beginning poetry class portfolio

1. Ethridge 1
Portfolio
Poem 3: Place Poem
Lagoon
The sun’s brutal heat shines down on the innocent
It bounces off the dark cement ground
It’s like a bubble of hot hair – a tent
The only way to escape is inside a stand
The air conditioning lends a helping hand
Throughout the day there are screams
Reports of sick, lost, and scraped knees
My days run together – they even haunt my dreams
Sounds of go-karts and giggling
And in addition - water trickling
My days here are hot, sweaty, fun
Fourteen hour shifts are going to be there
The season has only just begun
When fall arrives there’s pumpkins, chainsaws, goblins
Don’t forget the occasional coffin
Roller-coasters, rides, and food attract many,
Thousands of parents, teens, and children.
The sun, rides, and water brings a good mood
Day after day I feel anew
Slaving away my summer at Lagoon.
Poem 4: Persona Poem
Get to You
The drive to you is long.
A curved, broken, dangerous road
The Plain White-T’s rang true,
With “Planes, and trains and cars”.
I hum along to the radio’s song.
In and out – like fabric sewed
I will drive anything to get to you
Because this time is ours
I see the trees on the road along
They’re never ending – I want to implode
I can’t wait to see you, it’s true.
To see you, love you, hold you and look at the stars.
Poem 5: Metaphor Poem
A Guitar

2. Ethridge 2
I am the body of a guitar.
The outside of me is hard, smooth, some could even say beautiful,
But the inside of me is hollow.
I show the world the outside.
Only those who play me can see what is truly inside,
Emptiness.
My strings are my feelings
Anyone can play them
The strings that can stretch and stretch,
Reaching the very end of the line.
I can speak about the good, the bad, the ugly.
A whole octave.
Some abuse me and the sounds echoing around my hollow body are loud,
Unappealing, rough, and undesirable
I can break.
My strings snap with a loud “ping”
Slashing anyone in the way -
It wounds, bruises, stings
The ugly sound resonates in my hollow body,
Over and over again.
Only the gentlest can fix me
I need mending and care to restring me,
Carefully replacing the string.
It’s fresh, new, firm.
It needs care and attention to become what it was -
Soft, malleable, welcoming
My feelings resonate beautifully to those
Who take care of them
My hollow body produces beauty.
But only to those,
Who put in the care.
I am the embodiment of a guitar
With strings as my feelings
Fragile, hard, and painful.
Poem 11: Sonnet
Maddi & Tyler
It was the days before my vacation,
the work shifts are long and the homework, too.
Friday the end and the week’s cessation,
On Saturday, I will be feeling blue.
I will get to see the beautiful stones,

3. Ethridge 3
tears will fall but I know I have your hand.
to hold tight and to help face the unknowns,
Why they were taken – I don’t understand.
We will journey far to another state,
And we’ll face the harshest reality
It will be well worth the long and sad wait,
I know we aren’t ready, but we must be.
Their cemeteries grass shall not be green,
What lies under the hill remains unseen.
Poem 12: Non-traditional sonnet
Utah 07/17
The drive was short but it lasted for miles,
It was early – seven o’clock as promised.
We arrived and I could feel the tension.
At the cemetery, I became sad.
We spent two hours looking in the heat
For the headstone Tyler, didn’t yet have.
We ended the long night dehydrated.
The next morning, we found out the bad news.
The cemetery was closed – its Sunday
We went anyway, and it was open
I saw her stone in the distance – and cried.
He walked me up to her and the feelings,
Were hard and I sobbed as I saw the place
Where my best friend lies for eternity.
Poem 14: Erasure Poem
Before/Erasure
Everything is different
I’m knocking on her door
A man-child snuck out when
She called me in
And I see her
Tall, hot, decent
The girl is staring as she mumbles
“My name is Tessa”