Fifth grade students explore the public and private dimensions of poetry through the medium of poetry banners. The author maintains that poetry belongs in public spaces and serves as a counter to the "junk text" that surrounds us. A poetry banner is a nice addition to other banners and messages that students, teachers, school administrators, and parents see on classroom and hallway walls. Many of the messages seen in schools--"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference;" "Enter with an open mind;" "If you're not sure, ask questions"--may be important, but they are manufactured. Student-created poetry banners empower students; the process gives them an opportunity to begin thinking about how they can play active roles in shaping the world around them. This article describes a project wherein, upon reading Pablo Neruda's poem, "A Lemon," and studying his odes, his fifth grade students created poetry banners that were veritable cornucopias that spilled over with those odes. Creating the poetry banners was a special project because it was such a fun way to explore how individual and collective efforts can mesh, how small and personal phenomena relate to large and public ones, and how images and text can interplay.