The Mystery Place
-Inspired by "Green-Orange Gradation with Black Half Moon" by Paul Klee

I look up,
I gazed at the gigantic ice
block.
As it drips on my head.
The cold makes me shiver.
I try to push the ice,
It's still. It's there with its plain color.
As the harsh whistling wind,
hits my ear.
I think I am about to get,
out of school. In the bitter cold night,
I breathe
I see my white breath as it evaporates
into the thin air.
I look around there is no one in sight,
to see within a few
hundred miles. I
start to panic. I think why,
me in this cold, bitter,
dark, and damp place.
I sit on the ice as my
bum slips off. I start to float in mid air.
I scream. Why can't I get out
of this mess? I float to the other
side. There is an opening.
A mouse could just fit,
but I got through.
I wake up!
I'm glad that it was
a dream. If you were me you would be scared too.
-Amanda M., 2002

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Vacant Courtyard
-Inspired by "Courtyard of the Scoula di San Giovanni Evangelista" by John Singer Sargent
Dark windows and doors sitting still,
The calm, lonely, inner silence,
Chilling to the bone,
The colors are sick,
So pale they are, No life is here to greet you,
You think you hear the sounds,
Of the other side,
But you remember the eternal void,
It coils all around,
No soul is here to save you,
You try to spare the everlasting time,
Thus you forever are on the outside.
-Kevin M., 2002

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Trees in the Park
-Inspired by "Pear Tree (Detail)" by Gustav Klimt

I see gorgeous yet sad trees, and yet I am the only one happy.
I begin to shiver as rain trickles down upon me.
My only feeling was that I was damp.
I did not seem as happy as I had before.
Now all of a sudden every tree seemed happy,
And yet now I am the only one miserable.
I climbed up a cheerful tree very carefully
I grasped rough bark in my hands as I climb.
As I reached the top I craved liquid.
I sat down and all of a sudden my arm reached behind me and grabbed a ripe pear
I crunched into its sweet bliss and felt as though I was in heaven.
Maybe I am not as sad as I thought I was.
-Rachel V., 2002

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Apology
-Inspired by "Berlin Street Scene (Potsdamer Platz)" by Ernst Ludvig Kirschner

A man and a woman
Looking confused and angry
With each other
Can't think, people are screaming
No, they're talking.
He's very angry, they're stuck in
A circle,
Stuck like in a force field.
The sky darkens with black and blue,
A storm hits, and rain falls
Everyone runs, no, not everyone.
The man and the woman stand in silent
Apology.
-Christopher S ., 2002

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Apples
-Inspired by "Still Life with Apples" by Henri Matisse

Resting on a beautiful glass plate
waiting
Apples ripening and shining
green and orange
Extraordinary bed,
blue table
-Justin H., 2002

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Mysterious Houses
-Inspired by "Gross-Kromsdorf III" by Lyonel Feininger

The houses are
dark and dreary.
They look 3-D, they don't
have much color, and they
are all spooky. I wonder are
they haunted? Perhaps
somebody is inside.
who?
I don't want to
find out.
-Cassandra B., 2002

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The Wagon
-Inspired by "Landscape Wagon No. 14" by Paul Klee

Leaves crunching
under the wheels
Wind blowing
the leaves all around
Gears and wheels turning all around
The wagon moving
through the grass
Smoke fills
the air
-Keith W., 2002

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Grazing Horses
-Inspired by "Grazing Horses" by Franz Marc

I solemnly roam along the thick grass.
Galloping over the rough terrain,
I hear my hooves clicking to a steady beat.
I feel my mane rubbing against my neck.
The water flowing faintly in the distance is music to my ears.
I feel the sun's rays burning my soft skin.
Now I must go to watch the sun set in the west.
-Melissa M., 2002

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Oh, why can't I be . . .
-Inspired by "Untitled" by Max Ernst

That bug that can touch the ground
and that no one is scared of
but instead I am a creature
in the sky, in the yellow sky
Oh why do I have to be a blob in a shield?
all I hear is kids runnin' away from me
all I want is to make peace
why can't I be that bug?
-Patrick O., 2002

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Brandon's Dream
-Inspired by "Glass of Absinthe and Cigarette" by Pablo Picasso

I saw a dog big and fat
It was in a room, the
room was dark.
The leg was colored
with the colors
green and red.
There was drinkable
wax juice.
There was a cigarette
with lots of tar.
The dog was on a car.
I saw the keys
of a piano
all different colors.
I woke up from my dream
and went back to sleep.
-Joe M., 2002

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Composition
-Inspired by "Composition" by Ernst Wilhelm Nay

spread out
shapes overlap
and
collide almost
as if
an invisible
man is
trying to
hide
-Alexa A., 2001

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The Station
-Inspired by "The Gare St. Lazare, Paris: Arrival of a Train" by Claude Monet

As people wait for the loved
ones to get off the train or
the children to leap into
their arms
The train next to them billows
out a shroud of smoke so they
can not see a thing. So they weep
and cry to see their loved ones
get off the arriving train.
-Danny S., 2001

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Storm
-Inspired by "Waterfall with Castle and a Hut" by Jacob van Ruisdael

Heavy puffy clouds are forming,
As the sky looks like it's going to fall.
The waterfall is overflowing,
As the lightning breaks the dam.
-Michael D., 2001

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Trapped
-Inspired by "Self-portrait with Cat" by Ernst Ludwig Kirschner

Staring at nothing into space
I am very sad can you tell by my face
Lonely so lonely my cat at my side
No place to run no place to hide
Alone in my room cheerful as it seems
It's just me and my cat
Sometimes I want to scream!
-Kathleen W., 2001

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The Drinker
-Inspired by "The Drinker" by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

In the café,
every night she sits
at the same corner table,
mysteriously always vacant.
Empty, like the glass
she drinks from will
be.
-Ben W., 2001

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Alone
-Inspired by "Miss May Sarton" by Polly Thayer

I am sitting and looking
alone
in a chair of grass.
At my friend's party
no one cares
to ask me to dance.
They just walk past me
like I'm not there.
Who am I kidding
with my dull personality
who would want to dance and listen to me.
I've been alone
almost all my life
so I don't care
if no one knows
I'm there.
With my cigarette
as my company
I guess I will live
my life alone
and forlorn
for years
to come.
-Samantha D., 2000

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The Spirit of a Bird with Unfinished Business
-Inspired by "Bird Cloud" by Lyonel Feininger

The bird is the color of vanilla ice cream.
It is gliding as pleasantly as a paper airplane.
Its long beak is leading the way.
-Lincoln T., 2000

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Rooms
-Inspired by "Mardi Gras Parade on the Boulevard Monmartre, Paris" by Camille Pissarro

I am surrounded
by buildings.
Buildings, skies, and streets
are creating a room.
The buildings
are creating walls.
The skies
are creating the ceiling.
The streets
are creating the floors.
There's no way out.
I am stuck in the room.
-Christopher C., 2000

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The Loving Singer
-Inspired by "Singer with a Glove" by Edgar Degas

As the lady sings for love
As the lady sings for joy
Is she crying
yes
Is she wishing yes
Fragile, maybe
She says oh baby
She is not a man She is just a lady.
-Devyn M., 2000

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The Last Judgement
-Inspired by "The Last Judgement" by Wassily Kandinsky

An ancient tribe,
Dancing to the music of the beautiful fog horn,
Going round the colors of the fire,
Yellow, red, orange, brown,
Suddenly
dark music begins,
There is something in the darkness,
Black and still,
Something is coming,

Mermaids worry,
Nothing happens,

The music begins,
This time light as a feather,
The mermaids come back,
And feel as though they could float,
Night falls,
The tribe goes home, walking gracefully,

Mermaids sleep,
Deep sleep.
-Casey F., 2000

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