This Web contains poems and activities that are suitable at the grade 8 and grade 9 levels.  The poems are taken from Concrete Thoughts 1 and Concrete Thoughts 2, two collections of poems written by street youth from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and published by Rideau Street Youth Enterprises.  Concrete Thoughts 1 is available on the SchoolNet Digital Collections Web Server. 

The poems deal with many themes that relate to life problems that youth experience and discuss the difficulties of life on the street.  In addition to providing activities that are thematically relevant to youth, the poems also provide numerous examples of literary devices in a context that is readily accessible to youth because of the subject matter being dealt with in the poems.