A poetry workshop can present opportunities to integrate students' knowledge and perspectives in classroom contexts, encouraging the use of language for expression, communication, learning and even empowerment. This paper describes how adolescent students respond to a poetry workshop in an English classroom centred on teaching writing that is based on their knowledge from their various life experiences and understanding of events beyond the classroom. Informed by New Literacy Studies and third space theories, ethnographic methods of participant observation were used to document an eighth-grade urban public school classroom where a community member implemented a weekly programme using music lyrics and poetry for an entire school year. Findings illustrate how the poetry workshop encouraged students to contribute to the classroom learning context and engage critically with ideas that were relevant to their lives. Collaborating with a community member and tapping in to the powerful ways of using language to communicate led to important learning opportunities for students in this classroom. Poetic devices such as rhyme, rhythm, metaphor and wordplay enhanced and supported students' own language practices; students used these sophisticated writing strategies as they worked to convey their ideas, experiences and opinions.