2. Mom, it gives me great joy to present this project to you.
You are the person who has helped me throughout my
entire school years and now I am about to move on in my
life. But I will always appreciate everything you have
done for me and will continue to do for me. You have
taught me so many amazing things that I will never
forget. I love you, I hope you really enjoy this piece of
work I did in honor of you.
3. Home
by Isaiah Danner
Where the green grass grows
There is more than three hundred foes
Fifty states in the world, and big cities in them all
But I ended up here, in New Tripoli, where all things but trucks are
small
I have lived here most of my life, and this is where most of my
memories are
This is where home will always be, under the North star
Love is always in the air
Even if at most times, things here have not seemed fair
Three houses in life, but this will always be number one
until I am at my permanent home, high above the sun
I wouldn’t trade this home for a place in paradise
Even if it is infested with mice
My house is not made of stone
and does not have a golden thrown
But when I hear the ringing of the phone
It will be here, until I’m living with my spouse, at my own home
4. I wrote and chose my poem "Home" to share how the
home I was raised impacted my life and will forever. The
home I currently live in will be where I come home at
breaks of college and where I will always feel most
comfortable. I wrote you this poem to also to show you
that you raised me in a good home, where I have always
been provided with what I needed and always was given
a roof over my head. I appreciate my home a lot, I have
been taught a lot in it and it was really where I earned all
my high school grades. This was my school and thanks
to my your help in our home, I will make it somewhere in
life.
5. Nine Words
by Isaiah Danner
Each blade of grass, has its own mass
All different, because there are hundreds in a yard
The world today is life a thin piece of glass
The glass is bound to break under the weight of a truck,
that is like heavy lard
Live your own life
Keep your very best memories in mind
Don’t cut anything other than food with your knife
Be like a star, that you see with your eye, that is so kind
Take a breath of fresh air, because all things are good
6. My poem "Nine Words" was started by an assignment I
had in creative writing. The assignment was to choose
nine words from a piece I wrote and use those words in
nine lines to make a poem. It was amazing to me how I
could just use nine words to create a beautiful poem that
is all influenced by you, Mom. This was a different type
of poem that I wrote, it was meant to be a positive and
uplifting poem just like you are to me. You always are
positive and helpful and this poem was a testament to
that. I want you to know how much I look up to you for
always having a positive outlook on things, and you are
the reason why I wrote this poem.
7. First Impression of Professor Green
by Isaiah Danner
First day of class, I met Professor Green
My nerves have shot through the roof because this is something I’ve
never done before
but I will not crumble like Charlie Sheen
Even though in this moment, I shake at the core
At first glance, my eyes felt bitter
because he seemed so cocky and rude
but in time he proved to me, that he was as nice as sparkling glitter
and as sweet has ice cream, which happened to be my favorite food
Sixteen weeks have past
so the first semester of the year is over
in the beginning I never thought I would last
but now I feel like I could run a marathon to Dover
From the first impression on day one, to the last day today
I now realize, that Professor Green was a blessing to me beyond what
I did ever pray
8. "The First Impression of Professor Green." is not a poem I
wrote and chose for this project at first, but I felt it really
fit in well. After reading through this poem a couple
times it really stuck out to me how this is a comforting
poem for you to read. All my life you have been my
teacher and professor but now that I am about to go off
to college you won't be able to be right there with
me. So to have the comfort of knowing I have a good
professor was something I felt would really make my you
feel good, and that is why I ended up choosing to use this
poem. I appreciate your help through all my school years
but now that I am moving on I don't want you to worry
about me. I want you to know I have good people
around me that are willing to help me like you have been,
and this is why I dedicate this poem to you.
9. Proud Of Me
by Isaiah Danner
Three hundred sixty five days in a year
every one of those days you’ve been there to cheer
I can count on you to be my biggest fan
even if in my mind, I wasn’t the best of the clan
Your voice sticks out above everyone in the crowd
I like to think it is because I make you proud
That is something I hope you’ll always be
and that Mom, is being proud of me
10. "Proud of me" is the poems that means the most to me
without a doubt. The reason I say this is because there is
one thing that is a goal in my life, and that is to make the
people around me proud of what I do and who I am. One
of the people is you, my Mom; you are one of the people
around me who I want to make proud more than
anything. I want you to be proud of me for where I have
come to this point in my life and where I am about to go
in my future. I have worked hard to make you proud and
I will continue to do that. This is a poem I dedicate to
you with great joy, and I pray that if I don't do anything
right, I at least make you proud.
11. Thanks Mom
by Isaiah Danner
From the first day out of the womb
to today
Life raising me, at times, has been gloom
so I thank you for never giving up on me in any point of
dismay
I could not ask for a better Mother in my life
Because of you and Dad I feel I turned out pretty well
I pray I marry someone like you, because she would be a
great wife
I may not have that though, unless I learn how to spell
I love you Mom
Thank you for everything
you will always be great to me, you are the bomb
even when you give the bucket a ping
12. The motive behind my poem "Thanks Mom" kind of
speaks for itself. I wanted a poem to strictly just thank
you for all you do and show you how much I really
appreciate it all. I did not want this poem to get to
serious so I added humor to it. I don't want this poem to
just touch your heart and help you realize how much you
are appreciated by me but I also want it to make you
smile and laugh. You always have things to say that
make me smile and laugh, even if when may not
necessarily mean it. So I hope you enjoy “Thanks Mom”.
13. Life on my own
by Isaiah Danner
Living at home
What a blessed time it is to me
It opens my eyes and allows me to see
And it gives me time to roam
I learn so much, my brain looks like shiny chrome
I will one day be set free
Into the world, that is 75% water from the clear blue sea
Being at home will always make my stomach feel like lite foam
My shoes are tied and I’ve hit the road
I know this is when I make decisions on my own
Driving down the interstate I play music at a soothing tone
The pressure is such a load
My emotions feel like emotions of a stone
Because from this day on, I feel like I will be alone
14. My poem "Life on My Own" is one of my favorite poems I
wrote. This poem is dedicated to you because it tells you
how much you have blessed me in my time at
home. Because of your great help in my schooling at
home I am ready to move on to the next chapter of my
life and this is why I dedicate this poem to you. You have
been a great influence in my life at home and now that I
am going to graduate I need to start living on my own,
and that is what this poem displays. You, my Mom, have
guided me to this point and because of you I am ready to
go and share what you have blessed me with to the
world.
15. “A child said, What is the grass?”
By Walt Whitman
A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full
hands;
How could I answer the child?. . . .I do not know what it
is any more than he.
I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful
green stuff woven.
Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped,
Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we
may see and remark, and say Whose?
Or I guess the grass is itself a child. . . .the produced babe
of the vegetation
Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow
zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the
same, I receive them the same
And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.
tenderly will I use you curling grass,
It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,
It may be if I had known them I would have loved them;
It may be you are from old people and from women, and
from offspring taken soon out of their mother's laps,
And here you are the mother's laps.
This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old
mothers,
16. Darker than the colorless beards of old men,
Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.
O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues!
And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths
for nothing.
I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men
and women,
And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring
taken soon out of their laps.
What do you think has become of the young and old men?
What do you think has become of the women and
children?
They are alive and well somewhere;
The smallest sprouts show there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait
at the end to arrest it,
And ceased the moment life appeared.
All goes onward and outward. . . .and nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and
luckier.
17. “A child said, What is the grass?”
This poem is one that is not exactly easy to understand or follow, but it does have great meaning.
“How does this have to do with me?” you may ask yourself after reading this poem, but the reason
I chose this was because of the two images it set in my head. These images are just two examples
of what great things you have provided for me.
The first image that came to my mind after reading this was the joy playing outside gave me as a
young child, and still does in fact. Even if I came inside dirty every single day, you would always
allow me to go out and play in the grass. Secondly, I get to image of a beautiful garden, the
garden of offspring and rising of many plants. These were not any normal plants, but plants of me
and my siblings. How you have raised them up just like a thick green grass yard, beautifully cut
with a smell of happiness and peace. You have given that to me and all of your children, I can
speak for us all and say you have raised us well, just like a fertilized great yard. You could have let
each of us be bitter and brown like dead grass, but instead you gave us all we needed and had us
shinning like the most lively grass yard.
Thank you for grooming me like a perfect grass yard, I never deserved it but you gave me that. I
am so thankful for you and how you raised me into a good young man. That is something really
important because that is a quality that I will need the rest of my life. You have taught me how to
raise my own children when they come, without even knowing you have done that for me. I will
give them what you gave me, which is a happiness that can be found no other place but from
loving parents and an amazing Mom.
18. “A boy Juggling A Soccer Ball”
by Christopher Merrill
after practice: right foot
to left foot, stepping forward and back,
to right foot and left foot,
and left foot up to his thigh, holding
it on his thigh as he twists
around in a circle, until it rolls
down the inside of his leg,
like a tickle of sweat, not catching
and tapping on the soft
side of his foot, and juggling
once, twice, three times,
hopping on one foot like a jump-roper
in the gym, now trapping
and holding the ball in midair,
balancing it on the instep
of his weak left foot, stepping forward
and forward and back, then
lifting it overhead until it hangs there;
and squaring off his body,
he keeps the ball aloft with a nudge
of his neck, heading it
from side to side, softer and softer,
19. like a dying refrain,
until the ball, slowing, balances
itself on his hairline,
the hot sun and sweat filling his eyes
as he jiggles this way
and that, then flicking it up gently,
hunching his shoulders
and tilting his head back, he traps it
in the hollow of his neck,
and bending at the waist, sees his shadow,
his dangling T-shirt, the bent
blades of brown grass in summer heat;
and relaxing, the ball slipping
down his back. . .and missing his foot.
He wheels around, he marches
over the ball, as if it were a rock
he stumbled into, and pressing
his left foot against it, he pushes it
against the inside of his right
until it pops into the air, is heeled
over his head--the rainbow!--
and settles on his extended thigh before
rolling over his knee and down
his shin, so he can juggle it again
from his left foot to his right foot
--and right foot to left foot to thigh--
as he wanders, on the last day
of summer, around the empty field.
20. A Boy Juggling a Soccer Ball
Mom, when I read this poem it set an instant image in my head. The image of me juggling a
soccer ball in our yard when I was younger. I would mess up more times than not but I would
always keep going. I chose this poem because it has a lot of similar qualities as my life as your
son. Soccer is and was always something I did in my life and it has always been something you
supported me doing.
This poem has a great amount of repetition in it, “left foot to right foot to left foot” and that is what
it soccer really is. A lot of repetition in order to learn and get better at that game, but the
repetition in this poem does not just bring to mind soccer training. It makes me think of you, and
how the repletion of taking me to training, games, or to the hospital after injuries. That was
something you never had to do but you chose to because it was what I wanted to do and you
wanted me happy. This is why I chose this poem and even though it out front does not seem like
something that could compare to you, it really is. It sets the picture of my life with soccer and you
as my great Mother.
Thank you for all you do for me when it comes to anything in life, but right now, when it comes to
soccer. If it was not for your willingness to support me and take me places, I would not be where I
am today. I appreciated it all and I will every day. You are always going to be one of my biggest
fans in my eyes because of your constant repetition when it comes to making me happy. You are
the best Mom, and I could never thank you enough for your constant love.
21. “Lullaby in Blue”
by Betsy Sholl
The child takes her first journey
through the inner blue world of her mother's body,
blue veins, blue eyes, frail petal lids.
Beyond that unborn brackish world so deep
it will be felt forever as longing, a dream
of blue notes plucked from memory's guitar,
the wind blows indigo shadows under streetlights,
clouds crowd the moon and bear down on the limbs
of a blue spruce. The child's head appears—
midnight pond, weedy and glistening—
draws back, reluctant to leave that first home.
Blue catch in the mother's throat,
ferocious bruise of a growl, and out slides
the iridescent body—fish-slippery
in his father's hands, plucked from water
into such thin densities of air,
his arms and tiny hands stutter and flail,
till he places him on her mother's body,
then cuts the smoky cord, releasing him
into this world, its cold harbor below
where a blue caul of shrink-wrap covers
22. each boat gestating on the winter shore.
Child, the world comes in twos, above and below,
visible and unseen. Inside your mother's croon
there's the hum of an old man tapping his foot
on a porch floor, his instrument made from one
string nailed to a wall, as if anything
can be turned into song, always what is
and what is longed for. Against the window
the electric blue of cop lights signals
somebody's bad news, and a lone man walks
through the street, his guitar sealed in dark plush.
Child, from this world now you will draw your breath
and let out your moth flutter of blue sighs.
Now your mother will listen for each one,
alert enough to hear snow starting to flake
from the sky, bay water beginning to freeze.
Sleep now, little shadow, as your first world
still flickers across your face, that other side
where all was given and nothing desired.
Soon enough you'll want milk, want faces, hands,
heartbeats and voices singing in your ear.
Soon the world will amaze you, and you
will give back its bird-warble, its dove call,
singing that blue note which deepens the song,
that longing for what no one can recall,
your small night cry roused from the wholeness
you carry into this broken world.
23. Lullaby in Blue
The poem “Lullaby in Blue” is a really nice piece of work in my mind. There are so many images
that come to mind as you read through it and understand what is taking place. You gave birth to
me eighteen years ago, and just like any other great Mother, you still remember the day and how
everything happened. It was not exactly a fast labor, I know that, but hey, when have I ever made
life easy for you, right?
In all seriousness, for you to be able to go through such a hard labor and never regret it or wish it
didn’t happen, means a lot to me. I know in my younger days I was not the healthiest young man,
but you and Dad were right there the entire time with me. This poem has so many great images,
like the cutting of the umbilical cord, to having the Father place the child on the Mothers chest. It
makes me wonder how that all went down when I was born. This poem also talks about bringing a
child into the broken world and the amazement the child will get from it every day. It is no doubt
that we live in a broken world, but I can honestly say, that because of you Mom, this world has
treated me well. I have learned how to handle things from the time I was younger till this very
day, and that is all from you and Dad.
Because of that, this world has been amazement to me. I am so happy where life has taken our
family and I, we never have a dull moment, but that’s just how the Danner’s are. I appreciate how
you have raised me since the day I was born and every single day to follow. This world and life has
been a lullaby in blue, thanks to you.
24. “A Birthday”
by Christina Rossetti
My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these,
Because my love is come to me.
Raise me a daïs of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.
25. A Birthday
Mom, the poem “A Birthday” I picked because you have been there every on one of my birthdays.
You have always done your very best to make my birthday the best it could be. From the when I
first turned one to my last birthday of becoming an adult at the age of eighteen. I will always
remember my birthday because of you never being able to find the right amount of candles; that
just makes me smile to think about it.
This poem talks about being over joyed when hearing people sing “happy birthday” to them, and it
sounding like the beautiful sound of birds chirping. You always made sure we have at least family
over to spend time with me and sing to me on my special day. Family will always come first to me,
and that is why having them over always meant more than having a friend over. This poem also
talks about the pleasure of receiving the perfect gifts that we all ask for on our birthdays. We
always know the gift from our parents is going to be the best gift, and we never want to wait to
open that big behemoth of a gift. Now that I am older I never want anything but family time and a
nice get together to relax and just shoot the breeze. The reason for this is because you have
already given me the greatest gift of all, and that is your love.
Thank you so much for all the wonderful gifts you have given me in the past. And thank you for all
the blessed parties you have thrown for me in order to make my day the best it could be. Now
that I am older all I want is your love and physical presents. Because ultimately, you are the best
gift I could ever want or need.
26. “South”
by Jack Gilbert
In the small towns along the river
nothing happens day after long day.
Summer weeks stalled forever,
and long marriages always the same.
Lives with only emergencies, births,
and fishing for excitement. Then a ship
comes out of the mist. Or comes around
the bend carefully one morning
in the rain, past the pines and shrubs.
Arrives on a hot fragrant night,
grandly, all lit up. Gone two days
later, leaving fury in its wake.
27. South
The poem “South” is very different from all the others. It is the shortest poem I picked for you in
this project, but by reading through it many times, it really has a great deal of meaning. This
meaning really relates to you and our family, we are always on the go, always getting hurt, I have
four great siblings, so there has been birth, and we all love to fish. As you can see, just by pulling
those couple of things out of the poem, it puts our family in to perspective pretty well.
This is the Danner’s, simple as that. You and Dad blessed our family with three outgoing boys who
are always doing things to get hurt, and one beautiful girl, who gets hurt also. And we can all day
that whenever we would come to you with a cut or a bump you would help us wrap it up and get us
on our way again. I love all of my siblings that you brought into my life; I would not trade them for
anything in the world. Without them we would just not be the Danner’s. We all love the outdoors
and getting our fingers dirty and fishing is something that does that very well. It is relaxing, well
at least for most of us, and it is a joy to our whole family when anyone catches a fish. It is the
Danner way to always be going, it is what we do. It is all a great blessing though and in the end
when we finally end up at home together, we are one big happy family who enjoys each other’s
time together.
You and Dad have made this family wonderful, even though I am going off to start my life on my
own soon, this will always be my great family. Nothing with change that and nothing will change
the love I have for you all. Thank you for always giving us the best Mom, and always putting up
with the things we all do. I love you.
28. Work Cited Page
Poems used in presentation:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15816
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15951
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20586
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19440
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22167
