Happy Holidays!

Enjoy your break, juniors!

Voice Poems

Empathy truly is a gift, and voice poems make this clear. After watching the stage performance of The Little Mermaid, the juniors were challenged to compose voice poems, sharing the point of view of a character and seeking to understand this perspective. 

Here are a few peeks at the poems the students shared on the class message board: 

Ariel

I am waiting, dreaming, and longing for a life beyond the sea

And this is my one and only plea.

I'm tired of swimming around with these fins

I want knees, legs, feet and shins.

I want to run and walk and live like them

I'd trade my crown, a ring and even a gem.

I want to walk on the sand and feel the sun on my skin

And this is when my life will begin.

I will meet a Prince, handsome, and strong

And finally find the place where I belong. 

Flotsam/Jetsam

Wriggling and writhing,

Just a part of Her body.

Once a young seahorse,

Now bound to this "Mommy."

One simple mistake;

That's all that it took

To take me from swimming

To being Her crook.

"Go here!" and "Grab this!"

Screams loud in my ear.

I'm a poor, lost soul

Wanting out of here!

-- K.K. 

King Triton
I am seen as the mighty King,
the ruler of all the reef,
the leader.
But they do not see
the person under the title
the husband who lost his wife,
the father of daughters without a mother.
I try to do what's best
to be a good father,
to teach with words I do not know,
to find what has been lost;
The instinct of a father,
lost long ago,
replaced by the instinct of a ruler.

T.L. 

Ariel 

How hard it is to be at loss of words

not by choice, but by force.

How hard it is to be unable to tell 

the man you love, that you think he's swell. 

I must get him to kiss me, and not by force.

I have to let true love take its course.

I need to do this in three days time, 

that's the only way to make him mine.

If I fail, it's more than just hard luck...

it's my corpse in Ursula's muck. 

Prince Eric's Poem:

(When he first hears Ariel’s voice)

One day while I was out at sea,

I heard an angel's voice calling to me.

It seemed to come from the sea below,

Anything more divine could never be known.

This voice was more beautiful than anything I had ever heard,

It embodies the sea itself and seemed to be as alive and free as a bird.

The sea itself seems to respond to her song,

It seems to sway to her notes and dance along.

Her voice seems to surround me and it takes my breath away,

No other girl has ever made me feel this way.

Could she be the girl? Could she possibly be the one for me?

Her voice alone is enough to set my heart off beat.

Her voice is gone as soon as it came.

Oh how I wish her voice didn’t go away.

I must find the owner of this voice, this voice of the sea,

And make her my bride for the rest of eternity.