XPI Student Showcase
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
Selections for the Week of 7/25/2011
My Kitty Rascal, acrylic
Samantha Fowler, 12th grade, Mavericks High School, Largo
I Wonder
I wonder if I could run in the Olympics
and win a medal.
I wonder if I could be a spy
or save people instead of letting them die.
I wonder about the important people who
are dead.
They are always stuck in my head.
I wonder if the people I like and see
recognize and love me.
I wonder if love will stay.
I wonder ... anyway.
Chloe Davis, fourth grade,
Montessori Preparatory School, Tampa
Unseen
There are things I haven't told you
Things that you don't know
Would never guess
No matter how you looked at me
You cannot look into my eyes
And know what I've seen
The crystal, clear water of the Cayman Islands
Exotic, colorful fish
Or my family having fun
It's so beautiful it makes me smile
My mouth cannot tell you about steak
Or homemade tomato sauce
Or sour candy that makes me pucker
My ears don't tell you what I've heard
The waves that break on the shore
To the loud beat on the radio
To the helpless cry of a baby that makes me sad
But like travel, like happiness, like peace
Invisible, present
It's all there
Part of who I am
Wherever I am
Taylor Drew, sixth grade,
Park Avenue School, Merrick, New York
My Reflection
I looked into the mirror
And there stood I man I didn't recognize
He was one who had seen it all
One who had lost everything
He had made wrong choices,
each pitied by all
Tears in his eyes
Weakness in his legs
Pain in his heart
There in the mirror stood a total disgrace
There in the mirror was utter defeat
Yes, there in the mirror stood me
Lasia Lo, seventh grade,
Bayonet Point Middle School, Port Richey
Stop and Smell the Flowers, digital photograph
Chance Cogill, fourth grade, Academy at the Lakes, Land O'Lakes
Life
As day turns to night,
The moon shines brightly.
The world is at peace,
As the wind changes slightly.
As she walked through the forest,
The leaves glistened with dew.
The trees rustled in silence,
The flowers bloomed anew.
Her anger faded away,
The pain was no more.
It was all gone,
She felt like she could soar.
Then rain came to the ground,
She felt it on her skin,
All of the darkness went away
There was no such thing as a sin.
As she watched the rain fall,
God came down to earth.
"I have made this rain for you," God said,
"As a sign of a soul's rebirth."
Sean McCasland, seventh grade,
Thurgood Marshall Fundamental Middle School, St. Petersburg
Just the Basics
Clear, clean, and fresh.
Water.
The word alone makes you feel a cleansing feeling fall upon you.
Salt, fresh, and tap.
It's all the same.
It's all magnificently beautiful and amazing.
Water has its own language.
The waves it creates speak secrets to the underwater life.
Salt flows freely through the ocean,
sending microscopic messages to the vast community it consumes.
The taste of a bottle of freshly poured water is refreshing.
It revives you, and gives you strength that nothing else can.
Water is its very own power.
Without water, what would Earth be?
Dust?
Rock?
No living organism would be here.
Our vast community wouldn't be so vast.
We would be nothing.
Water creates Earth,
and that is the power that water consumes.
Even soda, the fattening, wonderful,
refreshing drink your parents tell you not to drink too much of,
is made of the power of water.
Water is what nurtures Earth.
Matthew Gorr, ninth grade, Pinellas Virtual School
Spring Has Sprung, digital photograph
Porter Brown, eighth grade, Beaverton Middle School, Beaverton, Michigan
The words that came from my hand
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
My Poetry
The words I write burn deep inside of me
Through veins no one can see
No one can take it
No one can break it
Only I can make it
My poetry
It is the outlet from which my anger flows
Until it is replaced with joy that glows
It makes me want to forgive
But never forget
And with no regret
I write
My poetry
If Only
If only the world were free
I mean really free
So free that we could spread our wings and fly
At any time
No restrictions
No limits to hold us back
If only the world were free
If only the world were peaceful
I mean really peaceful
So peaceful that we could walk the streets
Without fear of abduction
No anger
No wars to speak of
If only the world were peaceful
If only the world were filled with love
I mean real love
So much love that no one would be hurt
By one another
No lust
No hatred to trifle on
If only the world were filled with love
If only, if only
Three poems by
Savannah Rhea Cordova, ninth grade,
Manchester High School, Chesterfield, Virginia
Snook, Microsoft Paint
Erik Jasek, eighth grade, Seminole Middle School
I Owe It to Poetry
I owe it to poetry
overly, totally to poetry
every fiber, every hole in every soul of me
I owe it poetry,
my thoughts and my actions
devoutness to passion
my dreams and my troubles
my doubts and my struggles
I owe them all to poetry.
My constant regret
caught like fish in a net
I can catch every moment and never forget
words are like art from the paint of ancient alphabets
My intellect is kept in check by poetry.
my decisions and movements
my constant confusion
the words on the paper
convincing illusions
the reason I fight
the wrong and the right
the meanings are clear,
they are clear out of sight
I owe it to poetry,
solely and openly
I am who I am because poetry molded me.
Carson Ritch, 11th grade,
Shorecrest Preparatory School, St. Petersburg
life
i have stumbled upon a wretched body
one that crumbled when the ground shook
to its ear i spoke the feeling of hope
wind blew and life spread limb to limb
six years i sat in the shadows
knowing all that you knew
feeling all that you felt
to finally be one now
captivated by an unknown will
driven to never let go
although i might crumble again
I'll still work for my goals
after so long this abused body
walked strong in its own way
reaching for what sadness could not
nor happiness could alone
a will to find a home more than once
to go farthest from darkness
to hold that life closer than in limbs
i've realized where my soul has been
in time we walked into a lighter place
gained what we had lost
all by a hope for one gift hearts cry for
a breath of life through will and desire
whisper, i dare you to move on
lift yourself to your feet
all the miles we've walked
hope life gets better as we go
Amber Lamkin, 12th grade, Dunedin High School
My Mark in the Pavement, digital photograph
Allyson Puckett, ninth grade, Admiral Farragut Academy, St. Petersburg
The Inferno and the War
She is still not talking
A friendship with her
Not passionate fires
I loved her once
But now I long
For the friendship that we had
That is now gone
It happened suddenly
Without a warning
But lasts forever
And now it's burning
My heart in my chest
For a friend I need
But because she won't speak
I am lost indeed
These days seem endless
Without her speaking
I can't bear another day
But my heart keeps beating
For the hope of a friend
To return to another
But that's just a dream
Now I only seem to bother
This fight has gone on
For an eternity a least
My heart has killed
The passionate beast
Whose flame had been
Almost godly bright
But now a poet replaces but
Comes out only at night
The poet wants a friend
Like a blazing Inferno
But the one he wants most
Well, she doesn't know
Of his existence
And of his strife
That only she can end
Without ending his life
He longs for a person
That can soothe his burns
To help heal him
Before the beast returns
For the beast is deadly
It would bestow death
To the words from his mouth
The words from his breath
This poet is fragile
Tiny and meek
His words maybe deadly
But the impact is weak
He longs for peace
More than anything else
A kind of truce between
The beast and himself
But this beast wages war
On the heart of this poetic man
Which one will win
I don't think they can
For the poet is weak
Without support
Which comes from a friend
Who is able to sort
This fight between
These once close friends
It would stop the heartache
And cause war to end
This beast is fire
Which burns the soul
The mind and the body
All completely whole
He cannot fight
This battle alone
The poet needs
To finally dethrone
The fire that controls him
And become the man
That can own her friendship
And finally ban
The beast from returning
To its full power
Where it controlled him
Almost every passing hour
This poet wants friendship
To say the very least
Which would end all fighting
And kill the beast
If only she would see
The changes he has done
To become a new man
Better than the one
That was there once
But is there no more
The Inferno is gone
But not before
She returns to him
Just as a friend
So they may laugh and talk
And the war may end
Abizar Gadiwalla, 11th grade,
St. Petersburg High School
Let Down Your Hair, ceramics |
Two-Faced, Contrary Queen, ceramics and watercolor
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| Jordana Carlson, 12th grade, Howard W. Blake High School, Tampa | |