poetry resource (131+ pages of poetry tips and ideas). Click to view and gain access to great poetry forms, lessons and activities.

dapples_light_poem_poetry_children_topic

Light my Life

04.04.2013 Filed in: Poetry |Seeker | |Spoken Word Written by: W Grieve

Dapples
flicker leaf sheets
wind blown branches
dance shadows on the grass

Torch
reflecting light on words
book hidden under
the sheet with me
reading
late night
parents asleep

Darkness
stolen centimetre
by centimetre
Sunrise.

Hot sun
through Sunday afternoon window
Head nodding
eyes drooping
warm sleep.

WALT:
To communicate experiences, with descriptive language, so that others can feel they are there.

Success Criteria:

Write about the topic from different points-of-view
Focus on strong adjectives
Use a wide range of contrasts in the poem
Use commas to set the rhythm of the poem
Short interesting thoughts, one per line
Unnecessary and small words cut out.

Inspired by Extreme Poetry resource (131+ pages of poetry tips and ideas). Click to view and gain access to great poetry forms, lessons and activities.

Matrix Moments

Media Moments: Question, reflect, connect

Privacy Settings

Drizzle Soak

A Poem is Not

Cloud Watching

Trapped

Memory Fragments

ANZAC

Hail

If I Took Words...

Egyptian Canterbury

Same Different

Alive in the Storm

Bush Shadows

Mirror, Mirror

Light

Chestnut Fun

6:30 AM Refugee

Walk the Plank

Couch Potatoe

Stolen Security

Light my Life