Selected Poems and Literary Works

Elementary Reading Level

See High School Reading Level

 
 

Drum Ra Pum

Alvaro Rogelio Gómez Estrada

Guatemala

Drum pa rum pum pum
Drum pa rum pum pum
The school children
will march

The morning begins
dressed in satin,
she will rejoice when she hears
the drums ra pum
Pa rum pum pum
Pa rum pum pum

Continue reading in English and Spanish.

 

 

Names

Claudia Lars

El Salvador

Sun is the name
I give the morning…
What a light show!
True radiance!

And to the pretty bird
I give a name
that nobody guesses
flower Angel  

Continue reading in English and Spanish.

 

 

Nando the Frog

Oscar de León Palacios

Guatemala

Nando the frog
in his pond,
he passes the night
singing, singing.

But in my vegetable garden
he works alongside me
like a good friend
helping me out.

Continue reading in English and Spanish.

 

 

The Late Blooming Oak

José Coronel Urtecho

Nicaragua

A stunted oak without greenery
that dried yesterday appearing to be,
Son of the desert, Páramo of the drought,
the next victim of the woodcutter,

She was like a girl without a womb
which in her barenness was consumed,
by the night’s rain, oh what happiness!
She has dawned this morning in bloom.

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Sing Little Girl

Marilena Lopez

Guatemala

Sing, little girl,
with your child’s voice,
the birds sing
their best notes
upon hearing your song,
and the willow branches softly sway
back and forth, slowly.

Sing, my child,
the song that you want,
upon hearing your song,
the world becomes more beautiful.

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Song of the Cloud

Adrián Ramírez Flores

Guatemala

A white cloud,
cloud of cotton,
with a great ache,
a great heartache.

Because over there in the forest
a poor flower,
was dying
from the heat.

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A Stick Horse

Oscar de Leon Palacios

Guatemala

A stick horse
I made myself,
with an old broom
that I found.

Happily
I rode him all day
And I don’t have to give him
salt nor corn.

Continue reading in English and Spanish. 


 

I Am You Or You Are Me / In Lak'ech

By Luis Valdez

United States

You are my other me.
If I do harm to you,
I do harm to myself.
If I love and respect you,
I love and respect myself.

Continue reading in English and Spanish.


Thank you, Elena Young and Damian Popkin for translation.