Current Poets for Youth Inspiring Youth – Year 2

Quinn Whitlow was seven years old when he wrote Unseen Secrets; he continues to write poetry and particularly enjoys Haiku. Some of Quinn’s other interests include hunting insects in his backyard, playing video games, and flying paper airplanes.

Unseen Secrets
by Quinn Whitlow

I hide my secrets in the core of a brick
and on the surface of a star.

I tell my secrets to the unseen spirits around me
and the light rays from the sun.

Secrets live where man cannot go,
in the farthest part of space and inside a velvet mite.

Skyler Pham is 18 and is currently in college studying Art Education. Skyler says, “At this point in my life my main goals are to be happy, stay positive, and create as much art as possible.” Recently, Skyler has been working a lot with visual arts, especially photography. He has also slowly been working on a novel.

Sisyphean
by Skyler Pham

There was a time in my life
When I was the seagull, swallowing
Skin shed from all the flightless nights,
Sleepless nights. And everything
Seemed to resonate on the tips of my wings.

Then you came and laid a cold hand
On my head, fever nearly breaking my bones.
“Come on home,” you whispered,
“the oaks are miserable without you.”

And with that you returned to your home of leaves,
Made your bed with bees, and ate berries and seeds.
Meanwhile, I mended thirty pounds of weathered
Wings of all colors. I had been at the edge of town,
Reattaching the chords and breaking the boards.
Carving wood had never been a hobby of mine,
But I carved ten trembling towers that day.

You rose to your feet, as I rose to the top of the heap.
Dusting off the dangling beads, you wrote
A piece about the stars, and the sky, and the clouds.
Then I cried, fell to blistered knees and wept
For each word and rhyme that tickled my ears.

Penitence is it, Sisyphus?
I’d gladly clamber up that horrid hill
With you, only you.

Past Poets for Youth Inspiring Youth – Year 1

Alejandro Yanez, currently attending Merced College, wrote Sombra del Mar when he was 16. He started school in the US in seventh grade and was introduced to poetry when he joined a writers’ club in high school. According to Alejandro, “Then I discovered the power of writing and while performing I was able to say things from my own perspective. Writing is part of my life, it’s a way to express who I am.”

Sombra del Mar by Alejandro Yanez	Shadow in the Sea
El corazón no la quiere olvidar. Es un lucero, un momento de paz. Como ninguna, tú, bella luna. Quiero seguir esa sombra en el mar. Va navegando día y noche sin parar. Es un momento que no quiero olvidar. Mientas cierro los ojos tú te vas, y no me explico que te pudo pasar.	The heart doesn’t want to forget. It’s a star, a moment of peace. Like no one, you, beautiful moon I want to follow that shadow in the sea. It navigates day and night without stopping. It’s a moment I don’t want to forget. While I close my eyes you leave, and I can’t explain what happened to you.

Eric Pierson, who wrote Wit and Fright at age ten, attended Abington Friends School for Elementary and High School in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. Eric is currently majoring in Natural Resource Management at the University of Delaware, and enjoys the outdoors and hiking in upstate New York during the summer.

Wit and Fright
(A poem for two voices)
by Eric Pierson

Owl: Sleep all through the day, at night capture your prey.
Mouse: Savor the sun, it’s almost noon, darkness is coming soon.
Owl: In your eyes, lanterns burn bright, golden rays illuminate the night.
Mouse: Scrunched down low, trying to hear, your eyes ablaze with fear.
Owl: Flying, flying up on high swimming in dark pools of sky.
Mouse: Dark shadow hides the light not a speck of moon in sight
Owl: Dinner
Mouse: Gone