Sometimes you get a collection, all at once, from a class that shows how rich and diverse we are. These poems from Brett Smith’s class in Susquehanna Township High School is just such a collection Thank you all!

I Am From

By Hayden Miller

I am from falling in love with cars from little toy Hot wheels

To wanting to be a mechanic 

I am from camping for many years

To making many friends

I am from swimming in a cool dirty creek in the blistering hot sun

To going back to the camper for my fishing tackle

I am from fishing with my Top-Tops 

To learning life lessons from him

I am from Sunday dinner at my grandparents’ house

To watching Sunday night football

I am from a man named Willy with his business 

To getting taught about cars

I am from following in my fathers’ footsteps 

To learning about working hard in life

I am from going to the beach with my Grandparents

To learning what family is all about

I am from baking cookies with my mom and Mammy

To making great laughs and memories

I am from camping in 1-foot-deep mud for Boy Scouts

To learning about how hard life can be

I am from hanging out with my sister everyday

To her moving out, missing her

I am from small, faint memories of my great-grandparents 

To never seeing them again

This is where I’m from

Saba Ali

Pennsylvania U.S.A

I am from uno, charades, and hide and seek

I’m from the mess with flour everywhere

I am from good cooks

I am from a higher power

I am from prayer hands

I am from same traditions each holiday but different faces each year

I’m from my journeys around the world

I am from good natured people

I am from going with life’s rich tapestry

I am from 10 A.M. Caillou

I am from happy fairy tale stories

I am from jeopardy marathons

I am from the generation of iPhones

I am the official teenager growing a little wiser

I am from lessons and reflections  

I am from late night talks

I am from whispering so we won’t get caught

I am from the itchy plant of poison ivy, the dirtiness of the planting soil

I am from the trees, the tulips

I am from the bubbles in the bath

I am from the photo albums stored away

I am from medical masks 

I am from the trees and freedom to the small room I call home

I am from isolation 

I am from these moments

I Am From by Selena Lukens

I am from creaky floor and leaky spouts. 

I am from the screams and shouts with other kids inside the house. 

I am from the long car rides to the swimming place. 

I am from the salty smells and late walks till the sun goes down. 

I am from a loving family even more when someone leaves.

I am from the crowded halls where people yell and run for fun. 

I am from the bad vison test where I get my glasses that are such a pest.

I am from the chaotic rooms where you get in trouble for the bad things you say. 

I am from the campfires under the stars where I ride horses and swim.

I am from the choir songs I sing in the morning. 

I am from the hot summer days swinging and sliding till the day would fade. 

I am from the crazy rides all day and night.

I am from the tasty foods and holiday cheer.

I am from the baby crying till my ears would cry to his first word it was a beautiful sight.

I am from helping them learn to read and write.

I am from the cabins and the bunk bed fun 

I am from the friends I made the ones who leave and the ones who stay.

I am from the guys I knew the ones that were good and bad ones too.

I am from the big steep hill where I smell the creek where I stick my feet.

I am from doing her hair to her screaming in my ear to cartoon fun. 

I am from the tears I shed from when she left to live her life away from mine. 

I am from a little place I call my own where I keep my toys and games where I sit and dream. 

I am older and still insecure I am from the lonely, closed doors.

I am from the test I just took and the first time I drive is more than scary. 

I am from the people I know everyone even the ones that I barely see.

I Am From by Isis Carrington

I come from an island in the Caribbean

Known for African and Indian cultures

And their large and famous carnivals.

I come from there is a beach everyone goes to

Some swimming, enjoying the sun

Or even relaxing in the sand

I come from crystal clear water

You can see the fish without even being in the water

I come from waterfalls just as pretty as the Niagara Falls

Watching people jump down from the mountain

Enjoying the water, as a way to escape their troubles

I sit and observe hoping one day I will be doing the same as them

I come from the hottest of weather I’ve ever had to deal with

The island so close to the equator

I come from fresh food like fruit and vegetables

Fresh fish from the ocean to fresh fish in the market

I come from playing outside with friends until the streetlights turned off

I come from neighbors knowing everything about everyone

Nice neighbors, rude ones, the neighbors who don’t really care

I come from an island call Trinidad

The island where I grew up and learned everything I know

I Am From

Simon Siwakoti

Where In my home 

I am from my loving parent.

From the black and white books and story’s that come with it. 

I am from the house on the end of the street.

That look big on the outside but is small from within. 

I am from the trampoline in the side that bring so much joy. 

Joy that no one can have. 

I am from a house that had garden full of fruits and vegetables.

A House that is surrounded by fences.

I am from a house with fence so no animal might steal my food. 

The house next to a forest that looks terrifying at nighttime.

Seeing the trees getting moved by the wind. 

the entrance to the basement that no one open dirty and old.

I am from a house that has a finish basement.  

That look empty like it just got done. 

You could see the color popping off the wall.

from a house with 2 different console that I don’t that much.

with so many games to much can’t decide.

I am from a house with big tv.

I like to watch all day and all night. 

All the thing I wanted watch can be watched from phone to my laptop 

I have book that I like laying around.

First the first book I got to the book one I just bought.

I am from a house with one sibling. 

That is annoying. 

Where I am from.  

 

I Am From by Akima Merritt

I am from darkened skies,

ones that blow cold, snowy air through the illuminated streets.

I am from blood,

when it threatens to pierce through the skin and left hues of red and blue assorted over pale skin.

I am from backyards that housed ‘cat-rats’ and dead birds.

I am from tan walls that chime with melodies of the damned,

containing and trapping young pleas inside while he watches from above.

I am from tiny hands,

baby fists,

that held onto my blue jeans when I gathered them from the bittersweet joys of school.

I am from smothering hands that don’t know to tame themselves,

and the cruel films my mind plays on repeat instead of allowing rest.

I am from the pains in pits of your stomach

that causes flames to envelope your entire being.

I am from the cold that hugging,

and holding,

drives into wounded flesh.

I am a pretty boy,

but in the way a pretty girl is pretty only when

her pretty pretty face is ruined.

I am a boy in a body that protests against me,

causing tears and pain with every pretty little word that rolls off of your tongues.

I want to be a mom.

I will be a mom.

A mom with kids who don’t feel as if

my emotions

are their responsibility.

Kids who can feel free to read whatever they like

sing whatever they like

listen to whatever they like

like whoever they like.

Kids who will be able to be whoever they like.

When the crimson finally washes out of the white fabric,

when the bodies in the walls finally decompose,

my children will run free with joyous child-like lives.

They will not be from the rotting corpses that one spends its entire life burying.

My Past

Norah Baatote

I am from generations

of outsiders from

foreign lands

I am from mosque’s,

Qurans, and good food

I am from “do this”

and “we shouldn’t do this”

or “good Muslim girls 

don’t do that”

I am from culture,

religion, and prayers

chickens, lambs, ducks

and pumpkins

I am from the

South and North

the hot and the

extremely hot

I am from people

of everywhere

my fathers’ experiences and 

stories of his

childhood life

I am from traveling, beaches,

and markets

riding horses and donkey’s