1. ASManager2_6.zip Driver
2. G_VERSE3.txt File Contents

G_VERSE3.txt Driver File Contents (ASManager2_6.zip)

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Free Verse 3
Serious Themes

Free verse is often used to express very emotional themes. Read the free verse poems below or on the free verse 3 handout your teacher may have given you.

Gray pudding...

I feel like gray pudding
messy and unknown
when I move around and
people step on me
and put footprints on me
and get me dirty.
That is why I am
gray pudding.

by Yong, grade 6

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School
like a prison
making you do hard work
torturing you to get an A in social studies
having to talk with your parole officer
to go to summer vacation
being put on the electric chair
for throwing a spitball

by Shaun, grade 6

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My mom putting on makeup
I watch my mom look and stare
in the mirror.

She picked up a blush brush and
rubbed it in the colorful color of blush

She glided it up on her cheekbone
and I see her pick up her lipstick
a cool color of moist lips as she glides it on.

When she puts her glittering earrings on
and her pretty red dress
and puts her panty hose on
and her red shoes

I say to myself
she doesn't look any prettier with it.

But she's my mom and
I love her just the way she is.

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Grandpa

Grandpa was superman to me,
He would grab me and hug me,
And he would pick me up and throw me up,

Then he would say to me, "Fly! Fly!"
But one day he got sick,
We couldn't play or hug or even talk,
He would only sleep in his room.
And he got really sick and he had to go to the hospital.

It was almost Christmas but I didn't care.
I only wanted my grandpa back now,

On Christmas he went away forever,
Now he can fly instead of me.

by Allen, grade 6

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A Complete Stop

The poems are hanging.
     Books off the shelf.
     A hand shaking.
A telephone off its receiver.
     My mother thoroughly shaken.
My dad coming to a complete stop.

The words flow.
The news is out.
     My questioning eyes, beckoning
an answer. But receiving nothing.
     A hand on my shoulder.
My mind is scrambled.
     People crying.
My grandfather's dead.

Chris, grade 8

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The Roads Are Long

The days and nights are lonely and the
   roads are a long way to get back
     into each other's arms.

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My Heart Belongs to Someone

  My heart belongs to someone
So special.
  Who I'll always
  Remember.
I'll always be
honest and be worthy of him.
And I shall never
  leave him.
But up to now,
  He has hurt me bad
By showing that he doesn't care.
I will care.
  For I am his girlfriend

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The Target

Walking down the street, what do I see,
  faces staring at me as if I were the target.

The target of what?

Trying to escape, hooked up by a hook
  what's going on around me, voices come
  and voices go, not knowing which path to follow.

Getting struck by lightning, everything
  disappears, they finally got the target

Target of fears, target of sorrow, target of the dead.

Red marks here and there, on the
  walls, the trees, the roads, the whole place

What could have happened? "Heaven knows."

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I Am Your Son

I see a map that is half way down.
I am looking at my dad. He is in
North Carolina. I will always remember
Dad. I wish you could learn to like me.
But I do, son. No you don't, Dad, you
would call and pick me up for
a weekend. I love you, Dad.

Dan, grade 8

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Too Small

The redwoods in Redding are strong trees
tall and ancient
wise and wrinkled
they are Chinese grandfathers of the forest.
I was little
too small to reach even the lowest branch.
One day it was too much.
My father was drunk too often
     careless too often
     hit too hard
     and left a mark too red.
So my mom left him.
I don't remember it.
My mom took me on a plane
home to Grandma.
I ran through the airport
grabbing the pant legs of strange men
and calling them Daddy.
I suppose I already missed him.
If he loved me he would have come by now.
He would have been there for birthdays
     for skinned knees
     for first places
     and to call me princess.
He hasn't come back, he doesn't even know me.
I suppose he was too small to reach the branches
of the giant redwoods.
It's too late now
I've reached to the top.
I'm too old now
to look back for my old man.
But I hope he's gotten big enough
to feel the sensation of falling,
of reaching for branches
that crack and splinter,
crashing down on shallow roots.
Revenge is an echo
I've been screaming for years.

by Wendy, grade 10

Choose your three favorite poems from above. Then select your favorite line or image. Write a brief essay of two or three paragraphs about which poems you like and why. Put the images or lines that you chose in quotation marks. You may copy your favorite lines into your essay.

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Essay: My Three Favorite Poems

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Name and save this file now. (Press ctrl+S, type a name for the file, and press enter.)

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Write your own serious free verse poem. You may want to begin by thinking of a sad memory. As you see the memory, you'll see certain images -- certain things that stand out. Build your poem around those images.

My Serious Free Verse Poem
Draft 1

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Share your poem with your writing support group. Then rewrite your poem, and/or write another poem below.

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Retype or copy your poem from above. Then revise it below.

My Serious Free Verse Poem
Draft 2

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Write an evaluation of your poem. Copy or retype the lines you want to talk about. Put quotation marks around the lines so the reader will know where the line or image from the poem begins and ends in your essay. Explain what you like and dislike about your poem.

Essay: Evaluation of My Poem

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Based upon your critical review of your poem, revise it in the space below. You could make a copy of your poem, and then revise it.

My Revised Poem

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If you haven't done so already, name and save this file now. (Press ctrl+S, type a name for the file, and press enter.)

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end of activity
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