“Untitled” by Yassin Hag-Elsafi / “The Flower” by Jakob Womer
“The Flower”
Jakob Womer
yassin hag-elsafi
âPainting a Dream In a Nightâ
After âAwaking in New Yorkâ, by Maya Angelou
The traffic light yells a
paralyzing, hallowed shriek.
Cars stop parallel,
simultaneously in front and behind one another.
Some donât
as they look up, seeing past the mechanical lives of
Blue, Yellow, and Green.
Blue? Nevermind it.
Passing the yellow light with just a second left
so they can view the constellation of stars,
billboards, for half a second more.
The vastness of the night sky only competes
with the radiance of a City enamored with dreams.
Color the stop signs a sunflower yellow
Or perhaps a boring,
bland beige.
“Left Behind” by Yirou Kao / “What Lies Ahead” by Phineas Moustakas
“What Lies Ahead”
Phineas Moustakas
“Left Behind”
Yirou Kao
Falling
Falling
Tumbling down
Wind swept under feet
Making a âwooshâ sound
Trying to grasp the ledge
As I fall down
I reach out to you
Trying to make a sound
Youâre oh so close
Close enough to grasp
Only for you
To turn back around
And not look back
As I tumble
tumble my way down
“Mother Gaia” by Isabel Fowler / “Beyond The Water” by Catalina Boutros
“Beyond The Water”
Catalina Boutros
“Mother Gaia”
Isabel Fowler
Gaia declared
Earth was made.
Green pastures, blue seas,
In which Humanity maintained.
Not anymore would there be
Darkness, emptiness of a
Starless sky.
Her generosity was sung
By the Muses themselves.
Harps and lyres shining
The Mother.
Remember her.
Afterall,
We are her daughters.
“Revised Poem” by Sahana Vinothkumar / “The Under World” by Catalina Boutros
“The Under World”
Catalina Boutros
“Revised Poem”
Sahana Vinothkumar
The following are poemsä¸plucked out.
Call this the gone, the long, the unlove
year.
The key.
Itâs the writing.
The undercurrent
beneath the water of words drowning.
To enhance,
evoke,
explore,
expose
the truth,
the voices that have always
been exiled from imagination.
In this we find.
Several of the following are erasure poems, meaning
theyâre documents with their pieces plucked out, just as
some will call this the gone year, the long year, the glove
year, the unlove year. The key to constructiveä¸& not
destructiveä¸erasure is to create an extension instead of
an extract. Itâs not erasure, but expansion, whereby we
seek the underwriting, the undercurrent beneath the
watered surface of words. It is to keep the words from
drowning. Hereby the pen looks to enhance, evoke,
explore, expose the bodies, the truth, the voices that have
always existed but have been exiled from history & the
imagination. In this case, we erase to find.
(Erasure – Amanda Gorman)
“How Is The Earth So Beautiful Still” by Lara Luczak / “Wandering” by Ashlyn Arnold
“Wandering”
Ashlyn Arnold
“How Is The Earth So Beautiful Still”
Lara Luczak
âHow is the Earth so beautiful still?â
Birds still singing in the sycamore trees,
Forgotten are the sighs of December’s sullen seize.
Blighted forest no longer fraught with real ill,
How is the Earth so beautiful still?
Still Spring bears abundant fruit,
Prospering from what was pollute.
Why dost thou hold the treasure fast
Of youthâs delight, when youth is past?
Many their morning melt in tears,
Days to months to years.
How can your clouds still disperse,
When it is easier to turn to worse?
“Distance” by Regan Doherty / “Untitled” by Shashank Salgam
Shashank Salgam
“Distance”
Regan Doherty
Itâs suffocating
being so alone.
Surrounded
but separate.
Within
but without.
An onlooker
who stares instead of sees:
thereâs no understanding
in this isolation.
Some cruel captivation
where one is the attraction
but neither is noticed.
Any feeling of belonging evaporated
when I realized it has always been
and will always be
their lives: my intrusion.
Their gaze: my wound.
Their music: my noise.
Their forms and figures never known â
never understood â
let alone picked apart from the crowd.
The inescapable throbbing from sounds
that fly and marr instead of mean.
Too hard. Too fast.
Hitting where it hurts because
these wounds have festered.
This noise pains.
There is a silence to this sound.
Christine Curley Memorial Award 2022
Christine Curley Memorial Award 2022
The Christine Curley Memorial Award for Creative Writing has been established by Christine’s parents to be presented annually to the students who display interest and potential in creative writing.
During Christine’s high school years, she showed great promise as a poet, and the hope of her parents is that this award will encourage other students to pursue in their writing the spirit with Christine so beautifully demonstrated in her own.
A faculty committee has chosen
JEremy laparl
to receive this year’s award.Â
I used to wonder what it feels like.
There were endless possibilities
on what it would be.
Was it at the coffee shop?
I wondered.
Was it to be found in a swirl of
endless artificial flavors which would
all add up to what you call a
âVenti American Pie Frappuccino?â
Now the flavors had tasted real at first,
but once I had a closer look, almost every flavor
that you promised me was real in this coffee,
turned out to be fake.
The more I drank, the more I realized,
and I wish I would have found out sooner
that everything you told me about how authentic
this drink was, about how good it tasted, about
how it was worth the money, was all a false
reality.
Since that day, Iâve never gone to a coffee shop.
It reminnds me of just how fake things in life can be.
Okay, so it definitely wasnât felt in the coffee shop.
What about at that steakhouse?
I wondered.
We both got the âTop of the line,
Extra most-fabulous, Canât beat it,
New York Strip Steak!â
Or at least, thatâs what they
called it.
To be honest, it didnât just live up to
the name, it exceeded it!
I thought it was perfect.
The seasoning was just right,
the taste was outstanding,
and it was cooked to a perfect
medium rare, just like I asked.
It was everything I had ever wanted
in a steak, and
I loved it.
But you; you didnât love it.
You liked it.
Or at least, you said you did.
But most people usually finish
food they like.
Theyâll even take it to go if theyâre
not hungry enough to finish it.
You didnât.
And the thing is, you were hungry;
just not for steak.
You wanted a burger,
a slice of pizza,
a pulled pork sandwich,
maybe even seafood,
and whatever else it was
that you said you craved.
Just steak wasnât one of them.
I ended up paying a whole lot for
your uneaten dinner that night.
Now, at first, Iâd never thought Iâd
be able to find it at a car dealership.
Still in debt from the steakhouse,
I walked into the shop with little
to no expectations in
finding anything at all;
and then, I saw her.
El Camino.
Made in 1979.
Now, she wasnât perfect.
Her once sleek crimson red color
had faded quite a bit.
She had bumps and bruises
all over her.
And I was told her windshield was
broken beyond repair,
yet the closer I looked at it,
it was just cracked.
Even I was hesitant to take
her for a test drive at first,
and for good reason.
The ride was bumpy, at the start,
and we hit a lot of roadblocks.
I almost went back to the dealership,
and thought it was time to give up
on her.
I was seconds away from the dealership,
and just then,
the wheel got a bit easier to control.
And so I thought to myself,
âMaybe sheâs not so bad.â
So, I drove past the dealership.
All of the sudden, it was as if
the on cracks windshield slowly
fixed themselves, onne by one,
Making the view as clear as day.
And every time I put my foot on the
gas, the ride felt smoother and smoother,
so smooth that I floored it.
All the way home.
I used to wonder what it felt like.
But the day I took that car for a ride,
I didnât have to wonder anymore.
I found out.
I know now.
“A Dream Called Hope” by Isabel Fowler / “Nurturing” by Lucy Lee
A dream called hope
Isabel fowler
Our Hope feeds our Dreams
Like the muse feeds the artist
Like the sky feeds the bird
Like the sun keeps us alive
Hope is a lightness
Centered in your chest
That expands
And contract with every second
We breath it in and out
Our breath has been stifled
Blackened by the same smog blocking our light
Suffocating us
But I still feel Hope
I still feel Hope
I covet it,
Smuggle it
Hide it under my pillow at night
Hold it tight to my chest
The Hope
That one day,
I will see children and not mourn for them
For the life theyâll never have
The life robbed from them before they ever reached the cradle
But Hope
Itâs the best type of flowering weed
Growing in the sidewalks
Up concrete walls
Out of the ashes
But Hope
Itâs a prayer whispered
When a babe is born
A blessing given
In hard times
A cry in our chest
Carried across the world
And a heart that beats
We will change this
nurturing / lucy lee
“Gaia” by Faiz Shaikh / “Natural History” by Ansley Teal
natural history / ansley teal
GAIA
Faiz Shaikh
When a man brags about his loveâ claiming:
âShe is more lovely than a summerâs dayâ I state
with greater pride: âNot soââ boasting: âEarthâs
beauty be greater, though it wonât stay.âÂ
Â
âWhyââ says he âthe sun shines the birds still fly.â
âNoââ (quod I) âmankind be like a plagueâ a
Diseaseâ polluting Earthâs sea, land and sky;
When was the last time you heard the blue jay?âÂ
Â
âBut all’s not lost sir if you go outsideâÂ
Plant trees, go green, help to stop pollutionââ
Say I with hope for Earth where we reside
âDonât neglect the Eco Revolution.âÂ
Â
âEarth can be saved if we do not blunder;
Remember that Nature is our Mother.â