Each year for our Poem In Your Pocket Celebration I try to write a poem that somehow connects with what I love. This year, I had an idea. Since I have talked to the students so much this year about what I hope our library represents and how I want them to take ownership of the space, I thought it would be perfect for them to help me write about that. Also, I often hear adults telling students that “the library is a quiet place”. While that is true sometimes, it’s not really the kind of library that I think we have here at Barrow. Putting these 2 thoughts together, I created a Google form with some various stems about our library not being quiet: Our library is not a quiet place it’s a…, In our library you can hear…, In our library you can see…., In our library you can feel…
I emailed the form out to students and also sent it to teachers so that they could do it with their whole class. After lots of submissions, I went through and pulled lines to use in our poem. I used at least one idea from every entry that was submitted. The following poem is the one that I will carry in my pocket Thursday and Friday and read into the microphone to start each poetry reading session.
Our Library is NOT a Quiet Place
A Crowd-sourced Poem By Barrow Students
Our library is not a quiet place
It’s an energetic, media place
a chatty and productive place
a sort of noisy place
You can hear
people talking creativity
the beep, beep, beep of the checkout machine
kids discussing books
pages flipping
fingers typing across keyboards
fans whirling
projects connecting with the world
Our library is not a quiet place
It’s a reading place
a cheering place
You can see
shelves lined with well-loved books
happiness for a nook
people reading
smiling faces
kids enjoying, researching
checking out books on their own
children running, shouting, free
imaginations soaring
Our library is not a quiet place
It’s a wild safari
a wonderful, awesome place
you can feel
friendship
the hum of energy
peacefulness
warm and safe
complete and overjoyed
calmness, floating
anticipation
smart
Our library is not a quiet place
It’s a word place
A big, loud punch in the face place
Sometimes a rambunctious place
Even an aggravating place
You can hear
playfullness
kids laughing
mentors reading
Quiet talks about books
Authors and experts skyping
Students blogging and commenting
Our library is not a quiet place
It’s a living space
Buzzing with awesomeness
Our library is not a quiet place
It’s everybody’s learning base
Great poem!
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