It is well known that developing a love of language helps children become successful readers and writers, and one way to teach children to love words is to introduce them to poetry. This article describes the Sallye B. Mathis Elementary School, a challenged urban school in Jacksonville, Florida, is full of children who love words because they love poetry. The Poetry Stars, the school's performance troupe, entertain their classmates and people outside the school as well, at teacher conferences, senior citizen luncheons and internationally through an online poetry club. Guests have included poets Brod Bagert and Karen Alexander and Alaskan storyteller Brett Dillingham. The author of this article plays a dual role. At Sallye B. Mathis, he is a performance poet for the school and at the University of North Florida, he is a reading education professor. Reading and performing poetry provide numerous opportunities for children to practice--with pleasure--the essential skills of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Additionally, children who perform poetry aloud learn to write poetry in a certain "voice." Other benefits of performing poetry include increased self-esteem and connectedness to community and culture.