By Devon Cormier
Staff Writer

YOUNG WORDSMITHS – Chantal Roy (left) and Caitlyn Boutin, both fifth-graders at New Boston Central School, show off the art they modeled their poems after for the artist-in-residence program taught by Rodger Martin. (Devon Cormier Photo)

Parents of New Boston Central School fifth-graders spent a recent evening at a dinner theater in the school gym. The lights were dim and music echoed softly off the walls, marked by the sweet voices of children reciting poetry. Famous paintings cast striking colors across the cafeteria tables and folded-up bleachers. The event was the culmi- nation of a week with artist-in-resi- dence Rodger Martin.

Caitlyn Boutin and Chantal Roy were two participants in the event. They said they were very excited to share their hard work with their fam- ily and friends, but a little nervous, too. Art teacher Judy Keefe said this is the third year the fifth-graders have done a program with Martin, and the third year that each and every child has opted to perform in front of an audience.

“They start out the first day not knowing what to expect,” said Keefe. “But to see this transforma- tion – they just do a wonderful job.”

Martin began the program by ask- ing the children to choose a painting out of hundreds of transparencies he had compiled. This, in fact, is the part Boutin and Roy said was undoubtedly the hardest. The choic- es were many but the students even- tually picked the painting that would become their backdrop for the Friday night performance.

After the pictures had been cho- sen, Martin worked with the chil- dren to write poetry about the pic- tures. This part, the girls said, wasn’t too hard. With Martin’s direction and a fifth-graders propensity for vivid imagination, the poetry was a piece of cake.

In fact, Roy suspected that the week wouldn’t be much fun because she didn’t much enjoy poetry, but she was pleasantly surprised at the process. The artist-in-residence transformed her view entirely.

“I didn’t think it would be fun at first but it turned out to be really fun,” said Roy.

Roy may even write poems for a series of calendar pictures for the school newspaper.

“Being able to work with a famous poet was good because not a lot of kids have that expe- rience,” said Roy.

Boutin said Martin’s instruc- tion in the art of poetry was amazing and easy to follow. He taught the students to write their thoughts and feelings without using descriptive words and phrases.

The children are looking for- ward to their next artist in resi- dence, when they will combine the art of dancing with a science lesson on energy.

The poems written by Boutin and Roy follow.

Autumn Leaves
by Caitlyn Boutin
Painting: "Autumn Leaves" by Georgia O’Keefe

The leaves
As pink
As an eraser
On a pencil,
As red,
As fire,
And as orange and yellow
As a pumpkin,
And cheese.
Smell
The fresh air
Of Autumn.
The breeze
Brushes past
The leaves.
The crunch, crunch
Of the leaves
When dogs step on them.
The leaves
Brushing
Past me.
Now it’s winter,
Big piles of leaves,
Change
To big piles of snow.
Where’s Autumn?

Untitled
by Chantal Roy
Painting: “Fox Hunt” by Winslow Homer

Slowly,
Slowly,
Slowly,
The mysterious fox
Creeps through the snow.
The two crows
Caw
As loudly as a dog’s bark
And they are as black
As a dead piece of coal
From a flaming fire.
The crusty snow crumbles
As the sly fox crawls.
The crows ready to land
On the soft poured blanket of snow
That had just fallen.
You can almost taste
The sour poisonberries
Bright and red
On little twiggy sticks.