Institute of Contemporary Art Miami ICA Miami

Preschool Poets is a series of eight short animated films based on poems composed by four and five year olds. The films are fueled by the children’s untethered imaginations, opening a portal to the real world of growing up in the inner city. After experiencing the Poems, dive deeper and learn about how these poems were created with the documentary.

BULLETS
BY BRAYDEN
Sit down, world
and relax
so you don’t have tornadoes.

Trees, color your leaves.

Relax, people. Go to sleep.

Relax, wolves. Lay down by the trees.

Relax, bullets from guns.
Stop shooting people.

Fire, eat wood.

POEM ABOUT ALL DIFFERENT THINGS
BY SAMUEL
The tallest thing in the world
is a elephant’s trunk all the way to the sky.

The strongest thing in the world
is a strong dinosaur that eats tigers and elephants and people.

The bumpiest thing in the world
is a trampoline with ten thousand hundred frogs on it.

The loosest thing in the world
is that you have a loose tooth in your mouth and you can’t find it.

The ugliest thing in the world
is someone’s in your face and it looks ugly.

The easiest thing in the world
is playing a game that is so easy, you can’t do it.

The hardest thing in the world
is someone throws a rock on your forehead.

The loneliest thing in the world
is that you don’t have no friends and you’re crying in your house.

The softest thing in the world
is a cozy bear in the bed with a fake puppet.

ME
BY JA’LANTEA
This new year, I will still be five.
A five-year-old knows his letters.
J-A-L-A-N-T-E-A

This new day, I wish I had a new name.
I wish my new name was J-Money.

If my name was J-Money I would play with dollars.
I would play with my brother outside in a field
and tell his friends I got a new name.

This new day, goodbye.
Goodbye, Mommy.
Goodbye, Daddy.
Hello, brother.

SUPERGIRL
BY PENNY
Sometimes I wanna be a superhero.
Sometimes I wanna fly up high.
So high!
And through the clouds!

I would like to kick!
‘Cause that’s what a supergirl does.

Sometimes I like to pretend I’m in ice
and my hands and my feet
’cause ice makes you do nothing!

A POEM PLAY
BY DELANIE
The moms and dads take a nap
and then they go to work
and then they make dinner
and then they watch Netflix.

The moms and dads have two jobs.
They can’t come home ’cause their kids are teenagers now
and they can’t come home ’cause they work a double.

The moms and dads and their kids go in a big, big hot tub.
They stay there … mmmm …
twenty minutes.

THE OLD SNAKE WENT TO SLEEP ON THE GRASS
BY MICHAIAH
The old snake been playing in the backyard.
The old snake been swirling, swirling, swirling.

The old snake is a grandpa.
Has 14 grandsons.
That’s a lot of grandsons.

The old snake been playing in the backyard
swirling, swirling.
They twist and turned
into purple, blue, and brown.

MR. GRUMPY, MR. CRUMPY, AND MR. BUMPY
BY ALEXA
Sometimes I like to play with bubbles.

When I miss a bubble, it goes by itself
all the way in the sky.

Sometimes me and my mommy throw snowballs at each other.
Sometimes I play with my grandma.
Sometimes I watch a movie with my grandma.

It feels like a big explosion
when I miss my grandma
when she goes to the doctor.

My brain goes like the ocean.
Then I feel like a big mommy-sister.

MIRACLE’S POEM
BY MIRACLE

You play outside in the sun.
You climb on climbing things in the sun.

The sun looks at you outside.
It comes down and play with you.
The sun says, “I want to play with you.”

I want to say to the sun,
“This might shock you.
I love you.”