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  • Learn More
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    • Apps for Learning
    • Outcomes
    • Press
    • Staff
    • Board
    • GALLERY
  • Virtual Progams
    • Register
  • Public Projects
    • Word Play Way in North Lawndale >
      • Poem
      • Word Play Way Activities
    • Word Play Way in Lincoln Square >
      • Word List
  • Get Involved
    • Calendar
    • Contact
    • Volunteer
    • Internships
    • Board Memberships
    • Jobs
  • Donate
    • GIVE
  • Blog
  • Joyful Learning Grants

Please enjoy these additional works of poetry about Douglas Park

A Garden in Winter
By UCAN Poetry Slam group, Beautiful Mindz, lead by Devon Streeter

A garden in the winter don’t look like much,
Just dirt and gravel and such,
But when spring comes ‘round,
You start planting buds in the ground,
And it may take months for them to root,
But that doesn’t mean the flowers won’t fruit,
It only takes one seed to change the scene,
And this community is still full of hopes and dreams,
Eyes of outsiders only absorb the scary things
Yet this neighborhood blooms as the church bell rings
As the cold and fog of Winter lifts
We come together to plant these gifts
This garden needs more than just sunshine and rain
Throughout the years it has suffered heartache and pain
But if we all come together with helping hands
The garden will grow and life expands
So grab your tools, and let’s build this town anew
For this change in North Lawndale to continue
It has to start with you.

Kids (from Yesteryears)
By Marvin Tate
​

Years ago, we played here,
cried and laughed here. You watched us
as we ran away just to come back to visit,
recapture our childhood innocence. Home,
you can’t find it any and everywhere.
You taught us how to look at the Greystone’s
told us about their mystique and their royalty.
How one-day, new-comers would come
and build new-institutions that welcomed us
by way of punishment. Some of us fled
but some of us stayed loyal and planted
our flower-beds and repurposed our dreams
putting them to use for next generations
to extract their own truisms from dollar store dreams.

Welcome
By Elizabeth Joy Levinson

In this poem, an owl is perched high
in the white sycamore branches,
or it is a flicker, or a flock of goldfinches,
and swallows, their strange shapes, their flash of blue,
they anchor themselves to the wind
and weave around the lagoon,
flutter of feathers and
cacophony of birdsong
they all welcome you,
you who have come to play,
to add your tune.

David L Hoyt Education Foundation
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