Elementary students from three Liberty City schools spent the last two months meeting once a week to write poetry, and some of it has ended up in some unusual places. Like gas stations. And buses. “Poetry asks kids to come up with innovative ideas. It encourages them to think outside the box instead of asking them to zero in on a definition or answer to a test question,” said Laurel Nakanishi, teacher and coordinator of the program that added poetry to the kids’ curriculum. The Sunroom Poetry program started at Orchard Villa Elementary in Liberty City. It is now part of the curriculum for a little more than 100 third and fourth graders in the neighborhood. Nine-year-old Otis Guyton became a first-time poetry student this spring. “My favorite part of the class is when we get to write the [poems] and talk about our feelings and talk about the things we like about our neighborhood,” said Guyton. Guyton attends Poinciana Park Elementary . He and nine other third graders recently learned
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