Middle School tanka

The Earth starts to tremble,
Students’ eyes are wide -fear filled
Will it ever stop?
But above Earth’s mighty roar,.
The victims’ faint cries are heard.
    -Alexandria Tso

Earthquake, tsunami
Houses destroyed and full of mud
Everything is gone
Piles and piles of cars
Waiting, just waiting.
    -Georgia LaMacchia

What all their eyes see
are the stories and the lost.
But do they really know
how much the shattered glass cuts,
how much the water can take?
    -Amanda LaBarge

Middle School tanka

Standing on the roof
of a house flowing nowhere
the waves push the house
waiting for sight of human
alone not knowing what to do...
    -Brian Arai

Their time is up
Their hopes and dreams shattered
Like the broken glass
On the shores of the dead beach
home of the great tsunami
    -Katrina Deleranzo

Who know that a wave,
Was a chain of disasters,
Linking to death, pain,
Waves not only of water,
But ones of death and sorrow
    -William S.

Middle School tanka

Faces echoed back
in waves of experience.
Light reflected off.
transparent and opaque
forced to trust in the future.

-Sanna Chang

I suffer and wait.
My concrete tomb clutches me.
Relentlessly so.
but I will not die today.
I will not die today.
    -Dan Budge

How can you forget?
The lost; unclaimed; the fallen.
Daylight setting on
the once flourishing nation
now a crumbling foundation.
    -Amanda LaBarge

Middle School tanka

Dimly lit pictures
Unknown companions search
for lost images
Silent faces unspeaking
ink and clothing
faded white.
    -Kotta Katsuda

The screaming people
As the ground starts to shiver
From our ice cold fear
The ocean begins to weep
The tsunami is coming.
    -Sho Hatakeyama

Waka left by men
The messengers of the day
Of the Tsunami
Of the destructive earthquake
Left for next generations
    -Shaw Hagiwara

Middle School Tanka

Spoken words can not
convey sadness beyond the
measure of soft tears
perhaps only words crafted
by grief-stricken children will
    -Christi Throbecke







Tankas of sadness,
placed on top of music stands.
The song of tankas
singing through the air for a
reminder of all events.
    -Rachael Fuchs


Friends that I have lost
Due to fear of exposure
are nothing compared
to the loss of families
still searching for their loved ones
    -Allie Rogers

Writing Workshop 1

From Writing Workshop 1

Eleventh of March,
Friday, the end of the week,
Calm and peaceful day -
Then the tragedy happened;
The ground started to shake hard.

What was going on?
Shake shake shake it wouldn't stop -
It was an earthquake!
Shock and fear showed in the air -
Everyone ducked under a table.

It stopped, finally.
It was over. It was done.
People rushed around,
Checked if everyone was okay,
But it wasn’t over. No, no.

Tsunami, oh no.
Disaster up north, oh no!

Justin Novak

Writing Workshop 1

From Writing Workshop I

3/11/11 Poetry

Students sit waiting.
Waiting for an announcement.
Wanting Information
People shaking with extreme fear.
When will the trembling stop?

Kate Helwick