They were the words, the feelings, the images and senses that sprang from idle paper to dance in the ether.

They were their poems.

Mount Elden Middle School students capped off their poetry lessons Monday evening with a poetry reading that turned their school's mini auditorium into a bohemian-groovy "coffeehouse." Although water, chilled green tea and cookies stood in for coffee, the room transformed into a hip lounge, with beanbags and floor pillows for comfy seating and plenty of lava lamps for mood lighting.

A few students jittered with nervous laughter or pressed the microphone too close to their mouths, but most were poised and supported by friends in the audience.

Eighth-grader Logan Tegler pulled a typed poem out of a crisp file folder and confidently delivered an optimistic message:

"Sing, spin, twirl like a ballerina/under the willow tree

Free your spirit/push it out/into the wind/where it will dance in the moonlight

Sway to the beat of an invisible guitar"

The poetry slam was the brainchild of English teacher RaeAnn Wanland. She did readings with just her class last year, but with co-teacher Sheila White and student teacher Kristen Chase, decided this year to branch out and get the whole school involved. Their students came from a range of levels, from resource to honors, but all made an effort. They polished their pieces and performed before about 100 students at a time during the day as other classes rotated in and out of the mini auditorium.

About 25 students returned that night, warmed up and ready to perform in the coffeehouse climax. They wrote about heartache and angst, family, friendship, love and growing up. Local adult poets joined them, and a few ninth-graders who had attended MEMS the year before returned with new poems.

On Kelly Ivicek's piece of notebook paper was a loving tribute to her best friend, Rachel, who she said was nothing like her but a soul she couldn't live without. ("And it's about me, too," she said. "It's about us."):

"I am the winter flower/out of my element/and barely alive

You are the holiday candle/warm/and filled/with hope

We are the double-sided mirror

Portrayed as one/but in fact/completely/incompatible"

MEMS students, a chalkboard in the room proclaimed, were Making English More Slammable.

"Most of them hated it (poetry) and this night is pretty much an attempt to help them realize that it can be fun," Wanland said at the show's start.

Wanland got in on the fun, right at the students' level, when she performed a rap duet with a boy who spun lightning-fast, "lyrically insane" verses to the whoops and cheers of his friends.

Poetry, White noted, is a flexible and forgiving medium.

"The neat thing about poetry is, it doesn't have to be full sentences," she said. "It doesn't have to be in paragraph form. You just speak from your heart."

Hillary Davis can be reached at hdavis@azdailysun.com or 556-2261.