Miami Stories: Young poets reflect on their lives during O, Miami Poetry Festival

April is National Poetry Month. In South Florida, that means the month-long annual O, Miami Poetry Festival. As part of the festival, students from all over took part in programs that encouraged them to write and share their own poetry. This week’s Miami Stories will feature poems from some of those students. The poems are based on their lives in Miami-Dade County.

PUT THE GUNS DOWN! THIS NEED TO STOP!

I pray for the children who woke up this morning and lost their life to gun violence

As soon as a tragedy happens the person you call is God

Now people obeying’

They praying’

I’m sayin’.

It’s odd.

Look at the world now

How you going to say it now?

We out here

Just living life

Music is life now

What are we doing for the life of people that’s gone now?

They never coming back

Music is our life now.

My loved ones lost are in the sky with God

Angels with wings on their back

Living a new life

This is why music is life

You got the trap boys living the life

This is a cold world

Music is life

It’s our life now

Too many boys out here

Living this life

Losing their life

We’ve got to come together as one

And make it for our love ones

They are gone and never coming back

Now I’m rapping for y’all and writing these poems

Because I believe in y’all

Music is my limit, while for y’all the sky’s the limit

— Kayla Ingraham, 15, eighth grader at North Dade Middle School

Maybe

I wish I could change my name

Or the frame on the picture that everyone is looking at

From the outside in

They swear they lookin’ deep with

And all they could see is my skin

Maybe I’d change it to something pretty “Lisa” or “Mary”

And then people would approach me and then

Maybe then I wouldn’t look so scary

I could get out my story

Then I wouldn’t have to worry

If I would have to eat alone

Maybe I’d change it to something brave like “Johann” or “Melissa”

Maybe the I could’ve scared away the monsters under my bed

Then they wouldn’t have crawled inside of my head

Or maybe change the frame

I’d put sparkles so you’d think I was pretty

Sign it with X’s and O’s so you’d think I was nice

So tell me when you look at me what do you see?

— Yazzmine (YazzTheGreatest) Brown-Livingston, 14, eighth grader at North Dade Middle School

DREAMS ARE ILLEGAL IN THE GHETTO

DREAMS ARE ILLEGAL IN THE GHETTO

YOUNG KIDS CAN DREAM BIG BUT

THEY ARE INFLUENCED BY DRUGS GUNS

AND VIOLENCE.

PEER PRESSURE

AND THE DEVIL IS THE MAIN FACTOR.

SCREAM LOUD LET EM KNOW

HIT EM WITH THE FOLKS!

SPIN AROUND!

CLAP TWICE!

DREAMS ARE NOT ILLEGAL IN THE GHETTO! CRIPS

BLOODS, GANGS, GANGBANGERS, IS ALL I KNOW BUT

I DO BELIEVE IN GOD AND THE DEVIL CAN'T BRING

ME DOWN.

I WILL DREAM AND I WILL DREAM BIG.

I WILL SUCCEED I WILL NOT FAIL BECAUSE DREAMS

ARE NOT ILLEGAL IN THE GHETTO.

— Da’Juan Bethel, 14, eighth grader at North Dade Middle School

Where I Am From

I am from Miami where the waves go swish,

and people chat, and the highway

sounds like an elephant stampede.

I live in an orange building

that has four stairways and 18 apartments.

My street is near the school (only 3 blocks away),

and a corner store

where I shop for food for the next day.

I am also from Haiti where the people party all night

and use a pool to celebrate birthdays.

And the food tastes like spaghetti with meatballs.

I lived with my grandma and inside it is freezing,

more freezing that the arctic pole.

And my grandma’s cooking smells better

than hamburgers and vanilla ice cream cake.

— Dieneka, fourth grader at Orchard Villa Elementary School

This Is My Home Town

I am from Liberty City

where sometimes the temperature is just right.

I am from a place where the balls

dribble, dribble, dribble all day.

I am not from a place like yours.

I live in a dangerous place.

I am not from a place with bad people.

I hear police sirens screeching.

We also have many parks with red slides

and hurricanes with strong winds.

I am from a place where flowers like to bloom.

and the sky is blue like God loves you.

— Francklin, fourth grader at Orchard Villa Elementary School

What Miami is Like

I am from Miami

where the rain pops

— Jaykayla, third grader at Orchard Villa Elementary School

Ode to the Beach

Yellow sand, blue waves.

The water is so wavy, so wavy

it looks like the spikes of a boy’s Mohawk.

It feels like I am taking a vacation.

It feels like peace and quiet and making

a sand castle with my mom.

— Mia, Culter Ridge Middle School

Odes to the Ocean

Flying up to the sun, falling through

the air like leaves falling from the tree branches,

rain jumps off of the umbrellas onto the ground

cold as the frozen pole, warm as water sweat

as the body movement moves from the pores

running through pipes out from sinks,

sipping water from the water bottle, tastes

like it’s healthy for the body, this is the life of the ocean.

— Tony, Cutler Ridge Middle School

It’s softy wave, calm

is blue.

I get in the ocean

and feel like I’m going

into the world of donuts.

It has fish made of donuts

and shark friends.

— Justin, Cutler Ridge Middle School

“I am warm, wide, I need someone to jump in.”

I jump in.

I see urchins and starfish.

I taste salt.

— Zamare, Cutler Ridge Middle School

This story was originally published April 14, 2016 at 3:14 PM with the headline "Miami Stories: Young poets reflect on their lives during O, Miami Poetry Festival."