Trick or Treat! I Am A Scary Skeleton Pirate plus other examples of “I Am” Poems

It is…  MB Hanrahan

Happy Halloween! 

A day full of tricks and treats! Like this image by Ventura artist MB Hanrahan (concept and model) and photographed by Dina Pielet– both a trick and a treat! 

One morning many years ago, I had a blast brainstorming four Halloween themed “I am” poems in small groups with my son’s K-1 class, then my son made a video using the text (below), This is what we wrote:

I am a scary smelly skeleton pirate!
I wonder where the treasure is

I hear black rusty shooting fire cannonballs
and swords slapping

I see other English ships to get their treasure
I want treasure, a golden compass, and a gold ring

I am a scary smelly skeleton pirate!
I pretend to play swords with you

I  feel my bones cracking

I touch the shark’s teeth

I worry about my pirate ship
and how it will disappear one day

I cry when my boat tips upside down
I am a scary smelly skeleton pirate!

I understand that I know that you can be killed
I say aye aye matey, I believe in ghosts

I never dream about black treasure
I try not to kill my pet octopus

I hope to be free
I am a scary smelly skeleton pirate

 Check out the youtube video my kindergartener did with the poem his group created only a little help from me!

 The poem above was composed by four boys: my son, another kindergartner, and two first graders.

Then five girls composed the one which follows where each girl illustrated a different part:

I am a wicked evil gruesome witch
with lots of spiders and pumpkins in my hair!

I wonder about warty spiderwebby muddy leafy potions
which make you turn into a bat and gruesome stuff like a slime monster

I hear zombies, my friend witches, and gruesomey bats
spitting in a dark cave

I see a certain kind of green swamp water
with gruesomey pirate zombies

I want gruesome pirate soup now!

I am a wicked evil gruesome witch
with lots of spiders and pumpkins in my hair!

I pretend to be really nice to people
then I put potions on them that are really bad gruesomey

I feel bad because I think I’m nice
but I’m really mean and gruesome

I touch a flower and want to pick it
but when I was 16, I picked a flower
and became an evil witch

I worry about nothing
because I am too brave

I cry when I’m angry
and because it’s never sunny
in my land in the dark cave

I am a wicked evil gruesome witch
with lots of spiders and pumpkins in my hair

I understand I’m mean
but I never listen to nice people

I say do you want some potions
to make you nice?

I dream about scariness
like dark caves

I try
I hope

I am a wicked evil gruesome witch
with lots of spiders and pumpkins in my hair!

Try this exercise yourself by simply choosing a statement to follow each “I” plus verb statement.

Obviously, it can be adapted a variety of ways. In these examples, the writers imagined themselves as a character from Halloween. I’ve also done this workshop where we became the wind, or a tree. 

Traditionally, however, the poem is actually about the writer. So here’s an example I composed:

i am an old time burner who likes to dance wild and play with fire
i wonder if i will go next year
i hear my friends talk about going
i see pictures & it makes me nostalgic
i want to wear little and dream big
i am an old time burner who likes to dance and play with fire
i pretend i will be able to run as wild and free as i want
i feel the tug of my child on my apron strings
i touch my dusty clothes and yearn to wear them
i worry that i’m too old, fat, and tedious
i cry when i am in the temple
i am an oldtime burner who likes to dance and play with fire
i understand that it is different every year
i say that it’s all good
i dream of riding my bike all night in cowboy boots, el wire & sparkly panties
i try not to miss that life too much
i hope to always be that burner
i am an oldtime burner who likes to dance and play with fire