Poetry
2020-2021 Submissions
2020-2021 Submissions
My Beloved Stylus Pen
by Harrison R
Used whenever I had time to spare,
Not using it was like a nightmare,
My beloved stylus pen,
Made sketches really pop,
Made me look at them in shock,
Made time slow down like a broken clock.
My beloved stylus pen.
You were lost at the end of the year,
Full of sorrow, full of fear,
I wish I could have just one more day,
With my beloved stylus pen,
All the good times that we had,
Can't figure out if I should be mad or sad,
My beloved stylus pen.
I searched and searched,
Throughout the house,
But it seemed you were gone,
My beloved stylus pen,
But tell me…
Just tell me...
Will I ever see you again?
My beloved stylus pen.
Wait,
I thought that this was your demise,
There are tears dripping from my eyes,
Please don’t ever leave me again,
My beloved,
Stylus,
Pen.
Vacations
by Mustafa A
Vacations
Like an exciting exploration
Exploring new places
Like never before
Vacations
Like an adventurous getaway
Traveling through vast cities
Rome, Barcelona, Venice
Vacations
Like that one moment in life
Hiking up hills filled with great green grass
Or hiking up mountains as high as buildings
Vacations
Like an alternate dimension
Having authentic food, tasteful and mouth watering
Sandwiches, Steaks, Sushis, so scrumptious
Vacations
Like a whole new world
Walking through sunny beaches
Feet burning from the stifling sand
Vacations
Like a never-forgetful moment
Plunging in the clear, cool waters
Water as clear as glass
Vacations
Until you realize it’s time to go back
Leaving all the food, beaches, all of it behind
And continuing back to day to day life.
by Lucy D
Growing anticipation
A rollercoaster of emotions
Waiting to meet you
To ever first hold you
As the days grow closer
I feel a bit older
I'll wait impatiently
To have you on my shoulder
The day has come
To finally meet you
My tears are a river
To finally greet you
My world is a stage
Finally here you are
We are two peas in a pod
My little shining star
by Rose F
Sometimes I wish that we could have stayed.
Living where we spent most of our life.
Where there is everything that we miss.
But I like that this place is home.
Sometimes I wish I didn’t worry.
That the monster will go away.
Even though I have struggles
I always know it will be okay.
Sometimes I wish that I could change the past,
Erase the bad moments
And try to be more tough.
The past is the past and
I like where I’m at.
Sometimes is a word that connects to feelings,
A word that doesn’t reflect how life is,
I will always know that I love and feel happy where I am.
by Josie M
I am from leotards to dance shoes
From Bloch and Capezio I am from a brown house in a neighborhood
large, warm, the smell of ocean breeze candles
I am from orchids
The little purple flowers that my mother loves
I’m from family Christmas‘s and short people
From Meehan's and Krajci’s
I’m from the anxiety and strong emotions
From the ”keep your wits about you” and “dance your heart out”
I’m from going to church every Sunday, the little pew I would sit in for hours
I’m from Ireland, Poland, Czech, England, and Germany,
steak and mashed potatoes, chicken pasta
From the dancing in a diaper on the couch
To getting hit with wooden spoons
In front of our large brown house
I am from moments in time of the things and people who made me what I am.
by Rose F
I am from a noisy vacuum
from dishwashers and Clorox wipes
I am from the big room
the feel of carpet beneath my feet
I am from the honeysuckle bush
the elephant foot tree as tall as the sky
whose long gone limbs I remember as
if there were my own.
I’m from the pool parties and being one of the first ones to leave
from Stacey and Kevin
I’m from a hurry and a mosey
and from working hard.
I’m from hurry up and wake up
and sing sweet nightingale
I’m from Valley view farm
I’m from Delaware and Maryland
blue crabs and banana bread.
From all the story’s
of my family’s past
pictures
all on a computer.
But, most of all I am from a red brick house
between two hills and two schools
one school in my heart forever
I am from a house that I do not own.
But, forever mine.
by Alex M
Fishing is fun but it's boring waiting
Two hours just for a small catfish
Under 2lbs. waiting for two hours
For a carp waiting, waiting
Long day to catch only three small fish
Wasting food that I can eat all day
Like corn, bread, jello. Only for a
3lb fish. Wasting $100 on a fishing
Rod boring but fun catching big fish
But they're small.
Wasting my time just to catch fish
I could be driving to another country in the
Time it takes for a fish to take the bait.
How long this fish will not eat my bait
The fish is lighter than a cup of water
But fast as a cheetah.
by Kotryna J
Do you really want to know?
What’s behind the river
and what’s behind their eyes,
It’s a flood of creatures
dying in disguise.
Do you really want to know?
What’s behind her mask
and why she cries to mama
because behind a shield of shame
Is a certain load of trauma.
Do you really want to know?
Why she screams
Equality!
Because all we really want
Is peace and tranquillity.
Are you ok? What don’t you want to say?
Why does wanting to be equal...equal drifting away?
by Brianne B
The strike of an axe with no thought of mind
A human comes to diminish a home that helps mankind
A tree that once grew taller and taller
Holding friends in its arms keeping them safe from predators
Providing a home for animals to stay
Creating a pathway for squirrels to runaway
When a tree has sunken it all goes away
Its friends would need to find a new home to stay
All for our needs
Our needs that could be solved an alternative way
Our needs that could be decided to build a new building
A building that would increase energy
A building that would increase air pollution
But keeping the tree is the best way
Who would provide shade
Who would flush out the sound of cars
The tree would replace it with the rustling of leaves
Why can't we not only think of our needs
Trees have a major role in our planet
The trees must stay
by Aleksandra S
If we marched instead of walking we could feed the change,
let it grow with a vibrational message,
that comes from our heart but refrains from the brain,
to fight for what’s right
and for what is true,
to never let your skin describe you.
Just like when climbing the rocky hill,
you will trip and fall,
but at least you can inspire all,
to take the same step as you did.
The message grows louder and louder,
and bigger and bigger,
till’ it’s no longer a message,
but it becomes a saying.
Your skin can’t tell your personality
It will repeat,
It will inspire,
It will teach,
but when it is forgotten the cycle starts,
once again.
by Mark G
A log shows pain, confusion is main.
This is forefront, life is backdoor.
Song of birds do not reign,
As ammunition is produced evermore.
Harsh fire echoes throughout, it’s just a memory though.
The mangled, decimated bodies scattered out are not,
Hauled through ditches, buried, forgotten (except in books).
and to think
that this is
useless is a
fault for hi-
-story.
by Tammy L
Equality of the genders
Is still so difficult for today’s society;
To grasp, wrangle, and lock down.
Even after all these years, all these decades,
Everything’s so different, and yet so similar.
There is more freedom, there’s no doubt about that,
But it’s not enough.
Not enough to feel the soaring happiness of truly being free.
Women, men, everybody in between and outside of the box
Have never been equal in the many blinking eyes of the monster.
Some people are still fighting to be recognized,
Some people are still burdened by past stereotypes,
Some people are still pushed away because of something unchangeable,
But they’re all still struggling to truly be who they are
because of a strange, hateful, fickle thing
Called our society.
Perhaps equality is a nothing more than a fever dream,
Perhaps all of the efforts of tired activists will go to waste,
Perhaps we’re all idiots who are blinded by hope
And faith, that we will all obtain our equality and the scale will be tipped no more.
But with desperate, pleading change, comes recognition.
And perhaps will more recognition, more awareness,
equality will start to shine through the cracks.
Or perhaps it won’t.
But if one thing’s clear enough,
Hear this far and wide,
Wrenching the ear-plugs out of your ears,
And ripping the shadowy hands off of your eyes,
Is that social, political, and personal equality of the many sexes will be fought for.
No matter how much we’re pushed down
No matter how many times we’re threatened to be silenced
No matter how many people spit on our path
And no matter how many angry looks we receive
From people who have no understanding of our pain,
We will fight, for forever it seems.
And that’s enough to ignite a tiny flame of hope in the people,
And turn it’s quiet whispers,
into a wildfire.
by Aleksandra S
What if.. Instead of relying upon trees,
we made our own breath
What if.. Instead of stealing the voice of others,
we each make our own songs
What if.. Instead of looking at the outside
we looked on the inside
What if.. We taught others to control themselves
Instead of teaching the victim how to hide
What if.. Instead of taking the smooth rode we crawled upon the rocks
What if instead of walking we marched
by Avery U
As I step outside into the
Breeze
The frosty snow is like
Glittery ice cream
Back inside
I go to the fireplace
With my luscious hot cocoa
DING
My oven signals
My warm, buttery, cookies melt in my mouth
My cozy sweatshirt, furry socks, and blanket warm me
inside
I dip them in milk that is
As white as the snow outside
My bitter siblings couldn't even ruin my mood
by Aleksandra S
A seed must fall to grow,
with the support of dirt to hold up the spine as it will stand straight up no matter the burden it must carry,
it’s petals will spread wide for the world to see,
but at the hands of the sun, it will hug its delicate skin,
Straighten up the spine,
for the rest of the garden to watch it stand with pride and glee.
by Avery U
Go in a quiet room
Relax
Put your mind to
Something else
Think
Be patient,
Focus,
Breathe,
You can achieve
by Shiven D
The nets are lurking
The turtles are choking
Getting caught up and thrown overboard
The people don’t care we’re just there
We are bystanders just sitting there
The earth is dying let’s stop driving
The gases are hurting the ozone
The earth is warmer
The ice isn’t colder
The algee leaves
The corals are bleaching
The coral reefs are dying
The water levels rise
The beach’s are flooding
And what do we do
NOTHING
by Conner D
I love to play video games.
My favorites are the ones
that are fun!
Minecraft is a survival game
Kind of like life
Minecraft is fun.
They keep adding new things
To make it interesting
You need to find food
And kill animals to survive
You play with your friends
And try to survive
If you want to fight them you can
Or just live and enjoy the world!
by Muskaan K
Grey clouds rampage across the sky
darkness overrules the sun’s rays, as the star fights to be seen
Miniscule droplets turn into a vertical stream
Individually powerless, but together, they rule the seas
They prey on the ship struggling to stay afloat,
Large but weak, almost crumbling,
Engulfed by the waves that once guided it,
Too worn out to challenge the ruthless storm,
Tossing in the waves, trembling
Attacking the scarred hull like a brigade of bullets,
Agitating the once calm waves into bloodthirsty beasts
Surrounded, the vessel has nowhere to go but down
It finally gives in, as the sea rips it apart, devouring its feast
The once majestic ship descends despairingly to the dreary ocean floor
Abandoned in a realm of darkness and gloom, hopeless and alone
With rough, splintering wood and gaping holes,
It lays restlessly on the ocean floor for an eternity, forlorn in the shadows
Closing its eyes and sighing longingly,
it remembers the encouragement of the sun’s glow,
the joy of blue skies, the glimmer of hope,
It remembers the sound of children growing old,
The sounds of the old feeling young,
The sounds of people from all around the globe.
...
The dark silhouette of a diver observes the wreck,
lit with anglerfish,
From hidden crevices and yawning cavities,
creatures of all kind emerge,
Buried in barnacles and sand, a rusty metal plaque reads,
The Rebirth
by Mia J
“I’ll never look like her” is a line said often
Social media says,
You have to look like her to be successful
Look at those models
You’ll never look like them
Starve yourself
You’ll have to act like them
Lose yourself
You’ll only succeed if you do so
But that’s only what they say
Sometimes, you have to lose yourself to find yourself
Sometimes, you have to break the piggy bank to get the money, to get the value.
And that’s when you’ll succeed
That’s when others will want to look like you to be successful
They’ll starve themselves
They’ll want to act like you
They’ll lose themselves
You won’t be the slave
You won’t play the game
You’ll be the coach
And then you’ll be ok
When you stop following others, they’ll follow you
And then, you’ll be the leader
But only if you go your own way
Only if you strut the runway you make