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On His Own or with His Students:
Corpus Technique

Choose a submission. From that submission choose several words that you believe are also found in other submissions. Search other submissions and extract the search words with the surrounding context. Arrange the extracted words and context into a poem. You can play with the length and formatting of the surrounding context.

Corpus Poems: Text

Untitled

Anonymous

Thầy là người thấy em nhớ nhất, 
và tthấy rất giản dị và hiền lành. 
Em nhớ những lúc trời lạnh trên Đà Lạt. 
Thầy vẫn rảo bước trên con đường Bùi Thị Xuân một mình hoặc 
với các học trò của thầy. 
Lúc đó, Em rất muốn được kết bạn và thân tiện hơn với thầy. 
Tuy nhiên em thời đó còn rất ngại ngùng, 
và thiếu tự tin. 
Vốn dĩ em là cô gái nhút nhát từ một gia đình miền quê của Việt Nam nên em ít dám giao tiếp với thầy để thúc đẩy tiếng anh. 
Nếu có cơ hội, 
quay lại thời sinh viên, 
em sẽ cố gắng giao tiếp nhiều hơn và học hỏi kiến thức từ thầy nhiều hơn với tất cả thầy cô giáo của trường.

Corpus Poems: Text

Untitled

Anonymous (Jack Peterson Translation)

He is the one who sees me the most, 
and I find it very simple and gentle. 
I remember the cold weather in Dalat.
He still walked on Bui Thi Xuan on his own 
or with his students. 
I really wanted, then, to make friends 
and be closer with the teacher. 
But I was still very shy, 
and lacked confidence. 
I was shy from birth. 
A girl from a rural family of Vietnam 
so I did not dare use him to boost my English. 
If I had the opportunity, 
back in my student days, 
I would try to communicate more and learn from the teachers,  
more with all the teachers of the school.

Corpus Poems: Text

Mirror Poem

Jack Peterson

He is the one who sees me the most, 
and I find it very simple and gentle. 
I remember the cold weather in Dalat.
I still walked on Bui Thi Xuan on my own 
or with him. 
I really wanted, then, to make friends 
and be closer with him and all the students.
But I was still very shy, 
and lacked confidence. 
I was shy from birth. 
A boy from a rural family of Ohio 
so I did not dare appear opportunistic. 
If I had the maturity, 
back in my teaching days, 
I would try to communicate more and learn from him,  
more with all the students of the school.

Corpus Poems: Text

One Corpus

Collective Composition

One of the teachers

One of the most beautiful

One of your student

One of us would prefer sitting on the second row

One of the best times in my college

One of the best courses on the campus

One of the ESL courses

One of the movies

One of the homework

One of our classes


Tea flavors every morning makes one travel the world

It gathered us to speak as one

One Japan student

One Korean Student

One of our teachers

The one who sees me the most

The one with chewing gum in the mouth

Double was one!

One of us would prefer sitting on the second row

No one laughed at someone’s joke

Corpus Poems: Text

Remember Corpus

Collective Composition

I can make a list of everything I remember in English, but I will do in Vietnamese

                                                   I remember the cold weather in Dalat

                                                   I remember sitting with students from every Africa, and Asia

                                                   I remember the most impressive was Thanh Van

                                                   I remember you have wonderful eyes

                                                   I remember once a week getting online

                                                   I remember in the classroom we had a great view

                                                   I remember more than half the students were wearing the same   

                                                                   hoodies

                                                 If I remembered right, Hung, a hotboy of the class, sang

                                                    I remember one time the TV wasn’t working

                                                    I remember one time we did our presentation

                                             I still remember yesterday like the image of a young teacher

                   Yet it is long time to remember the details

                                                   I remember she enjoyed taking a nap on the couch

                                                   I remember laughing and making friends

                                                    Remember myself with a big smile

                                         I can’t remember the books we read together

                                                   I remember our class always had a very fun time

                           Sorry I couldn’t remember the exact number

                                                   I remember one time Hansol asked

                                                If I remember correctly

                                                   I remember one day I was taking Amy’s class

                                                   I remember Mr. Peterson

                                                   I remember that you always gave us short stories

                                                   I remember the course name

                                                   I remember the direction the projection screen faced

                                                   I remembered the feelings of being accepted/approved

                                   This is all I remembered

Corpus Poems: Text

His Corpus

Collective Composition

His classroom activities
His tall and thin body
His homesick
His foreign teacher
His own
His students
His voice
His facial expressions
His innate calmness
His questions
His widely open eyes

Corpus Poems: Text

My Class Corpus

Collective Composition

                                                                 My class had about 35 plus students
                            Almost all students in my class were really interested in Mr. Jack’s lessons

There were about nearly 40 students in my class

                    You ate candies, bananas in my class

                                                                     My class usually learned in A7, A8 buildings

     Jack is the most respected teacher of my class
                                                                      My class is unique

                                            Mr. Jack taught my class second year of American Literature

                                          He was an idol of my class girls

                    The most beautiful Dalat girl in my class

                                  There is a memory that my class cannot forget

                                                              To love my class now!

                                                                            My class – AVK26D in DaLat University

               There are around 10 – 15 students in my class

                       There were no trouble makers in my class

Corpus Poems: Text

My Corpus Enjambment

Collective Composition

  ESL class made my precious memori

 st all students in my class were really

   wind that catch my wings that makes

  the movies with my Classmates and p

 s a memory that my class cannot for

  Mr. Jack taught my class the second

   take you out of my memory from tim

  rous so many of my female friends li

   ries will exist in my mind forever ind

eparated with all my friends and famil

   I start to talk to my Chinese friends w

that jumped into my brain that we us

    you’ve known, my dream came true

Corpus Poems: Text

I Was Corpus

Collective Composition

I was still very shy
I was shy from birth

I was a student
I was a little bit scared
I was one of your student
I was nervous

I was tired of my new lifestyle
I was taking Amy’s class
I was nervous
I was expressing tons of personal thoughts
I was just separated with all my friends and family
I was back in Taylor
As if I was part of American Culture
As if I was passionate student
As if I was independent person but cared

I was young too

I was an alien
I was a stranger

I was nervous as an alien
I was already going to the light with you

Corpus Poems: Text

Present Tense I Corpus

Collective Composition

I remember

I wake up

I look

I want

I reach
I realize

I see

I love

I guess


I hear

I start


I think

I still remember

I see

I grow

I look back

I wish

I miss


I wash

I make my way

I get into the classroom

I restart

I get bored

I make a kind of joke

I come

I decide

I desire

I feel

I do remember

I forget

I try not to

I put my life at stake

I find it very simple and gentle

I don’t have

I don’t even know


I am not good at writing poems

I can imagine

I can try

I can make a list

I can help


I am sure

I have a presentation assignment

I have to take you out of my memory

I have left behind

I am writing

I am having other classes

I am forever thankful

I am an emotional person

I am winter earth

I am from elsewhere

I once hath been

I can’t compose a poem

I can’t remember

I can’t help

I don’t know why

I still have pictures

Corpus Poems: Text

Past Tense I Corpus

Collective Composition

I felt
I really wanted

I wanted to walk
I walked
I wanted to take
I got
I gained

I found a home

I fell into sleep

I slept

I had a dream

I opened my eyes

I couldn’t remember

I could communicate

I had to answer

I did not dare

I did learn

I saw

I thought

I remembered

I would spend time

I would try

I would feel curious

I met

I liked

I enjoyed

I missed

I brought

I expected

I realized

I really enjoyed

I did not really get connected

I didn’t have enough time

I accepted that

I had spoken English

I had understood

I had opportunity

I had many thoughts

I had the opportunity

I had a sense of accomplishment

Corpus Poems: Text

Future Tense I Corpus

Collective Composition

I will do
I will try
I will never forget
I will not be conquered

Corpus Poems: Text

Friends Corpus

Collective Composition

Friends

My friends
Me and my friends

My female friends

my Chinese friends
all my friends
My beloved friends
A teacher and a friend

Foreign friend

Jack and my old friends
new friends

laughing and making friends
to make friends

good friends

Like a best friend

Corpus Poems: Text

English Corpus

Collective Composition

Everything I remember in English

Enthusiastic English learner

A new English classroom

English language levels

Learning English in English


In English lessons, foreign teachers often organized fun games

To teach English

He taught English

My first English teacher in the US

Jack had taught English in Vietnam

American English Pronunciation

Everyone shared their joke in English

We learned how to write an English essay


English song

Sing English songs

Some English poems

How to write English poems

A lot of beautiful English songs and poems to help students learn
To help students learn English

Boost my English

Standard English

Various English accents

Their English accents would follow a white woman

Different cultural observation for learning English


To improve my English

improving in English skills

Great improvement for my English


We were all in that classroom to learn English

Sharing our thoughts in English

Not only how to read, write, and share in English
Speak English more and more fluently


Korean, Chinese, and English

We didn’t learn just English!

The English language is not the only thing you learn

Other English explanation

Things like broken English

I wish I had spoken English better

Corpus Poems: Text

All Corpus

Collective Composition

All I remembered


For all the fields of the world

In all three languages

With all the teachers

All white teachers

All old


Throughout all sections of classes

All four modules

All activities


For all the students

Almost all students

All EFL students

From all over the world

From all around the globe

All of them in the class


All of us in the classroom

With all sorts of writings and drawings

All the set up of chairs

Where all the students sat around

We all sit in the front row


All my friends and family

All of that experience

All the things taught to me

All along the path

All my life

All the time

All winter

All I want

Most of all a teacher

Dancing all around

Corpus Poems: Text

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