Elm Leaves
An anthology of poetry written by students from Wisconsin Hills & Pilgrim Park Middle Elmbrook Schools
Spring 2024
Copyright © 2024
Copyrights are held by the writers whose work appears in this book. All rights reserved.
Hadley
Morning
I sit up to the morning glow. Blankets on the floor. Lamp still on. I stretch out my long legs so they touch the end of the bed. The way it happens fast but carefully. I stumble to the door, squinting, as I step foot outside. The colorful grass and flowers sparkle. I watch the clouds shift in the blue sky and think: How does it happen?
I stand in the grass, gazing off. I stand in the grass, wondering about everything near me.
Maddie
Once Beautiful
I have run the beaches that were once beautiful and which you were probably waiting to destroy Forgive me they were pretty So pretty long ago before we were turned into the gilded lily when humanity had hope and so much more than a crumbled world
Malin
Story of A Duck
The little duck that paddles her feet and rises above the strife she meets
To bow her head into the din and gobble up the tangle within Shaping the darkness into energy soaring with wings to find herself free
Mariessa
Slipping Out of Consciousness
Dim gray
The sheer crinkled curtain
Blocking new morning’s light
Quiet, still
The air soft, and gentle
It’s careless simplicity wrapping my body in warmth
Overtaken
I need to drift away
Beneath the patterned quilts
And woven fabrics
My eyes will become heavy once more
My thoughts will once more slow
I am safe
My time in the light is yet to come
I mustn’t face the day
So long as I am warm
So long as I am comforted
By the gentleness of the surrounding space
I may sleep
For I am home
Mariessa (continued)
Wet gravel road
Filled with cement
A Path to the Bus Stop
The smell of earth seeping in
Small rocks lodge themselves between the crevices of the souls of my shoes
As they carry me towards the sunlit fields
Larger pebbles scatter and crackle underfoot back into the dewy grass
a song of stones
The cows are out this morning
Maybe still asleep
Nestled together behind the barren branched tree
Stretching its limbs across the field
Smaller, weaker branches outstretching from them
And more from them
Until a sight to behold is made
A barren tree in all its glory
Still shading, still fruitful in its rich air
Birds sing out melodious harmonies
The lyrics of which I do not know
Synchronizing with the swaying of leaves
Painted all shades of fresh, lively green
The birds are nestled within the clustered branched of families of like trees
Overlooking groves of lilacs and pinecone ridden brush
The sky’s gentle pink turns to blue as the horizon births our warmth
Our light cascading over barren fields
Trees of all kinds, bark, and leaves, surround the road
Casting sun rays through communes of pine needles and fallen petals
The air is fresh as the new day
Breathe it in
Let it shape you
Don’t let this light slip through your fingers
Let it etch itself into the fabric of your soul
This morning air is filled with the spirit of rejuvenation
Of light
Of hope
Mariessa (continued)
What Is It I Envy?
Wisdom
I look at those who know God
Those who look to the sky, and can hear his breaths in the wind
Those who can feel his warmth within the rays of sunlight
And I feel horribly envious
It’s poisonous green so far astray from the green of god's creation
I ache to know the foreign tongues of lands I’ve never been
To know the depth of ancient scriptures scholars throw themselves into
I want to have poured over every epic and every story humanity has ever known
My soul reaches for the understanding of God and man alike
Of every possible branch of spirituality hidden within our very beings
I’m desperate for enlightenment, for understanding
To be able to contemplate the incomprehensible
To look out at the landscape ahead and understand its lyricism completely
I want to delve into the symbolism each page has to offer
Of this ongoing story in which will continue long after I am gone
I must drown in the beauty of anything and everything
To lay my eyes on anything
and be able to make a home within the art I will have made of it
To put a piece of my soul into everything I do
So as I walk along these hidden paths I’ve created
I may recollect these luminescent fragments of myself and make them my muse
Capturing the essence of experience and potential alike
I want to have lived every possible life
To have run laughing down every road I’ve ever come across
To bow myself to intricate footnotes and design of this complex and paradoxical world
The nature of my being aches for the secrets only the heavens can whisper in my ear
For my senses to transcend what I thought to be possible
And experience this earth as deeply and as fully as my spirit may last
So at the end of one chapter
Holy winds may carry me further
To places only my soul has ever known
Meera
Morning Poetry
I arise
To the rays and specks of gold just beginning to slice through a bleak sky
I wake to the screech of my alarm clock
Barely registering in my somnolent brain
I groan and leisurely stretch my arms
Then gradually I pry open my eyelids and peer through the darkness that surrounds me
I lie there for a moment
Appreciating the simple joy that these little things come together to create
As I take it all in
I ponder
What a solemn and plain world it would be without the simple beauty of the sun
The rain
The trees
The breeze
I ponder this all as I slowly crawl out of my bed
Ready to greet this new beginning as every day is a fresh canvas
Ready to be adorned with the beauty of the world
Roger D.
Train Wreck
I burst into tears like a little baby
You watched me wilt like a daisy
Smiled at the train wreck you made me
Sobbed on the floor of my shower
Wasted my thoughts on you for hours
I hate how I gave you that power
Sonia S
This Is Just To Say
Inspired by William Carlos Williams’ poem, This Is Just to Say
I am sorry
To have stepped
Upon the little paw
That was dancing underfoot
And you were probably Stunned to feel squashed
Forgive me
They were invisible
So vulnerable And so soft
