I feel love
I feel the wind
I smell perfume and cologne
Coming from all types of places
I hear laughing and rushing
I see beauty on every wall
And as my sixth sense
I feel happy

– Robert De Leon, 17
From the WritersCorps 2012 book “Writing Out of the Shadows” by students at Mission High School

Poem of the Month: July 2012

I am Saturday of every week
which makes people happy and relaxed.
Like the glasses I help
the people who have myopia.

My real name is Market Street
with many stores
to make people’s lives colorful.

As the sunshine
I bring brightness to the earth.
I am an ocean
covering 75% of the world.

Call me the red of everyone’s heart.

My real name is a dog
to accompany every lonely person.

As the winter of the year
I make the world white and neat.
Call me an ice cream
to make people feel cool
during the hot summer.

Like the grasses
I embellish the whole forest.
I am the whole of the world.

– Heki Zhao, 16

From the WritersCorps anthology “Solid Ground”
Poem of the Month: July 2007

I would save the kids with cancer because they want to be happy
and other kids don’t have it. My second wish would be that no one
would hit me or boss me around at school. My third wish is that I
could buy my mom a car and a big house. My next wish is that
everybody will be nice to me. My fifth wish would be to be a president
to make the state better and smarter. My sixth wish will be that nobody
will say cuss words. My seventh wish will be that schools will get more
technology and make the kids smarter. My last wish is that on the 4th of July
everyone would pop firecrackers and dance in the windows.
I want everyone to be happy and not demean
and for gas prices to go low.

– Tino Guadamuz, 10

From the WritersCorps book “Race Car, Yellow Star” at Mercy Services
Poem of the Month: December 2006