In English class with Emelio, students learn that poems are about more than structure, form, rhythm, and symbolism. Poems also connect human beings through aspirational ideas and images. One powerful example is the way that a poem written by Langston Hughes in 1941, “I Dream a World,” helped shape the historic “I Have a Dream” speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963. 

Last week, Emelio introduced 7th grade students to NPR’s most recent poetry challenge, Honor MLK By Describing How You Dream a World, which explains the influence of the Langston Hughes poem on Dr. King’s speech. NPR’s resident poet Kwame Alexander is also an author Hyla students know well for his young adult novels written in free verse poetry including The Crossover, Booked, Rebound, and Solo. Alexander, together with NPR’s host, invited participants to write “what we hope for and what we will work for in 2021”. 

Hyla 7th grade students each created a poem starting with the words “I dream a world,” and then shared their best line from their work with Emelio. He arranged all of their lines into one collaborative poem. This final work is titled “Pulling the Ropes of the Future,” and Emelio submitted it to NPR. Stay tuned to find out if Kwame Alexander will include any lines from our 7th grade poets in NPR’s community crowdsourced poem!

Pulling the Ropes of the Future
Assembled by the 7th grade poets of Hyla Middle School on Bainbridge Island, Washington

We dream a world of hope and light
above waves of grassy hills
where nature is treated as family,
not a resource to be exploited.
Where the earth is not ever growing hotter
where water is clean, no pollution, 
when the dioxide of carbon does not annihilate wildlife
and everything will be wild.

We dream a world where you aren’t judged by your skin color
where everyone is equal
where equality is not wished for. 
Where people help each other to achieve hopes and dreams,
nobody will die in vain,
and everyone will be worth something.
Where there are no walls to tear down.
We dream a world where the mist of war can rise 
revealing a haven where the dove can spread its wings once more. 

We dream a world where there is no coronavirus.
Where we don’t have to be afraid to say hello,
where two friends can embrace uninhibited by disease.

We dream of a quieter world  
no gunshots, no video game noises. 
Like time, time is moving around us — 
No yelling of elephant and donkey on TV, 
No saws tearing through trees.

We dream a world with no more poems
(because we are human
that’s not likely) about what we don’t yet have:
with all hands pulling the rope of the future 
anything that might have once seemed imperfect or weird or ugly
is the most beautiful thing we’ve ever seen.