APRIL 2010 – Westside Newspaper
Dottie Kamilos, WMS Media Specialist and Librarian, is collaborating with English teachers to create an exciting poetry agenda for National Poetry Month. Inviting students and staff to write, record, and share their poems, she is incorporating new and fun ways for them to share their creations.

At the beginning of the school year, Kamilos introduced The Poet Tree, a big twisted branch potted in rocks for students to hang their poems, songs, and raps on to display. While there was little interest at first, students are now taking notice. “I didn’t know how it would turn out. But the English teachers have a love of poetry and can pull it out of the students, so I wanted to join them in sparking more interest,” remarked Kamilos.

One student who loves poetry is Senior Zach Bailey. At first, poetry and raps were an outlet while going through tough situations, but he can now see the joy in displaying his work. “For a long time I didn’t talk to anyone about how I felt. The only person I’d talk to was my notebook and it always listened. But after putting my work on The Poet Tree, I realized other people liked it and I could make them smile.”

And that is the expression on Kamilos’ face when thinking of students like Bailey, and the potential that is shining through their work, “It is fun to see how the kids are responding, and they are remarkably good. I’m blown away by the heart they put into it, how deep they get.”

With the interest in poetry growing, Kamilos applied for The Connie Hull Mini-Grant in November with the iPoetry Proposal. In December, she was awarded the grant along with five others.

Now she is implementing her project. After purchasing four iPod Shuffles, Kamilos is now recording student work and creating a playlist with a variety of poetry forms to put on them. They will then be available for students to check out, allowing them to not only read the poetry of their fellow classmates on The Poet Tree, but to hear the work as well.

Other activities happening during Poetry Month include Poem in Your Pocket Day, Poetry Out Loud (open mic to read poems), and creating a compilation of the students’ poems in a bound book to display in the library.

Western Mennonite School is located seven miles north of West Salem and equips students for a life of faith and learning. Offering middle school and high school, the school provides enrichment opportunities for all students, such as music, drama, and athletics. Clubs and organizations are also offered and encouraged. For more information about WMS go to www.westernmennoniteschool.org or call 503-363-2000.

UNTITLED
By Zach Bailey

The alarm clock sounds as the sun beams through the square glass to the side of me,
Tempted to press that large rectangular button called snooze but I refuse to lose any daylight that God has provided me,
Due to the fact that my mind is a train,
And I’ve never worked on a railroad but I have tracks to lay,
So I pack away,
And head to a small room filled with all tunes that are smothered by words, nouns and verbs,
That to one mind can sound absurd but to another it can calm the nerves,
So I write down a verse, in a poetic rhyme and rhythm, that my mind has given,
My pen as the predator and my pad is the victim,
Some say I’m sick and if music is it then I’ve caught all the symptoms,
As the instruments pound through the speakers, I either ignite the ether or I rewrite what the inside of these eyes and my mind features,
Once my satisfaction is complete,
I proceed to make use of my feet towards the east side of the room in the corner,
There stands a device, I nicknamed The Mic, a friend that listens each night, and though he can’t speak or breathe he seems to be able to seek and see the peace and let me know every thing’s goin’ to be right.
Drift in to a bliss in my mind since now that’s done,
My life is like a mixtape and this was track one.