Student Work

From a SpeakTogether virtual workshop, University Heights High School, The Bronx, Fall 2020

This poem was composed during a six-week workshop conducted by poet Jubi Arriola-Headley, who introduced a class of 9th-grade students to myriad forms of poetry that exist. This workshop took place virtually during a global pandemic. Read more about the works in this collection, which demonstrates students’ efforts to find their voices and share them with their peers, teachers, and families.

Hai-ku!: The Perfect Picture.

by Dominic

Every time I look at the window,
I feel good luck coming through me
With a small aura I felt,
A yellowish and white aura,
I see the building
with 20 floors.
I always thought to myself
“Why does this building have the perfect picture I loved the most?”
It never grew old but it felt amazingly young,
it felt like I went back to the past
To see myself staring at the building for 20 minutes.
I come with my games in hand,
Every spring,
every winter,
every morning,
Every single day
And stare as a play without looking at the screen.
I always feel lucky with this view,
Without it,
I would’ve felt something missing,
something that can’t fit that perfect picture.

Dominic is a freshman from University Heights High School in The Bronx.