Valentine's Day Poetry

I'm celebrating my Valentine's Day by reading and grading a spattering of Japanese haikus, written by the sophomore World History class of Our Lady of Mercy. I'm laughing too hard not to share.

Some of them just wrote the first thing that came to mind:

I am so hungry;
My stomach is so empty;
I'm gonna faint soon.

Local foods are good.
People of Pohnpei love them,
because they are free.

We like to hang out,
but we have to go to school.
We're late already!

When I have homework,
I get excited for it,
and I try my best.


Some of them misunderstood, and just wrote vocabulary words and (somewhat confused) facts from our lesson, and may need to work on their coherency of thought:

Civilization.
The world began so long ago.
Evaporation.

In the Middle Age,
many Japanese was bad.
But many food then.


Some of them really grasped the original purpose of haikus, and praised nature in their poetry:

As the sun comes up,
It gives the world a new day
that shines up my way.


The wind blows at night;
It blows fresh, cool air on me.
I can feel the wind.


Some dug a little deeper:

I have remix blood.
I live in criminal town;
It's called Koyotai.

Love me like a rose,
and break me like a mirror,
But, still - I'll love you.


And one really won my heart (despite the blatant brown-nosing), especially on Valentine's Day:

I love Ms. Cocco.
We are best friends forever,
me and Ms. Cocco.