Week 1: Magic Boat Poems

Kudos to Cassie Sparkman for providing me with this great introductory lesson, using Dante Alighieri's "Sonnet," (translated by poet Kenneth Koch) in which the speaker expresses his wish to be "carried off by magic/And put in a boat, which every time there was wine,/Would sail on the ocean exactly where we wanted." I think this is a fabulous metaphor for poetry in general - the students loved having the freedom to go crazy with their own magic boat poems and the results were exciting!

Mr. Kaszynski, 3rd Grade

"My Best Friends"
Elizabeth C.

Virgen, I wish that you and Alexis and I were carried off by magic and put in a boat.
I want to go with them to Wisconsin Dells so we can get wet in the swimming pool
because the pool in Wisconsin Dells is big for a lot of people to swim in
and some part is not deep and some is deep so we got to be
real careful cause if we go to the deep part we will drown and die.

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Celina S.

Araceli, I wish that you and Lupe
and I were carried off by magic
and put in a boat.
And go to candy land and eat
lots of candies and then we
would go to Hawaii.

And then we would go to
swim and go surfing and then
we would go eat fruit.
And then we would all get
one wish and we would get
lots of hats and cats.

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Araceli G.

Angelica, I wish that you and Kala and
I were carried off by magic. And put
in a boat. We will go to candy land,
pizza land and baby land. We will
talk about funny stuff for my baby
cousin. Then, when she's asleep we will go
asleep too. Then, for tomorrow we will
give a surprise for my baby cousin.
Because tomorrow we will be in
baby land. Then, we will go to candy
land. Then, we will go to pizza land.

***

Mrs. Rodriguez, 5th Grade

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Jesus H.

Titanic, I wish I could take
you and Mom and Dad and I. We'd be
taken off by a magic boat
and we'd go to Antarctica and
while we're sailing we would
talk about how it would be
and what kind of animals
would be there. We would
see if Titanic wants
to stay or not. If she does
I'll stay with her, if
she doesn't want to stay
we can go back home and
good night.

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Veronica T.

Yo iria de viaje al Planeta Venus
porque me interesa saber como
esta y como es. Llevaria a
mis papas y a mis hermanas y mi
hermano. viajariamos en una
nave espacial. Yo quisiera ir
porque desde mas chiquita decia
que ese era mi planeta favorito.

"Dreamworld Boat"
Jacqueline M.

Mom, I wish that you and Milo
and I would be carried off
by magic and put onto a boat
and the boat would disappear,
all the cartoons I saw and
dreamt about are in your faces!
In this way the cartoons are
you! You get to talk to
cartoons.

"Magic Boat to Puerto Rico"
Jeremy T.

Ryan, I wish that you and my dad
and Manny and Dennis and my mom,
and your mom and dad and I were
carried off by magic and put in a boat off to
Puerto Rico. We would talk about how beautiful
Puerto Rico is, while playing a game of card
war. Then when we get there we would all
go down to the beach and lay down and relax.

"Planets"
Sigitas A.

Ralph Lauren, I wish that you and
I could fly off in a space ship to
Another planet just like Earth
And ride that $4,000,000 car that
You owned.

How I wish that I could drive
That car at its full speed, 250 MPH.
The way that the doors go
vertically instead of horizontally
amazes me.

***

Mrs. Marfise, 3rd Grade

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Maria B.

Princess, I wish that you and
my family and I were
carried off by magic
and put in a boat. And my
family and I will go
to the sea to
see the fishes.

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Denise B.

Amores, I wish that you and Isabell
and I
Were carried off by magic
And put in a boat
We'd go to the desert
We'd look in a lost room
We'd talk about how it looks and
smells.

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Ciro Q.

I wish I had a car that was
magical and I could take Bart,
Stewie, Chris, Maggie, Moe,
Marge and Peter Griffin and I
woud go to Six Flags America
or the Sears Tower. And take
my girlfriend Kristal Herredia, I
will take my girlfriend to
see a funny movie. Then I
would get home and wish
for my favorite show or movie.

***

Mrs. Sandoval-Johnson, 3rd Grade

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Alejandra I.

Hannah Montana, I wish that you and Fernanda
and I were carried off by magic and put
in a boat and go to the park and talk
about singing. Also we will go to Navy Pier to
go on the rides. Like the spinning swings and
eat hot dogs together. We will go to the beach and
make sandcastles. Then make it look pretty with
shells and buy ice cream.

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Yadira A.

Sister, I wish that you and Mom, Dad, Elvis and I
were carried off by magic and put in a boat. Then we will
talk about funny stories and then we will go to
Wisconsin and we will live there together.

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Jacqueline D.

Vampire, I wish that you and scary thing and I
were carried off by magic and put in a
big, hug, weird boat...And the full moon was
there and we were talking about scary stuff as the
boat floats with the water and off to scary land
where I can become scary too...

***

Ms. McCormick, 3rd Grade

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Karina C.

I live in the sea, bubbles float
when I talk. I can swim and breathe
underwater. Fish swim over
me and we play sea tag. I can
go to everywhere. I can go to
Hollywood to meet everyone there
in the sea.

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Nelly Q.

Mom, I wish that you and the whole family and I
Were carried off by magic
And put in a boat
We would go to Los Angeles and Florida
All that we are going to talk about is Halloween.
The boat would be a sail boat and it would be big
with a blue and red sail boat.

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Laura D.

A spirit, Munyeco, I wish that you and
Mommy and I were carried off by
magic and put in a boat...We will
go off in an avenger to the
tropical rain forest then we will go everywhere
and explore the animals that live across the
land once it's night spirit, Munyeco, Mommy
and I will talk about spirits and see if
we can help people that need spirits
to out of their house, also explore
the spirits that still haunt the land.

***

Ms. Breen, 3rd Grade

I Wish to Go to Spain
Luz M.

Mom, I wish you and Karena will go on a magic
boat with me and the boat will have flowers,
and butterflies flying everywhere. We
will talk about family. We will go to
Spain and we will go to a
famous restaurant. We will eat
soup and have bread. We will
go back to Chicago and tell
everyone about Spain. We will
tell them about the famous
restaurant in Spain and go
back once more.

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Alejandro C.

Alejandra, I wish that Mom and I
were carried off by a magic coin
and put in a small pocket.

It was raining and we ran.
We ran because we were wet. We were
playing soccer.

The coin was stolen and we were too!
My friend Aries took it and dropped
it in the water. He wished for books.

"Welcome to Las Vegas"
Diana A.

I wish I had a magic boat I would
take my family and friends and my cousin's
dog. We would go to California to
visit my aunts and uncles and cousins.
And we will all go to Las Vegas
and rent a hotel and go to the casino
but...I can't, you have to be 21 and over
so we will go to a pool but...it
it is winter! But...it
is always summer and one day
it was 100 degrees and was hot and
we never went again.