Final Pantoum Poems

When we began our time together during the Project Write summer camp, we started with a pantoum poem exercise that asked students to combine overheard conversation fragments with printed texts from the Liberty Bell Center. As we wrapped up our 2-week summer program, students composed a final pantoum poem, this time combining lines from famous readings (including the Declaration of Independence, Abigail Adams' letters to her husband regarding women's rights, Frederick Douglass' speech "What to the slave is the 4th of July?," Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech, literary works by Edgar Allen Poe, and others) with lines from their own writing during their time in Project Write. I think you'll agree that the resulting pantoum poems are pretty amazing!

Gabriela’s Final Pantoum

We will never forget

To love and be loved

We are all human

Beautiful in all ways

To love and be loved

All men and women are created equal

Beautiful in all ways

The pleasure of Almighty God

All men and women are created equal

No turning back

The pleasure of Almighty God

God is forgotten

No turning back

We are all human

God is forgotten

We will never forget

Iris’ Final Pantoum

That quiet that prevails is awful

Each part of this path stays alone

Feelings of disgust into hatred

It continues to be more

Each part of this path stays alone

Turning your world upside down

It continues to be more

The destruction prevails

Turning your world upside down:

Justice demands it

The destruction prevails

But someone will be listening

Justice demands it

Feelings of disgust and betrayal

But someone will be listening

The quiet that prevails is awful

Christo’s Final Pantoum

All men are created equal

Here is a nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to a proposition of human equality

We hold these truths to be self-evident

I am the only one he even wants to hunt

Here is a nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to a proposition of human equality

I have a dream today

I am the only one he even wants to hunt

Let the freedom ring from north through south

I have a dream today

If you do good, know for whom you are doing it

Let the freedom ring from north through south

Beyond this many things lie hidden

If you do good, know for whom you are doing it

We hold these truths to be self-evident

Beyond this many things lie hidden

All men are created equal

Dylan’s Final Pantoum

I doubt myself when you commend yourself so proudly

A man is always seen more highly

I believe it, in its effects, to be cruel and wrong

My mother always told me women sing a stronger song

A man is always seem more highly

We are obligated to go fair and softly

My mother always told me women sing a stronger song

Treated like the lesser for a lifetime too long

We are obligated to go fair and softly

You’re just as tough, my nana taught me

Treated like the lesser for a lifetime too long

We are sick of being told that we’re always wrong

You’re just as tough, my nana taught me

I believe it, in its effects, to be cruel and wrong

We are sick of being told we’re always wrong

I doubt myself when you commend yourself so proudly

Emily’s Final Pantoum

She wanted to be free

At the thoughts of this my blood is made to run cold

The pursuit of happiness

But what if tomorrow is my last?

At the thoughts of this my  blood is made to run cold

You’re you until you’re not

But what if tomorrow is my last?

My original soul seemed to take its flight from my body

You’re you until you’re not

Lead your own legacy

My original soul seemed to take its flight from my body

Daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain

Lead your own legacy

The pursuit of happiness

Daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain

She wanted to be free

Talia’s Final Pantoum

Why am I called upon to speak here to-day?

Woman is yet a slave

Between the body of the prison and the outer wall, there is a spacious garden

No one has heard of me

Woman is yet a slave

I am a woman

No one has heard of me

I was not there.

I am a woman

But we loved with a love that was more than love

I was not there

We are your friends

But we loved with a love that was more than love

Between the body of the prison and the outer wall, there is a spacious garden

We are your friends

Why am I called upon to speak here to-day?