The Hardest Block

What’s the hardest block of all?

One that will probably cause your downfall?

A block of metal, a block of cheese,

A block of century-old pine trees?

A stumbling block--that’s challenging!

It’s your hurdle, that hard-to-overcome thing.

But since, if you try, you can make your path clear,

A stumbling block is not much to fear.

Or those blocks you must walk to get to school?

They make your feet hurt--SO not cool!

But hey, exercise is truly sublime!

You’re healthy and have a longer lifetime.

Aha! Writer’s block is hard. You see,

It happens in both prose and poetry.

You can’t write a thing! You’re simply struck dumb.

Your mind is blank, it feels a bit numb.

So the hardest block of all must be

Writer’s block! For you’ll pay many a fee,

Boredom! Helplessness! Wasted time!

Just because you can’t write or rhyme…

OH NO! I’ve got writer’s block!

By Cynthia, age 12, Tallahassee, FL

Thaumaturgic Looking Glass

Through centuries will legend pass

The Thaumaturgic Looking Glass

For engrained in its amalgam core

Is the tale of magic, lies, and lore

Long ago the glass was made

Its maker heartlessly betrayed

The promised price was never paid

So in the glass a curse was laid

Those who look see not their face

Reflected in the polished space

But a window to their hearts desire

Blink three times, it shall transpire

The wealthy man who seized the mirror

Looked closely as to see it clearer

He blinked three times, wished for a wife

She came, took his money, and claimed his life

The wife looked in the glass with greed

And saw the world’s most handsome steed

She loved that horse until one day

It broke her heart and ran away

Years and years the curse endured

Damaging what can’t be cured

Lives were claimed and hearts were torn

Stabbed by this unlikely thorn

Until one day a selfish lad

Did what he thought was very bad

Gave the mirror to a sightless gent

Knowing not the curse it rent

The man held the mirror in rejection

Wishing he’d see his reflection

When suddenly the man could see

His sadness vanished instantly

The blind man broke the mirror’s spell

It was normal mirror as all can tell

And so he hung it on his wall

A harmless mirror that was all

By Hayley, 16, GA

Have You Ever Touched a Star?

Have you ever touched a star?

I did once and it burned

My fingertips

Like a Southwestern summer

And I couldn’t hold on

Any longer.

Alice, 16, MD

The Useful Soap

So much depends upon

a bar of wintery white soap

flooded with watery suds

beside its best friend, the sink.

Samantha, 11, NJ

Published in the Fall 2011 issue of CK

Collection