Standing on a stage, looking out to an auditorium filled with their peers, 18 seventh-graders shared personal poems of peer pressure, politics and pain.
Some of the works delivered Friday at McDevitt Middle School's first poetry slam depict aspects of students' daily lives.
Taylor Scafidi, 12, wrote a poem about a troubled relationship.
"It's about a friendship drifting apart," she said. "Me and my friend, we were having trust issues. We didn't know what each other was doing. This made me realize that even though we had issues, we'd still be friends forever."
Other prose were developed simply from emotions.
"I was really stressed out one day and this popped into my head," Mark Golledge, 13, said about his poem. "It talks about how you need to get away sometimes."
Ben O'Brien, 13, said his piece expresses his feeling on war.
"It's what I think is important, like having peace and no war," he said and added that poetry is "a fun way to express your feelings."
English teacher Kaytie Dowcett said the poetry slam developed after her seventh-grade class read Nikki Grimes' "Bronx Masquerade."
"It's a book that takes place in a high school English class and it chronicles a year in high school for 18 students. Each chapter is written from the perspective of the different characters," she said. "Their English teacher starts hosting these open mics and most of the kids reveal themselves through poetry."
She hopes the event becomes an annual tradition.
To celebrate National Poetry Month, students started reading poetry at the beginning of April. Dowcett said some were reluctant at first.
"A lot of the students kind of groaned when I said I was doing a poetry unit. They thought poetry was kind of corny," she said. "I tried to show them a more personal side of poetry. Having access to poetry was one goal. Beyond that, it was also to foster a sense of community in the school and a sense of self-worth in the students."
Brandeis University student Jason Henry hosted the poetry slam. He is involved with a student group on campus that works to infuse poetry and other arts into the community.
Earlier on Friday, Henry worked with McDevitt students in a poetry workshop.
"I think poetry is a very powerful tool for self-expression," he said. "For me personally, it helped me overcome childhood depression. It's a great tool and gift."
Jeff Gilbride can be reached at 781-398-8005 or jgilbrid@cnc.com.
