Power of Poetry

Between The Lines by Nikki Grimes

Welcome to Mr. Ward's classroom, where poetry is studied, composed, celebrated, and performed. Between the Lines paints poignant portraits of students who are members of this unique class. With the encouragement of a caring teacher, these high schoolers endeavor to understand and express themselves through verse.

Through the eyes of Darrian Lopez, an aspiring journalist of Puerto Rican heritage, readers follow the lives and dreams of this diverse group of teens. Grimes uses newspaper headlines written by Lopez and personal narratives, interspersed with student-created poetry to tell the individual and collective stories of these promising poets.  The volume concludes with a school-wide poetry slam. Many of the stories are painful. While the portrayals are realistic, the finale affirms the value of each individual and offers hope.

We throw words on the wind,
poems, stories.
We hope they rise
like bubbles,
then hitch a ride
on a cool cloud
or cold current
and return to earth
as nourishing raindrops
​or fragile snowflakes,

Even the invisible
occupy a certain space.
Me? I can't seem
to find a single place
it be seen.
​To be heard.

Numb, I sit on the edge
of the bed
Mami y Papi share.
Shared.
I feel light as the ghost
my mother has become.
Her picture
on the bedside table
looks blurry until
​I wipe my eyes.

Don't tell me 
my beautiful Black mind
is a terrible thing to waste
if you're gonna let the world
toss it aside.
Please!
Say there's a way out,
a way up.

"Troubled kid"
tells you exactly nothing
about the trouble
my pops has seen
or Moms
​or me.

Every breath I take
is dedicated to pressing
back the walls,
forcing them to move
by the sheer strength
​of my stubborness.

It's time for me
to tell the mixed-up girl
in the mirror that,
as a matter of fact,
she's more than enough.
​She's plenty.

Review and poetry excerpts from an uncorrected text.