At the end of the month, we will commemorate our community's work through a reading and booklet for archives. We hope you will join us for a open mic reading dedication ceremony, April 24th, 4pm at La Brisa, and that you will return here to engage with poetry at RE through the digital companion that will be posted to this page!
Over the past four years, NAPOMO @ RE has grown from a simple class project to a true campus-wide celebration. Thanks is due the following folks, without whom NAPOMO 2025 would not be possible:
Humanities Department Chair Jen Nero, Head of School Rachel Rodriguez, Head of the Upper School: Dr. Don Cramp
RE's English Faculty, including Dr. Matthew Helmers, Mr. Adam Schachner, Dr. Corinne Rhyner
Caridad More-Gronlier
Original Art work by Noa Garcia
Our facilities team
Poetry Club: Julia Cuy, Kayra Serpenguzel, Sylvia Malvezzi, Sofia Rhone- Fernandez, Dr. Bufkin
Students in the spring 2025 semester of Personal Narrative: Dieter Manstein, Lexi Barna, Harrison Lamnin, Frankie Pines, Chloe Coulson, Rebecca Paresky, Alexander Kazumoff, Gabi Pasos, Bea Lindemann, Sebastian van de Kreeke, Cianna Vengoechea Schiff, Adaya Yang
Maggie Pearson '80 and the Alumni Engagement team
Marc Stone and The Barnacle Society
The strongest poems in each of the following categories will be chosen for the special honor of being shared with the entire RE community:
9th Grade Poems: "Untitled" by Quinnard Mays and " A Sea Shanty" by Daniel Depass-Jurberg
10th Grade Poem: "A Banana Seed" by Felix Kulkarni
11th Grade Poem: "Untitled" Patrick Keedy Brown
12th Grade Poem: "Ahava" by Beatriz Lindemann
Professional Community Poem: "The Ballad of Bobby Ingram" by John Hamm, "Mi Ninera" by Eric LeFebvre, "Untitled" by Dr. John Ermer
Colors of the City Poems: "Just Another Drive Back from Practice" by Miguel Kumar, "Metro Rail Transfer 6:33am" Dr. Emily Grace
Roots and Routes: "The Islands Speak" Alec Martinez Bolivar
Currents and Connections: "Where the Currents Meet" by Sabine Wolfensberger
Untitled
Quinnard Mays ‘28
Girl, you’re just like a flower your roots have a hold on me it has power.
I get poked by your thorns a feeling so sweet yet so sour.
I had my chance to water you but I never let you grow.
It was hard for me to show my love and affection so I understand why you had to let go.
But still, my love for you goes way past the cosmos.
I am still waiting for my rose to come back home.
Some say it’s stupid and to just move on
But I can’t give up on you no I can’t lose my day one.
As your petals sway in the calm spring breeze.
The scent of your petals reminds me of old memories.
I hope that we don’t grow apart.
I still hold you dear to my heart.
And I have hope that one day we can restart.
Because if we do.
I KNOW we can grow something new.
I just need to have your trust.
I really really, hope not all your love turned into dust.
If it hasn’t then I’ll sit and wait with no problem.
Waiting for our love to once again blossom.
Wouldn’t that be awesome?
So I’ll sit and wait while someone else waters you and let you grow.
And I hope that his love truly shows.
I hope he loves you more than you could ever know.
But even then I still won’t let my rose go.
By Daniel Depass-Jurberg ‘28
(Loosely sung to the rhythm of Bob Dylan's "The Times They are A-Changing")
See the port, the ships, the boats, and the land?
A newfound hope is found in our hands,
and when souls in our feet touch the lukewarm sand,
We all become one, no one, no man, and
some bellow from the depths where nobody can
save them, so God please lend'em a hand.
All hatred, all spite is righteously banned,
We all form a ship that is formally manned,
So come one, come all, live lives that aren’t bland,
We follow no orders, we meet no demands.
Let’s write a hist'ry where you’re in command,
And find new ports, new ships, and new land.
by Felix Kulkarni ‘27
A kindergarten teacher who remembers you wanted to be the flash, 8 years after you told her;
A fourth grade teacher who called all the class separate foods and you’ll never forget you were a carrot and your best friend was a mochi;
A fifth grade teacher who you never got to know because of a pandemic;
A sixth grade teacher who you lied to about your reading logs while your friends slept with their zoom cameras off;
An eighth grade teacher who called you your brother's name on the first day of school—even though you looked nothing alike, and it was four years since she taught him.
A black boy from Trinidad who would sing she get wicked in the corner of English class;
A white boy from Bulgaria whose brother got ignored asking for a girl’s phone number on the corner of the sidewalk;
A Japanese boy who played Minecraft with you everyday but you guys never kept the same world for more than a week;
A fellow Brasileiro who went over to your house everyday in fourth grade—and the days he wasn’t at your house, you were at his;
A fellow Indian who could beat you in an arm wrestle even when you used both arms;
An American boy you talked with during lunch about basketball because it was too snowy to play;
A Chinese boy who looked at your lips everyday like they were a box of ramen noodles;
A Chinese boy who yelled at you for messing up a pass on the volleyball team he begged you to join;
An Indian boy who nobody ever caught in manhunt.
Your youngest older brother who put a pizza in the microwave for five minutes and triggered the smoke detector;
Your oldest older brother who you literally never beat in a ping pong game;
Your youngest older sister who drank enough coffee in high school to drain any cacao forest in Brazil;
Your oldest older sister whose name you could sing.
A Citgo sign you passed everyday on the way to Taekwondo;
A dojo that you called home for an hour a day, everyday, for five years;
A basketball court that was really just a person's garage;
A soccer field that had more thorns than a Floridian forest;
A TD Garden where you watched Miami ruin your weekend;
A cinema where you watched Jimmy Butler’s potential series winning three point shot hit the rim's end.
Roots and routes built in Beantown;
Roots and routes built upon a city on a hill;
Roots and routes built in Boston;
Lord knows if roots and routes sprout—or if they turn right: into duds.
Untitled
by Patrick Keedy Brown ‘26
Sunsets always look more beautiful
over a mini-golf course. It’s that
Americana feeling, the past in the
putt and the future still on the horizon,
gleaming orange, sinking out over
the manicured green. Where an
open road was an invitation, an
assurance that America would still
shine through, and it makes you ask
if cowboys are still real, somewhere.
by Beatriz Lindemann ‘25
Child of the earth
Her long limbs,
her roots,
grounded in love
Deep,
complicated,
and stubborn
like the ocean’s tides
Her arms extend,
oars connecting her with the salty panacea below
She observes the Greenwich willow,
one day hoping to sway and surrender to the wind
To the universe
She vows to let go
One day
Her heartbeat is in sync,
with the waves and winds of Colombia
December in the City of Eternal Spring
The Western Wall
Ahava
Her homecoming in The Holy City
Her father’s fears and dreams,
she has
They both see in pink
B and G might not be the same,
but they certainly rhyme
Her words make her the sun
Undeniable light
She fills the pages with the conversations,
she has with herself
A sanctuary for her thoughts,
insecurities and aspirations mingling freely
Bubbles overflow through her laughs
Authenticity wells in her eyes
What a crybaby she is.
Once she embraces,
the labels lose their shame
As she metamorphosizes,
she releases fear
Love is what she comes back to when she feels lost
by John Hamm - Professional Community
Just like his father before him, he strummed and sang the blues
Somethin told me to tune in; I hadn’t heard the news
Bobby finally ended his very last song, and carried it to heaven that day
And the skies were busy 'bove the Grove they say, and Dorian stayed away.
Dorian was as big of a storm, we'd seen in a hundred years
Headed straight west toward Coconut Grove, her path a' drenched in tears
Bobby was at home to say his last goodbyes- in his own particular way
And the skies were open on his passing day, and Dorian stayed at bay
Everybody knew him, everybody came ,
for sixty years he sang his songs, and always stayed the same.
Rough and tough and gruff and sweet, none of us could stay away,
and the skies were busy 'bove the Grove that day, and Dorian made no play.
The Grove was a'busy baggin' and a'boardin' , another dangerous storm.
We didnt know there was naught to fear, he had one more chance to perform.
As he rose up to heaven above he stared her down and blew her away
And the skies were busy 'bove the Grove that day and Dorian turned away
Because the skies were blessed 'bove the Grove that day, and Dorian turned away.
Untitled
by: Dr. John Ermer - Professional Community
It all happened.
instant, frustration
foxhole that night,
shadows of the coming day
I did not understand.
Your girlfriend. My girlfriend. Everybody’s sweet little
vapors,
rituals that preceded
confession
but listen
“Forget it.”
by Eric Lefebvre - Professional Community
Born and raised in the county of Dade.
A blonde bundle of joy loaded into the Ford Fairmont and driven across the canal.
Dropped off at a small apartment off the Palmetto.
Hueles a pan?
The furniture is covered in plastic.
The apartment is spotless.
Arroz con pollo hecho con cerveza.
Natilla filling empty margarin containers with lots of cinnamon on top.
There is so much love in such a small place.
So many pictures of my tiny face.
Gracias por el carino Cuca.
by Dr. Emily Grace - Professional Community
soot splashed concrete
grey and dark
spray-paint letters
white and bubbles
well trodden tile
rust and slick
fingerless gloves
neon and sweat-filled
far away giants
glimmer and silver
the night fades
purple and distant
celestial rays
yellow and orange
look at the sky
exhale
pink
by Miguel Kumar ‘25
Driving over the bridge,
Intense sonder keeps me busy,
As I stare up at the guava jelly-infused sunset,
And think how sad that a part of me wants to leave,
How awful that I've had enough of this,
How brutal the truth that I'm moving away.
Driving over the bridge,
In horrible routine,
I know nothing more than this lavender clouded sky,
And yet I assume there is something more to be had
In corners of the world without guava and lavender to compare the sky to,
Without the things I know and love to love.
Driving over the bridge,
Intense sonder keeps me busy,
As I stare up to colors that can only exist here,
And secretly hope I'll be back.
by Alec Martinez-Bolivar ‘27
Tall trees stretch their fingers toward the endless blue sky,
The humid air clings to me, a second skin, warm and heavy,
Green leaves shimmer, emeralds flickering in the shifting light,
Dead trees lie scattered like fallen warriors in the night,
Spider webs hang, like delicate bridges spun by unseen hands.
The trees whisper their secrets to the wind, ancient tongues in the breeze,
Fallen coconuts lie below, like memories from a distant past,
Lizards glide through the branches, shadows slipping between worlds,
The green grass beneath me, a cool embrace, the earth’s breath against my skin.
The island speaks in silent stories,
Each branch a page torn from time’s endless book,
And the spider spins its web, stitching life’s grand tapestry,
And I stand still, a single thread woven into the island’s living fabric.
by Sabine Wolfensberger ‘27
Miami is a city of bridges,
a place where the past never stays behind.
Here, the salt air carries the weight
of stories:
the ones that stayed,
the ones that fled,
the ones still being written.
In the streets,
the wind is a poet,
whispering across the skin of the world,
a language untranslatable,
yet understood by all who listen—
a rhythm born of need and survival,
of becoming, of belonging.
The water, thick with history,
laps at the feet of the present.
Cuban coffee spills into hands that ache
from too many years waiting,
waiting for a country
that doesn’t call them home,
but a city that does.
The horizon bends like a question,
a crossroads where tomorrow meets today.
It pulls in the desperate and the hopeful,
swirls them in the current,
and tells them to speak,
to find their place in the wave
or be swallowed by it.
And yet, despite the noise,
the chaos of stories colliding,
there is a quiet truth—
Miami, in all its contradictions,
is a place of connection.
It is the meeting place of all the currents that never cease,
flowing together,
shaping each other in the dance of time
Visit this space to watch our community write all throughout the month of April! We'll keep track of and share statistics that will then be visually represented in the physical archive .