Trail Poetry

With only 4 kids this year, gym is a tough, but that doesn't mean we don't need to get outside and get our exercise. We came up with a plan to take bi-weekly hikes around our beautiful island to ensure we are moving and also taking in the gorgeous nature that surrounds us. We call them our "gratitude hikes" because we sometimes forget how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place and the hikes remind us to be grateful of our surrounds.

During our hikes the kids bring along their cameras to capture the beauty and then back in the classroom the boys are writing poems to complement these photos. This activity is helping us meet out poetry standards this year and also our plan is to compline our poems and photographs into a book that we can give to the library at the end of the year so others can see what kind of beauty we get to experience on Monhegan all year long.

For our first hike we went to the Maple Trail which is so beautiful in the fall. The boys took gorgeous photos and after they were asked to write free verse poems. 

What they came up with was just beautiful...

The Maple Trail

So quiet...

So beautiful...

Birds chirping and insects buzzing

Hills of moss all around

So calming...

So peaceful...

Tall pines and colorful maples

The wind whispers to me

So soft...

So gentle...

That's The Maple Trail

- D. Burroughs

The Maple Trail

The leaves are falling

the animals are hibernating

the people are leaving

the forest is silent

the snow will be falling

i imagine wolves are howling

the leaves are changing

green to yellow

yellow to red

red to brown

it is Fall

it all just happens like that.

- Q. Burroughs

Maple

yellow and red surround me

a paradise in a world of grey

leaves carpet the ground

instead of the concrete vail

that engulfs the rest of the world

but not here in this place

with the familiar sweet smell that hangs in the air

this is where the animals run free

happy forever in the red and yellow world

of fantasy

- G. Church