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I was going to put this in the poetry thread, but I thought that it wouldn’t hurt to have a separate thread. I teach 3rd grade in a high poverty urban area. In my classroom I teach the kids the craft of poetry, even though it is not a part of our curriculum. I feel it’s an important avenue for them to express their views and to realize how powerful they can be with their words. This allows even the lowest achieving students to realize success because the focus is on expression rather than mechanics or correct grammar. One of the experiments I started doing was to play them music by Explosions In The Sky while they were writing. I’d give them the title and let them use the music to influence their writing. Through the years I have collected some good ones and decided to make an anthology of these titles to give to the band. This is the email I got from them: Hey there, This is Chris, the drummer from Explosions in the Sky. Sorry it's taken so long to send you a message, but we just got back from tour recently and there are always a million things to catch up on once we're home. Anyway, I just wanted to thank for giving us the copy of The Season of the Waterfall. We all read the poems and were deeply moved. Not even sure what to say other than that i'm glad that there are people like you helping out and doing things like this. Reading them was not easy. They were beautiful but also incredibly heartbreaking. If there is some way for us to help out, please let me know. Even if its something dumb like sending you a bunch of CDs or something to give to your class. I'm not really sure 3rd and 4th graders would have any interest in meandering, long winded instrumental rock music, but I can't really think of anything else. A lot of people have given us stuff over the years but nothing has compared to this collection of poems. Not even close. Thank you. Sincerely, Chris explosions in the sky Here are some of the poems. Please keep in mind that I teach them the craft, give them the tools, but this is 100% their writing. I wish I could take credit for what they write, even sometimes steal some of the lines for my own lyrics. I’ve had mothers and fathers in tears as they read their child’s poems. It amazes me every time I read a new one. These are all using titles from EITS songs. The Birth and Death of the Day Death is in the sky and Light is in the ground. When people say be gone death death stays. It never went and now it disappeared like fallen warriors. Light has come back to the sky. -Jorge Our Last Days As Children We used to go to the park together then it was time to grow up. You are a fashion designer and I am a doctor. We get off work at 3:00 and see each other at the buffet and eat and talk about when we were little and remember times like when we ate chocolate mint ice cream on Saturdays, when we played with each other, when we were friends forever when we played Bratz and you used to be Sasha and I would be Cloe, when we went to each other’s houses and watched Disney movies, When we used to talk about ourselves and what colors we liked. You liked red and I liked pink. When we played dodgeball and we would be on the same team and we would run or jump so we wouldn’t get out, but we would catch the ball and get other people out, when we painted each other’s nails, when we colored each other’s drawings. when we played soccer and we would win, during recess we would play four square and you would be in the A square and I would be in B. After we talk we start to cry. I miss those things. -Lilibeth The Only Moment We Were Alone I feel dead dead like nothing People just pass by like Nothing Ghosts being nothing Laying down being a jerk Biting ghosts one at a time Water from God biting water forever. -Juan

HI, =) 12" The Appleseed Cast - Two Conversations (Splatter) [#151/500] Baroness - Yellow & Green (Black) Bing Crosby - Merry Christmas Caspian - Live at Old South Church (Test Press) [#5/10] Caspian - The Four Trees (tour edition) /300 Caspian - The Four Trees (half pilsner/half white) [/500] Cold World - Dedicated to Babies Who Came Feet First (Black) Eve 6 - Speak in Code (Red) [/1000 Explosions in the Sky - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care (Olive/Black) Explosions in the Sky - All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone (Black) Explosions in the Sky - The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place (Black) Explosions in the Sky - Friday Night Lights Soundtrack [/2000] Fleetwood Mac - Rumours Gifts From Enola - Loyal Eyes Betrayed the Mind (grey) [/250] Hinder - Take It To The Limit In This Moment - The Dream (Blue) Jimmy Eat World - Invented Jimmy Eat World - Static Prevails (1st press) Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American (2011 Deluxe Edition) (Black) [#1079/2000] Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American (2011 Deluxe Edition) (Special Colored Vinyl) [#114/500] Maroon 5 - Overexposed Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will Owl City - The Midsummer Station (Aqua) Paramore -Brand New Eyes [/2500] The Summer Pledge -Vessels [433/500] Taking Back Sunday - Where You Want To Be (Blue) [/2545] Taking Back Sunday - Where You Want To Be (Blue) [1st Press] Taking Back Sunday - Tell All Your Friends (Black) [/1100] 7" Paramore - Brick by Boring Brick comment,tell me what you think Thanks