{"id":226210,"date":"2026-04-10T12:01:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T12:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/226210\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T12:01:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T12:01:14","slug":"thinking-about-writing-a-zipode-miamis-young-poets-may-spark-your-creativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/226210\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking about writing a ZipOde? Miami’s young\u00a0poets may spark your creativity"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sky outside the classroom in Miami is a blanket of grey, but the fifth graders are too captured by the day’s poetry lesson to mind the droplets trickling down the windows. The gloom of the outdoors can’t reach them here, in the coziness of their Sunroom. <\/p>\n

\ud83d\udccd What is a ZipOde?\u00a0
They’re\u00a0five line poems based on where you live, with each number of your zip code determining the number of words in that line.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udce5 Submit a poem at wlrn.org\/zipodes<\/a>. Chosen poems will be presented at our ZipOdes finale at Vizcaya Museums and Gardens<\/p>\n

But it isn’t a literal sunroom, a small-ish extension to a house with windows for walls. At Morningside K-8 Academy, this Sunroom is the poetry class constructed by O, Miami, the nonprofit organization fostering South Florida\u2019s literary community through poetry.<\/p>\n

More than a physical space, it’s equal parts improving reading comprehension and exploring creativity. On this wet and chilly February day, the devotion to learning is on full display.<\/p>\n

Eleven schools in Miami-Dade County are part of O, Miami\u2019s ‘Sunroom’ <\/a>education program. Every school year, an artist working in South Florida is chosen as the school\u2019s resident Sunroom teacher. <\/p>\n

At Morningside K-8 Academy, the Sunroom teacher is Caroline Cabrera. <\/p>\n

The first time Cabrera taught in the program, she worked with third graders who had been held back or “had passed second grade by the skin of their teeth,” she says. She was excited to make reading less about strict schoolwork and more about the fun of poetry. <\/p>\n

\"Luz<\/p>\n

Chantal Lawrie<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

O, Miami<\/p>\n

Luz Rossy’s Zip Ode about her abuela was chosen from more than 1,500 poems to grace a billboard in downtown Miami, as part of the O, Miami poetry festival.<\/p>\n

“Seeing poetry be able to be kind of like a backdoor into literacy that allows them to gain confidence with language and a love of language that feels unique to them, that they feel like they have this ownership or this excitement about the language \u2014 it’s really a joy,” Cabrera, who is the education director of O, Miami, tells WLRN after school dismisses for the day. <\/p>\n

She exudes that joy as she stands at the board going over the lesson. It’s the last day of the Sunroom residency for the school year \u2014 which runs for 10 weeks \u2014 and she’s reviewing some of the poetic techniques they learned throughout their time together, like metaphors and the difference between abstract and concrete language. <\/p>\n

Morningside K-8 Academy has an international education language magnet program. Students can learn Spanish, French or Haitian Creole. Some students in Cabrera’s class learned about poetic techniques in previous school years. <\/p>\n

“You might have done it at a different time, in a different poetry class,” Cabrera tells them, “but today we’re going to do ZipOdes.” <\/p>\n

The students who know what it is erupt in excitement. <\/p>\n

Filled with friends
jokes and laughs
always
ending in freedom
repeating like a story that never ends.<\/p>\n

Nasir, 33138<\/p>\n

A five-line poem based on a zip code, the poetic form of ZipOdes was created by O, Miami and WLRN, which have been partners for more than 10 years. <\/p>\n

“A ZipOde takes your zip code for its form,” Cabrera explains to students, “but then takes its vibe from an ode. So you’re writing a poem that’s a tribute, or a love letter, to your neighborhood.”<\/p>\n

Some students don’t know their home’s zip code. While they wait for their school teacher to search for their addresses, the rest of them take pencil to pen and get to writing. <\/p>\n

READ MORE: Nature and poetry: Students get inspired by the ‘light and delight’ of Everglades National Park<\/a><\/p>\n

Using the school’s zip code, Jaeleah writes:<\/p>\n

“Sun is light \/ moon is dark \/ *whoosh* \/ The wind blows \/ away my anger when my brother is happy to see me!”<\/p>\n

Mileny writes:
“Home sweet home \/ where I roam \/ everyday \/ I scream hooray \/ mangos all around \u2014 look what I found!”<\/p>\n

Also using 33138, Nasir writes, “Filled with friends \/ jokes and laughs \/ always \/ ending in freedom \/ repeating like a story that never ends.” <\/p>\n

\"Cabrera<\/p>\n

Natalie La Roche Pietri \/ WLRN<\/p>\n

Cabrera goes around the room to gelp students write their poems.<\/p>\n

The class takes turns reading their poems aloud for each other. Beyond the physical descriptions of their homes, students struck the emotional core of ZipOdes \u2014 they reveal something about the singularity of Miami living. <\/p>\n

After sharing and handing their poems to Cabrera, the dismissal bell rings and they swarm out of the ‘Sunroom’ into the grey sky still hovering over their school. <\/p>\n

“\u200aIf you said, ‘You can only teach one class for the rest of your life,’ I’d say I will teach poetry to fifth graders for the rest of my life,” Cabrera says. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sky outside the classroom in Miami is a blanket of grey, but the fifth graders are too…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-226210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}