Welcome to Xpress Plugged In, our new online gallery of student expressions. Please follow the submission instructions CAREFULLY. New work will be posted every Monday.
-- Nancy Green, editor of XPI
Aye, Chihuahua, photograph
Morgan Gonzalez, eighth grade, John Hopkins Middle School, St. Petersburg
When I stare out of my window
Watching the rain beat on the glass,
I feel so calm and so safe.
One raindrop,
I follow with my finger,
As it runs down the window pane
Like a sparkly tear.
Trickle. Trickle. Trickle.
How I love the rain.
Angelina Rosado, fourth grade, Northshore Elementary School, St. Petersburg
Another Brick Wall, photograph
Morgan Gonzalez, eighth grade, John Hopkins Middle School, St. Petersburg
I stare at the page of scribbled blue ink
I wrote every word
Yes, it was me
I try to see deeper than the rhyming lines
And look for the true meaning that is really mine
I try and I try as hard as I can
To decipher the words that came from my hand
I chose every word with care
And yet I can't tell you why I put them there
As I search for the meaning in the bright blue ink
A thought comes to me and I think
If the meaning is not in the art
Then where else to look but the artist's heart
I do not know what that poem means
All I know is that it came from me
One day I will know
And the meaning may change over time
But all I know is that it's all mine
I try and I try as hard as I can
To decipher the words that came from my hand
I chose every word with care
And yet I can't tell you why I put them there
Savannah Rhea Cordova, ninth grade, Manchester High School, Midlothian, Virginia
Beach Happy, photograph
Morgan Gonzalez, eighth grade, John Hopkins Middle School, St. Petersburg