Wordplay 2017

Just Buffalo’s Annual Anthology of Student Writing

2017

www.justbuffalo.org

“Join Buffalo’s next generation of literary voices” Just Buffalo Writing Center offers free after-school workshops, access to literary events, and one-on-one assistance with student writing.

Tuesdays & Thursdays 3:30 - 6:00 pm Ages 12 - 18 468 Washington St. (2 nd Floor) Buffalo NY 14203 716 - 861- 9965

WORDPLAY

WORDPLAY VOLUME XVIII 2017 Editor NOAH FALCK Cover Art & Page Design JOEL BRENDEN

Just Buffalo Administration Executive Director LAURIE DEAN TORRELL Artistic Director BARBARA COLE Education Director NOAH FALCK Writing Center Coordinator ROBIN JORDAN Executive Assistant LYNDA KASZUBSKI Marketing Assistant KEVIN THURSTON Grantwriter KATHLEEN KEARNAN Accountant LINDA FISCHER Just Buffalo Literary Center 468 Washington Street • 2nd Floor Buffalo NY 14203 www.justbuffalo.org

The Baird Foundation Just Buffalo Literary Leadership Circle Children’s Foundation of Erie County Cameron & Jane Baird Foundation Eastern Hills Sunrise Rotary Foundation Robert J. & Martha B. Fierle Foundation Conable Family Foundation

Welcome to

WORDPLAY

Just Buffalo Literary Center has been placing poets and writers in schools throughout Western New York for more than 35 years. We enthusiastically embrace this part of our mission, which is to create and build communities through the literary arts. At Just Buffalo, we value the voices of young people and see them as an important part of our community.

Wordplay highlights the creative work of these young voices. The in-school writer residencies where this work was born are all about giving young people space and time to create. It gives students a place to share what they think and how they feel. We see this opportunity of voicing their imaginations as sacred. It’s something that too often gets pushed out of the classroom, replaced by test prep, rather than valued and understood as a journey of self-discovery.

The late, great poet, John Ashbery wrote, “The poem is a hymn to possibility, a celebration of the fact that the world exists, that things can happen.” The poems in this collection couldn’t reflect that more clearly. There are poems celebrating being alive Shout out to everybody, have a/beautiful life. There are poems closely noticing the world I see people dancing fire and flame,/smoke and ashes water dripping from the rain.

And there are hopeful poems translating the young imagination I am a tiger, ready for anything,/stalking the future. These poems written in classrooms during the school day by young writers in grades 3–8 are wise beyond their years, they are haunting, and beautiful and filled with magic and discovery, and we couldn’t be more excited to share them with you.

For the second year in a row, Wordplay has been designed as a têtebêche book or flipbook. One side of the book features poems that were written by students in the schools, and the flip side of the book showcases work generated by the talented young writers at the Just Buffalo Writing Center (JBWC).

Whether our young writers participated with a Just Buffalo teaching artist in their classrooms or at the JBWC, our hope is that they fall in love with the act of writing. We hope they continue to write and realize the power of their words, the importance of sharing their thoughts, and how they can change the world.

Noah Falck Education Director, Just Buffalo Literary Center

TABLE OF CONTENTS 7.

MY HEART – Ashlin A.

8.

THAT TIME – Felicita A.

9.

TO BREATHE – Rawan A.

10. RELEASE – LiAnne Abrams 11. HOW I CALM DOWN – Kameron Akright 12. HAPPY PLACE – Joey Burg 13. WHO I WAS – Joei C. 14. EL PADROTE DEL GRANAU / THE LEADER OF THE PACK

– Felix Llanos Calderon 15. MY DREAMS – Daisy Caban 17. I WISH WITH HER – Carlo Lacen Carmona 18. NATURE – Shelby Ceratt 19. CHILL – Kristen Cocco 20. THE BEE – Sherlie Colón 21. LIFE – Joseph Commisso 22. THE DARK RAVEN – Will Cortez Perez 23. GLOOM – Mahammadou D. 24. MOODS – Maria De Los Angeles 25. MY LIFE – Rahkeem Edwards 26. EL PAJARO NEGRO / THE BLACK BIRD – Rafael Estrada 27. SNOWFLAKES AND SINGING – Brihanna Arce Felix 28. THE ARTIST – Lucy Fuentes 29. RHYME TIME – Ricardo G. 30. THAT TIME – Waleska G. 31. MY SECRET PLACE – Ben Gerstung 32. MUSIC OF OUR LIVES – Alaysia H. 33. IDC – Robert H. 34. DO NOT WAKE THEM – Joseph Higgins 35. I AM A POET – Carly Hoffman 36. BUTTERFLY – Cooper Holland 37. AUTUMN NIGHT – Tessa Irvine 38. BEYOND SIGHT – Princess Sarai Jones 39. GOING NOWHERE – Alexander K. 40. POEM – Michael K. 41. LIVE EACH DAY WELL AND WISELY – Whitley Koopman

TABLE OF CONTENTS

42. THE WATER AND THE CLOUDS – Jahdai L. 43. I AM – Ava Lombard 44. I SEE – Abdulqawi M. 45. EARTHLY THINGS – Jacorey Martinez 46. LOVE POEM – Jeishka Martinez 47. THE ARCTIC ANIMALS – James McNeil 48. I LOVE IT – Rhiannon Muzzy 49. THE LIGHT OF THE EARTH – Tommy Pacheco 50. ABOUT HIM – Nahomi Paneto 51. CRAZY ROLLERCOASTER – Dalavan Phengsomphane 52. THE COW – Kerializ Pizzaro 53. MY FOREVERS – Jackson Pragle 54. MY LIFE – Dylan Rivera Resto 55. A PLACE OF PEAC – Ethan Robinson 56. AS IF – Eva Sage 57. EL PODER / THE POWER – Miguel Santiago Alicea 59. LA LUNA / MOON – Nicole Santiago Alicea 61. THE SILENT RIVER – Alexandra Santos 62. IF I COULD – Genesse Serpa 63. CAN’T STOP ME – Asher Sikora 64. I THINK ABOUT – Skye Smoke 65. LET’S HAVE A TOAST – Yanzel Soto 66. DARK NIGHT – Hannah Spring 67. A PLACE OF GRACE – Morgan Tomporowski 68. CHLOE – Ani’yh Vanevery 69. DANCING WITH SPIRITS – Rosemary Van Every 70. THE LOST BLACKBIRD – Fabian Vega 71. THE DREAMER – Adamaris Velazquez 72. THE MIDNIGHT FOX – Kayla Villeda 73. I AM THE CRANE – Angel Virella 74. TALKING – Chamarr W. 75. MY HEART & ME – Kamani W. 76. SLANT OF LIGHT – Tanija Walker 77. YOU KNOW – Junior Weagba 78. KEEP DREAMING – Sierra Witnauer

6

Ashlin A.

7

MY HEART

My heart is made of water My heart is made out of fire My heart is made out of broken down walling I am racing My heart is feel like Kodak black My heart My heart My heart My heart Remember that

Lackawanna Middle School Grade 6

Felicita A.

8

THAT TIME

I was mad at my friend but didn’t tell her why that time I sung on stage that time I couldn’t sleep I couldn’t sleep because I was coloring and listening to music I wish you knew I wish you knew about me I wish you knew that I love to have fun and play around I like to run and I like to draw I like to sing

Lackawanna Middle School Grade 8

Rawan A.

9

TO BREATHE

To breathe to sing to look around the inhale exhale to have an adventure.

The voice out loud loud and clear To be the one and the only one

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

LiAnne Abrams

10

RELEASE

A summer day. I can feel the warmth on my skin. I lie in shade or sun.

I lie in shade, then sun, as I read my favorite book. After I read, I swim. My body feels so free, at last, no more stress.

My release is a summer day.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Kameron Akright

11

HOW I CALM DOWN

In my room I calm down, watching cars going by. When I count how many colors of cars I see red, blue, green, silver. The cars calm me down as they pass.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Joey Burg

12

HAPPY PLACE

In my basement in a big corner is my happy place.

It is the sound of the sea, it smells like bananas and smoothies and I bring a book and a flashlight and I read as the lights around me are dark.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Joei C

13

WHO I WAS

One time Ms. _ annoyed me by telling me to write One time Ms. _ aggravated me because she kept talking One time someone judged me and said I wasn’t Spanish because I’m white I wish people knew how bullying really was I wish people knew the meaning of life Some don’t know how bad it hurts when you get bullied I wish people knew who I was

Lackawanna Middle School Grade 7

Felix Llanos Calderon

14

EL PADROTE DEL GRANAU

Yo soy el toro de el granao Yo soy el padrote y paso las hembras por el rio, peleo contra otros toros para defender de mi granao y somos una ma nada de vacas veo la aves en el cielo cuando pasa mas galopando por entre los arboles.

THE LEADER OF THE PACK

I am the bull of the herd I am the leader. I pass females by the river. I fight other bulls to defend my herd, it’s a cow thing.

I see birds in the sky when I pass galloping through the trees.

Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy, PS 76 Grade 5

Daisy Caban

15

MY DREAMS

My Dreams are about a planet, it is red as lava when I go I melt, but I grow back. I have powers, whoosh whoosh I am lava girl I watch from the sky I am the wind the lava people and animals they blow up and then they grow up. I love how they jump into the exploding lava aah aah when my dreams are over I try to go to sleep again and I do but every time it is different Some are on other planets, when the lava people came I scared them away, I saw something it was a lava animal it was a unicorn, her name was Mila and mine is Lila. I was scared

Daisy Caban

16

but she was hurt.

Dreams I tried to help her even though I was scared I did help her because I am an animal helper lava girl my house is made of lava rocks my bed, rugs, shower, and blanket, books, my coffee, my friends, my lights my friendship is a diamond necklace the clouds don’t rain, they rain rocks, lava the trees are on fire and the branches are red I am Lila and this is Mila, our friendship is a diamond necklace

Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy, PS 76 Grade 5

Carlo Lacen Carmona

17

I WISH WITH HER

My mom is pretty like the moon She is the one that can control the moon She always helps me and I like when her hair waves in the wind.

She is white like milk.

When she cooks, I get dizzy. And when she sings the birds sing with her.

When I’m sad. When I’m in danger she protects me with her wings.

She is an angel who loves everyone.

Without my mom, I could not live.

She is the one that wakes me up.

I love my mom so much, like the whole universe.

For her, I’d do anything.

Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy, PS 76 Grade 5

Shelby Ceratt

18

NATURE

The big juicy apple shines in the sun and glares onto the grass The sweet smell of lilies freshen the air and brings folks around to pick them The clear river shines in the moonlight, the fish’s scales make it so much prettier A leaf falls from a tree, water droplets fall from the leaf making a rainbow across the grass But the most beautiful thing is nature and the time it took to create it.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Kristen Cocco

19

CHILL

My chill spot is a high rock in the woods in my backyard. My hair flies in the wind, and my hard feelings drop out of my mind.

There my sis is never near so quiet is what I get. The I lay asleep in the form of a sleeping cat. After a while I go inside, get my pad and then write a story that is calm. Just like my mind.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Sherlie ColĂłn

20

THE BEE

The Bee is yellow like the sun.

The bee is singing on top of the rocks.

There are no people.

There are flowers everywhere.

There is a brown house.

The sun brightening the world.

The sky is blue like tears in people´s eyes.

Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy, PS 76 Grade 5

Joseph Commisso

21

LIFE a fortune cookie poem

A snake with legs slithers across a rock as it sticks out its tongue.

I am up and get ideas finally. I fold up paper we call origami.

I do it again and again and get somewhere.

Never ignore a gut feeling, but never think it’s enough.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Will Cortez Perez

22

THE DARK RAVEN

I’m the raven lost in the forest.

I see a hill by the river that leads to the ocean.

I’m the raven that animals fear in the forest.

I’m the raven that blends into the dark, that no one sees in the dark.

I’m the mysterious blackbird.

Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy, PS 76 Grade 5

Mahammadou D.

23

GLOOM

1.

I see a war a war between countries a war where no one can win a war where the world is gloomy a great depression upon everybody a great evil has arrived and no one can stop it the only way to win is by having hope

2.

All hope has been lost after all what is it for for she has lost her son in the battle and forever and ever she will miss him for he, he had hope something everybody needed

Lackawanna Middle School Grade 7

Maria De Los Angeles

24

MOODS

Even these moods can control the motion of life feeling the breeze with ease the coaster real bright Although my soul is lost in the stream down it goes with all my dreams Sirens and sirens calling my name oh, shame and pain with blame

All these moods Happy, sad, depression, aggression Hollow…sorrow

All these moods… except your love…

and your hugs.

D’Youville Porter Campus School, PS 3 Grade 6

Rahkeem Edwards

25

MY LIFE

My life isn’t hard but I watch my Mom struggle and sometimes I got to find the piece to the puzzle.

I play football, I’m in a football zone, that’s why I got this pencil in my hand writing this poem.

I wish I could fly, soar through the sky, move things that I don’t want here with my mind.

Losing my Mom, I would be scared.

I’m from New York City, if you silly, you won’t live.

I like purple and I’m silly and Wonderland is so pretty.

My favorite song is I Spy With My Little Eye, and I can see my teacher helping me with all her might.

D’Youville Porter Campus School, PS 3 Grade 6

Rafael Estrada

26

EL PAJARO NEGRO Yo quiero ser un pajaro volar hacía la luna y las estrellas.

Yo miro hacía la luna con mi canto En un árbol cantó con mi pío-pío.

Y mi canto se lo dedico a la luna.

THE BLACK BIRD I’d like to be a bird fly towards the moon and the stars.

I look towards the moon with my song.

In a tree I sang with my chirp chirp.

And my song I dedicate to the moon.

Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy, PS 76 Grade 5

Brihanna Arce Felix

27

SNOWFLAKES AND SINGING

Shout out to winter snowflakes falling on your warm face from the dark blue sky Shout out to rain clouds getting ready to throw water everywhere in the world Shout out to my friends helping me when things go wrong Shout out to animals taking care of their cute babies and having fun Shout out to everybody, have a beautiful life Shout out to people who sing Keep on singing Shout out to your family, take care of each other and have a lovely day Shout out to everyone that helps us

Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy, PS 76 Grade 5

Lucy Fuentes

28

THE ARTIST

I’ve been given a rainbow on a wooden palette.

I can make the world on my blank canvas.

I can make things my reality that people only dream of.

I am the artist.

My vividness makes others learn to imagine.

People may tell me that I’m just dreaming when I am the only one truly awake and living.

I am the only one who embraces the beauty of every day, when others push it away.

I am the artist.

I paint the blank pages of my life’s book.

D’Youville Porter Campus School, PS 3 Grade 6

Ricardo G.

29

RHYME TIME

cold building up cold the sun set unfold but we didn’t notice why you didn’t show us because you don’t know us the only reason I talked is because you wrote me up.

Lackawanna Middle School Grade 6

Waleska G.

30

THAT TIME

That time I fell down the stairs.

That time I got suspended.

That time I got stopped by Mrs. _ because of my shirt.

That time.

Bullying is an addiction I wish people knew how bullying really was.

I wish people knew how I felt I wish

Lackawanna Middle School Grade 8

Ben Gerstung

31

MY SECRET PLACE

When my cousin keeps annoying me at my grandma’s house, I climb to the tallest tree. It has very sturdy branches.

I sit on them and I see my grandma through the window. She looks as small as an ant. It smells like pines and maple.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Alaysia H.

32

MUSIC OF OUR LIVES

Movement sways shadows spinning strings blue ballet golden hands tap glass we put our hands together to applaud music my love stay young for our generation will evolve

Lackawanna Middle School Grade 7

Robert H.

33

IDC

My heart is like obsidian.

My heart is a Dare Devil My heart’s nickname is “Always Believe” My heart isn’t the coolest shape.

My heart is the second weakest part of my body.

My heart is like Ray Lewis.

Goes out my chest and FLIES High

Lackawanna Middle School Grade 6

Joseph Higgins

34

DO NOT WAKE THEM based on a fortune cookie fortune

right behind our house are four baby deer and one dad deer. I wanted to whisper to him “take the initiative and others will support you�

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Carly Hoffman

35

I AM A POET I am a sweet strawberry hanging off a tree.

I am May, warm and cold, swaying in the air.

I am a deer, silk fur dancing in the sunlight, hopping in the grass.

I am a drum banging in day, and a flute playing in the night.

I am an alligator, spiky back with sharp teeth, swaying in the lush swamp.

I am a river that rushes against the rocks and never stops running.

I am a leaf in the starry night, swaying around in the river, always new, never old.

I am a sunny day, heating up the day. In the night you can’t see me, but I’m up there.

Where I’ll go will never fall, where I am will break.

Graceful, shooting, an eagle is me, catching slimy fish with shiny scales.

I am a tiger, ready for anything, stalking the future.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Cooper Holland

36

BUTTERFLY

I go to my room, close the door.

I play on my phone to get me some peace.

I put my phone down and meditate.

I’m as peaceful as a butterfly.

I don’t get mad or sad. I’m just quiet and peaceful.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Tessa Irvine

37

AUTUMN NIGHT

One autumn night I was walking and I saw a golden leaf fall onto a deer’s horn.

Then the deer stared at me.

So I ran to a tree and climbed.

I sat on a very high branch and watched the beautiful world.

You can believe in yourself even if it looks hard.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Princess Sarai Jones

38

BEYOND SIGHT

To things beyond sight beyond stars beyond the rays of the sun what’s beyond is a mystery that will only be discovered by the bravest of the brave.

My imagination, my mind, my personality, I am what’s beyond and beyond is me.

D’Youville Porter Campus School, PS 3 Grade 6

Alexander K.

39

GOING NOWHERE

The arrow aiming aiming shot the dear no more_ _ _ _ _ gone the 7-leg man standing tall the mystery staircase to nowhere the wheel spinning spinning shutter the where of everything going_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ nowhere

Lackawanna Middle School Grade 6

Michael K.

40

POEM

I see people dancing fire and flame, smoke and ashes water dripping from the rain.

Lackawanna Middle School Grade 7

Whitley Koopman

41

LIVE EACH DAY WELL AND WISELY a fortune cookie poem

I wake up early, before anybody else.

I have big plans all by myself.

I have many things to do.

It is a beautiful morning.

The birds are singing but I am the only one there to hear them.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Jahdai L.

42

THE WATER AND THE CLOUDS

Consider the water and even the drops and puddles in motion some fraction rise into the temperature and leaves stick to each other the roots form clouds around the sky the water is cool enough without grass

Lackawanna Middle School Grade 6

Ava Lombard

43

I AM

I am an overcast day in April.

I am a cat prowling on the grassy ground.

I am water flowing from a huge waterfall.

I am a speedy, hot pink Mustang.

I am a very thick dictionary.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Abdulqawi M.

44

I SEE

I see a hand but not a regular hand I see a bird on a thumb but not a regular thumb I see flowers glooming I see some blooming but not all are glooming

Lackawanna Middle School Grade 7

Jacorey Martinez

45

EARTHLY THINGS

Here’s to the trees and the birds, oxygen the paper alphabet ABC and the numbers 1, 2, and 3 our paper, pencils, DNA, the double helix.

The bees, flowers, the seasons, Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall, and planets, the solar system, Milky Way, confusion.

Anger, sorrow, grief, language, English, people big small average lean tall the books knowledge schools inventors movies games.

Houses cards cardboard trains buses planets cars spaceships bikes time asteroids life death power heaven God Angels Earth Satan

D’Youville Porter Campus School, PS 3 Grade 6

Jeishka Martinez

46

LOVE POEM

I love you like the sky and the moon. I see you like the sun and the brightness. You are just like a butterfly in the darkness. You shine like a star.

D’Youville Porter Campus School, PS 3 Grade 6

James McNeil

47

THE ARCTIC ANIMALS

I am the arctic air with no mouth but my cool air still bites you.

I am the freezing water numbing your toes.

I am the polar bear hiding in the white snow, daring you to walk by. I am the winter wolf hunting its prey, waiting for the moment to attack.

I am the earth, home for all, I will never fall.

Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy, PS 76 Grade 5

Rhiannon Muzzy

48

I LOVE IT

I love when I can see the sunset I can feel the wind I can go wherever I want But the only thing I can’t see is the real you.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Tommy Pacheco

49

THE LIGHT OF THE EARTH

The light shines through the air and animals are running to the sunset, eating the green grass, and the hind is talking to the light and the hind likes to hide like a mouse.

The trees are really silent.

The pack is very silent.

In the sky, the moon is bright like a star.

Snow is like the wind surrounding the earth.

In Puerto Rico, the sky is really shiny.

Sun goes down, the moon goes up.

Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy, PS 76 Grade 5

Nahomi Paneto

50

ABOUT HIM

He’s so sweet like a pineapple. He runs fast like a bunny. His light brown skin is like honey. His hair is brown and blond. His eyes are brown like coffee. He is super tall. He can touch the roof.

D’Youville Porter Campus School, PS 3 Grade 6

Dalavan Phengsomphane

51

CRAZY ROLLERCOASTER altered page poem from Alice in Wonderland

The right words

must be so many lessons

I shall only look up but I am so VERY tired looked down surprised to see

little white kid talking

CAN I have done that?

I must be high

or shrinking rapidly soon found out

the cause of this

D’Youville Porter Campus School, PS 3 Grade 6

Kerializ Pizzaro

52

THE COW

The cow stands, wind in its fur.

I like the wind smashing in my face and walking on the soft grass looking at the fish swimming in the wonderful water, looking at the mountain, wondering if I could eat it.

I could bathe in the magical mountain.

Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy, PS 76 Grade 5

Jackson Pragle

53

MY FOREVERS

I feel like I want to run forever.

I smell the fresh air.

I like to hold a stick, long and proud, ready to play lacrosse.

I like to ride my bike to get my stress out.

Sometimes I love to run a mile or two.

I love to watch deer with their white tails, just running away from the road, hoping not to be gone.

I love to pet my cat, hoping not to get bit.

I love to ride with my dad on his fourwheeler, the wind in my face.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Dylan Rivera Resto

54

MY LIFE

I’m a salmon swimming in the sea.

I have yellow eyes.

They shine like two moons.

I feel like a powerful salmon.

When I jump up, I feel like I’m flying in the wind.

Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy, PS 76 Grade 5

Ethan Robinson

55

A PLACE OF PEACE

My peaceful place is on the roof of my Nana and Pa’s shed.

I like to talk to myself about what I’m thinking. I climb up just before sunset so I can watch it happen. I see an orange and red sky. I feel like a light wind’s blowing on my skin. It is a beautiful spot and I love it.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Eva Sage

56

AS IF

As if As if As if As if As if As if As if As if

it was looking down, feathers fall it was looking down, the hills fade to spring it was cawing to see danger the wings, the feathers are flapping it flew in the clouds and faded into one the feathers fall the claws disappear it’s a cloud still flying never stopped, never will

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Miguel Santiago Alicea

57

EL PODER

Cuando la luna y el sol se juntan, soy el color rojo como una fresa. Las nubes tan blancas, la luna brillando como una luz de un angel; los arboles y los peces nadando y el sol brillando, amo a mi hermana parace un angel y la iglesia como un angel el cielo tan azul, la playa con muchos peces y tiburones los caracoles moviendose lentamente Las aves volando y cantando, los sapos saltando alto y los gallos cantando cuando me levantaba me sentia como un angel

Miguel Santiago Alicea

58

THE POWER

When the moon and the sun come together, I am the color red like a strawberry. Clouds so white, the moon shining like the light of an angel, the trees, and the fishes swimming, and the sun shining, love my sister who looks like an angel, and the church like an angel the sky so blue, the beach with many fish and sharks shells moving slowly the birds flying and singing, frogs jumping high and the chickens singing waking me I felt like an angel

Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy, PS 76 Grade 5

Nicole Santiago Alicea

59

LA LUNA

Yo soy el leรณn que le canta a la luna.

Yo soy la luna que sale al anoche yo soy el alcoiris que sale brillante como una Estrella yo soy el sonido del mar como el viento yo soy la lluvia que cai como una gota de lagrimas yo soy el color azul como el cielo y el mar yo soy el color blanco como las nubes yo soy brillante como el sol y la luna yo soy como el silencio como el bosque yo soy la sombra como tambien la luz.

Nicole Santiago Alicea

60

MOON

I am the lion that sings to the moon.

I am the moon that was out last night I am the rainbow that comes out bright like a star I am the sound of the sea, the wind I am the rain that drops like tears I am the blue color of the sky and sea I am the color white as clouds I am as bright as the sun and the moon I am like silence, like the forest I am the shadow as well as the light.

Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy, PS 76 Grade 5

Alexandra Santos

61

THE SILENT RIVER

When I want silence I go to the river.

The birds are singing in the highest tree. The silence feels like a dream and I could fall asleep but I don’t fall asleep.

Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy, PS 76 Grade 5

Genesse Serpa

62

IF I COULD

If I could give you one thing in life, I would give you the ability to see yourself through my eyes, only then would you realize how special you are to me.

My pain turned to sadness and my sadness to anger. My anger grew into hate and I have forgotten how to smile.

I hide my tears when I say your name, but the pain in my heart is still the same. Although I smile and seem carefree, there is no one who misses you more than me.

D’Youville Porter Campus School, PS 3 Grade 6

Asher Sikora

63

CAN’T STOP ME

You can’t stop me when I’m biking biking biking I lift off the ground now I’m flying over Brazil. I see the farms and land, wait, I see an airplane flying by. You can’t stop me, I’m biking.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Skye Smoke

64

I THINK ABOUT

For where I go for where I stand no matter where I go I will always be the silent wind, a blue whale’s spout.

I’m the water that comes out of the spout, a shining blue lake.

I will be Mother Nature herself, controlling the thing around.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Yanzel Soto

65

LET’S HAVE A TOAST

Let’s all have a toast to the ones that protect us, all the ones who care and also share.

They’re with us everywhere.

Forget about the people that don’t care, even if I fall down the stairs.

I can be anywhere and they will always be there.

D’Youville Porter Campus School, PS 3 Grade 6

Hannah Spring

66

DARK NIGHT

I woke up and I saw a graceful, happy, dancing dragon outside my window.

And I heard the wind calling my name.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Morgan Tomporowski

67

A PLACE OF GRACE

A place of grace, my tree house, yes, is my place of grace. I sneak out to my back yard. And just sit down and think.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Ani’yh Vanevery

68

CHLOE

I remember you like the porcelain doll that my grandma gave me. You’re in New Mexico and I’m in New York, but we are still together.

I remember you like the sun remembers the moon, like a cat remembers how to breathe, like a dog remembers how to bark and, in case you haven’t noticed, you were the best dog ever.

D’Youville Porter Campus School, PS 3 Grade 6

Rosemary Van Every

69

DANCING WITH SPIRITS

As I dance I feel the wind in my yard I hear the music with my mind also I feel something cold with me as I dance it’s holding my hand.

It is a spirit I feel something warm in my heart my whole body feels good and I will never feel that ever again. I still feel my grandma here walking with me to the house.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

Fabian Vega

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THE LOST BLACKBIRD

I imagine that I’m in a blackbird world and it started.

I was walking through a cave and I saw a lot of crazy blackbirds and I got out of the cave, there was a blackbird by himself and he was looking for his family and he was scared of me.

Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy, PS 76 Grade 5

Adamaris Velazquez

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THE DREAMER

He’s taken my heart and ripped it apart.

He’s taken my heart and glued it back together.

He gave me his heart but I threw it away.

He said “I love you,” but I stayed silent.

I may have made you up, but you’re like a god in the sky.

I know my true love’s out there, but when are we gonna meet each other?

He’s as sly as a fox.

He’s like a crow soaring through the night sky.

Even though we meet in our dreams, he’s gone faster than the speed of light.

I may not know who or what you are but I do know that we’ll meet someday.

I know that we’ll see each other in our dreams again and again until we meet.

D’Youville Porter Campus School, PS 3 Grade 6

Kayla Villeda

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THE MIDNIGHT FOX

cold wind blowing through the air, stars shine bright in the dark blue sky, trees dancing in the wind, leaves flowing through the air. The fox howls in the midnight sky.

D’Youville Porter Campus School, PS 3 Grade 6

Angel Virella

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I AM THE CRANE

I am the crane quiet, waiting there.

I am the crane feeling lonely. I am the crane that flies over the sky. I am the crane waiting for the fish to come swimming.

I am the crane that you cannot see.

I am the crane that you can only see in your dreams.

I am the crane you would love to see.

I am the crane waiting for the full moon.

I am the crane, the only crane.

Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy, PS 76 Grade 5

Chamarr W.

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TALKING

People talking about me teachers kick me out of class this person slaps me somebody talking about my mom my brother be running after me sometimes some people be talking about my name when a person be getting me mad because they be talking stuff

Lackawanna Middle School Grade 6

Kamani W.

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MY HEART & ME

My heart laughs when it’s meant to cry My heart is loving My heart forgives My heart loves kids My heart is a frozen zone My heart forgives but doesn’t forget My heart still holds love My heart deserves to be treated right

Lackawanna Middle School Grade 6

Tanija Walker

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SLANT OF LIGHT inspired by a line by Emily Dickinson

There’s a certain slant of light April afternoons, it is cold like Antarctica the snow is white like the clouds, it lives on the tiles of the roof the way birds live in the trees.

D’Youville Porter Campus School, PS 3 Grade 6

Junior Weagba

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YOU KNOW

I’m not that cool but my friends say I am cool some of them say I don’t have a chance with you and some of them say you don’t have a chance with me. I will always help you I am nice—you know I am.

I know you look at me when I am not paying attention. I am reading this poem to you you know who you are.

D’Youville Porter Campus School, PS 3 Grade 6

Sierra Witnauer

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KEEP DREAMING

I open the door from my house.

I see China! The air smells sweet as fortune cookies and rice. I walk down the street, I see lots of dragons and lions. People are shouting with excitement.

I dance with my Chinese clothes on and scream with everybody around me. I was having such a good time. “Dinner,� shouted to my mom. I opened my eyes. It was all in my imagination. I really want to go to China. I guess I have to keep on dreaming.

Akron Elementary School Grade 3

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Just Buffalo Teaching Artists

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Meet the talented team of writers, artists, and educators who represent Just Buffalo Literary Center through the work they do with young writers throughout Western New York whether at the Just Buffalo Writing Center, in the community, or during our creative writing programs in the schools.

SUSAN HODGE ANNER is a poet, playwright, and essayist whose work has been performed both locally and in New York, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, and Washington, D.C. She taught Theatre at the University of Buffalo for 22 years, and is now an Artist-in-Residence at Women and Children’s Hospital through UB’s Center for the Arts Arts in Healthcare.

She is the author of the blog "What I Know Right Now” and is also a certified special education teacher who has taught workshops in improving written and verbal communication skills with students with physical, intellectual, and emotional disabilities.

is an artist and educator working within a broad range of disciplines including photography and bookmaking. A native of Washington State, he received his MFA in Visual Studies from the State University at Buffalo in 2008. His recent exhibitions include Beyond/In Western New York: Alternating Currents & Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center. Find him online at thelessyousee.com.

JOEL BRENDEN

BENJAMIN BRINDISE is a spoken word poet and fiction writer. He represented Buffalo, New York in the 2015 National Poetry Slam and has been a featured poet across the region and Canada. He is the author of Rotten Kid

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Just Buffalo Teaching Artists

(Ghost City Press, 2017) and I Was a Lid (Amazon, 2013).

His work has appeared in Tangent Literary Magazine, Down in the Dirt, Brotha Magazine, and the Enriched with Dirt Anthology.

LUKE DALY writes and teaches writing at SUNY Fredonia and Daemen College. Some of his recent poetry, fiction, and non-fiction appear in Minnesota English Journal, Subtropics, Comstock Review, and Architrave Press.

is a scholar, musician, activist, and sound/performance-based poet currently pursuing a PhD in English at SUNY, University at Buffalo. His writing has been published in The International Journal of Zizek Studies and Umbr(a): a journal of the unconscious.

ADAM DRURY

is the author of two books of poetry from Black Ocean Press, a member of the publishing collective Hostile Books, and a researcher for Justice for Migrant Families of Western New York. His next book, Someone Utopia, will be published Spring 2018. He lives in Kenmore, New York.

JOE HALL

is the managing editor at NOĂ– Journal. She is the author of an Author Collection (Awst Press, 2015), the chapbook Pony at the Super (Horse Less Press), and the oneact play Undark. Katz exhibited Boywitch Codex: Hypertexts as Artist in Residence at Dreamland Arts in Buffalo, NY in February 2017. Her work is forthcoming in Third Coast and Jellyfish Magazine.

RE KATZ

Just Buffalo Teaching Artists

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is a graduate of the master’s program in English at Western Illinois University, where she studied language, identity, and the intersections between queer, feminist, and disability theory. Jess is a scholar, educator, editor, performer, and writer. She has taught composition courses at three colleges, and works at present for Prometheus Books, the Buffalo Public Schools, and the Jewish Repertory Theatre of Western New York. Jess was awarded the 2014 Gloria Anzaldúa Rhetorician Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication; and her poems, articles, and reviews have appeared in a number of publications, including The Comstock Review, Lambda Literary, Gender Focus, Sinister Wisdom, Lavender Review, Diverse Voices Quarterly, Wilde Magazine, and The Feminist Wire.

JESSICA LAKE MASON

CHERYL QUIMBA received an MFA in poetry from Purdue University. Her poems have appeared in Dusie, Phoebe, Tinfish, Everyday Genius, 1913, and Horseless Review. She is the author of the poetry collection Nobody Dancing (Publishing Genius) and the chapbook Scattered Trees Grow in Some Tundra (Sunnyoutside Press). With Joe Hall, she co-authored the digital chapbook May I Softly Walk: The Santa Fe Journals (Poetry Crush). Cheryl is the literary editor of Free Inquiry magazine, and she works for Prometheus Books in Amherst, New York.

is an artist and writer living in Buffalo, New York, where co-curates hystericallyreal.com. He is the author of exit ambition (Dostoevsky Wannabe), NO RESULTS (Luma/89plus), and TAPE 181 (Gauss PDF).

His recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in West Wind Review, P-Queue, Best American Experimental Writing 2015, PANK, and BlazeVOX. JAKE REBER

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Just Buffalo Teaching Artists

SHERRY ROBBINS has conducted creative writing workshops throughout New York State and abroad for more than 30 year and works with hundreds of students each year. She has a Masters in the poetics of ecstasy and two books of poetry, Snapshots of Paradise and Or, the Whale. Sherry ran her own letterpress for years, is a certified yoga teacher, and a multi-year panelist for the NEA’s Art Works program.

is a writer and educator based in Buffalo, NY, author of the collection Organizing Isolation: Half-Lives of Love at Long Distance (Linoleum Press, 2017) and the chapbook Seventeen Songs for Henry (forthcoming), a collaboration with the illustrator Darren Canham. Notable essays and interviews have appeared on CNN, in London’s The White Review, and in Buffalo’s Traffic East. He is a frequent music critic and travel writer for The Skinny, and is co-editor of Foundlings, a biannual poetry magazine.

AIDAN RYAN

is an award winning artist and art educator. Her work has been exhibited widely in museums and galleries throughout Western New York including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Burchfield-Penney Art Center, and The Castellani Art Museum.

She recently completed a one-year fellowship program through the New York Foundation for the Arts. In addition to exhibiting in local museums and galleries, Catherine has participated in many public art projects including “Herd About Buffalo” and “Art on Wheels.” She is represented by Studio E Partners in Washington, D.C. Her work is in private collections across the United States.

CATHERINE LINDER SPENCER

Just Buffalo Teaching Artists

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MAX WEISS is a Buffalo native cartoonist and songwriter whose work has appeared in Pukumber, Demonyms, and The Boston Hassle. He received a BA in English Literature and Art Education at the University of Vermont in 2012. He has self-released eight albums of independent music and performs locally as one half of the avant-garde pop group Welks Mice. His first graphic novel, Papa Time was published by Hypnotic Dog Press in 2015.

is a poet, translator, and aerialist living in Buffalo, New York. Her first book, Suelo Tide Cement, won the 2016 Nightboat Books Poetry Prize and will be published in 2018. She teaches writing and movement with The Bird’s Nest Circus Arts, the Geneseo Migrant Center, Just Buffalo Literary Center, and Young Audience of Western New York.

CHRISTINA VEGA-WESTHOFF

has been writing poetry since she was 5 and performing since age 12. She holds a B.A. in Entrepreneurial Creative Business Arts from Warren Wilson College. A Grand Slam finalist in 2005-2008 for the Nickel City Poetry Slam and a member of the 2006 Nickel City Slam team at the National Poetry Slam, Janna is also an editor for Earth's Daughters literary magazine, the longest running women's publication in the country. She has been performing with her band, BloodThirsty Vegans since 2008. They are currently at work on their second studio album. She also runs her own business making handmade paper and books and teaching workshops.

JANNA WILLOUGHBY-LOHR

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Just Buffalo Writing Center

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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4 WALLS – Angel Barber WILDERNESS – Theo Bellavia-Frank AFTER “SOMEDAY I’LL LOVE OCEAN VUONG” – Danielle Brown-Cashdollar DAMN MY MORTAL COIL – Darren Cameron-Turner DEPRESSION – Vianca Colón AFTER “LADY AGNEW OF LOCHNAW” – Eden Donelli VIP LUNCHEON – Ates Dosluoglu COOL GIRL MOON – Sage Enderton “CAMERA” – Carson Feero THE BASEMENT – Ryan Fortner SHOWER THOUGHTS/EXISTENTIALISM/DAILY OBSERVATIONS – Sophia Giordano POST-APOCALYPTIC PEACE – Lucy Handman SHANTELL MARTIN’S ARTWORK – Lucy Handman and Hemingway Lovullo THERE’S A MOMENT – Kareem Haq EARTHLY DELIGHT – Sumayyah Haq SKY ALIENS – Rob Hill PORTRAIT OF AN APPLE W/ A BITE MISSING – Birch Kinsey MASSIVE QUADRILATERAL IN THE SKY – Alaya Kirkley POETRY – Aaron Lebediker AFTER “LIFE UPSIDE DOWN” – Hemingway Lovullo CANNED BEANS – Hannah Nathanson NINA’S OBJECT – Miles O’Brien ON THE TRAIN – London Patterson ECHOES – Ikuris Perry ROUGE / RED – Trinity Ridout BUFFALO SAVINGS BANK – Sam Turecki TELL ME ABOUT THE WAR – Jackie Vu MARXIST PHILOSOPHER FRIEND – Amber Ye

Welcome to the JUST BUFFALO WRITING CENTER

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I’ve never written like this before and I didn’t even know I could. (Vianca)

Each week, after a long day at school, young writers in our community head to Just Buffalo Literary Center’s Writing Center (JBWC) to learn what they are capable of with just a pen and paper, to use literature as a lens to examine their world.

And our world is swelling with hurt and our young people can feel it. It seeps from these poems. They are beautiful and painful and will break your heart, then put it back together again, sore and cracked, but whole. Read these poems and be reminded that spaces like the JBWC are crucial. Because teens especially need the space and time to speak freely, to experiment with language without fear of judgment, to use words to process and to play.

At the JBWC, young people write to consider the weirdness of being human:

i am starting to think my life is just a can of beans. i panic. (Hannah) To question:

I’m looking and looking and I don’t know why/ Other than/ I want an answer. (Rob)

To express their rage: I don’t care if it’s a rock or a rocket station/ just get me off of this place./ I don’t talk about myself anymore.

(Ikuris)

To console:

She teaches me that the things I regret are not regretful things. (Sage)

To embolden:

None of us can remember it, but we/ all know it’s there./ The world is ours before we open our eyes. (Kareem)

To care for each other: Holding us up/ holding us up.

(Lucy and Hemingway)

They write about writing and relationships, inner demons and self-worth, depression and science, gender and race, sexuality and greed, the apocalypse and the environment, war and its refugees. They dream of a better world and create it, even just for a moment, on the page like a blueprint:

I’m not afraid anymore/ I’ll surround myself/ with those who appreciate/ me whole/ They will look at my skin and see me with love. (Birch)

If you are holding this book in your hands right now, congratulations. Listen close. Read it and rest easier. Read it and be restless. Read it and get to work. Then read it to someone else.

Robin Jordan Writing Center Coordinator Just Buffalo Literary Center

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Angel Barber

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4 WALLS in response to Savannah Brown’s “Burgundy Walls”

4 Walls…Burgundy…Living 3 Wheels Tied to the back of a banister. Spare.

For your Chevy Impala where we drove on cracked asphalt.

2 eyes.

A mixture of blue and a lighter shade of blue.

Those eyes that hold so much more than a brain’s capacity.

Those eyes that used to be mine.

One heart.

Beating and effervescent.

Beating as a drumstick cracking my skull and I give all my knowledge to you.

As I lay unconscious, my knowledge leaks through the window I peeked into Just to see how you were doing.

Just to see if you still felt something.

Just to see you.

Frederick Law Olmsted, PS 156 Grade 9

Theo Bellavia-Frank

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WILDERNESS

It was a cold, dreary summer and you were lost with just the neighboring deer It was startlingly calm Night fell Even your palm black as pitch In the morning you fled A look of relief coated your face

Amherst Middle School Grade 7

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Danielle Brown-Cashdollar

AFTER “SOMEDAY I’LL LOVE OCEAN VUONG”

Danielle, don’t be afraid to be who you are.

You are an amazing, beautiful person that just needs a little help to see the light of life, not the dark of life.

You just have to begin by forgiving the past. Forgive the people that might have hurt you. Forgive all the disappointments you had to experience. Forgive yourself that you are black. Forgive yourself for being born in a crazy world. Danielle, remember, your body is a temple of God. He created you for a reason. Don’t let life drive you away into the darkness.

Into death. Danielle, know that you are alive for a reason. You were meant to live a long fulfilled life with bumps in the road. Danielle, understand that life is not perfect. Life has its own plan for you. You can’t control what it brings you. You can only hope that God is inside you, protecting you. Danielle, it’s time for you to be in peace. Enjoy life. You need to be patient since the future is waiting for you and God is always there with you as long as you are good.

Danielle, don’t be afraid of the past. Don’t let it

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control you. Don’t let your anger towards mama and papa drive you to the edge.

Don’t let it destroy you.

Don’t let it lead you to death and don’t let it lead you to self harm, since your body is a temple of God. Danielle, don’t judge yourself so hard. Don’t think too much on the negatives of life. Life is its own problem, Danielle. Danielle release your pain and anger. Let it go.

Nobody can hurt you again. It’s not your fault. What other people do is not your responsibility.

Danielle, you can be free now.

You can enjoy your temple of God. You can enjoy life once again.

You can laugh, be happy again.

Danielle, forgive yourself for not being perfect. Forgive yourself for mistakes. Forgive the people that hurt you. Forgive the past. Move on to the future. It is waiting for you.

East Aurora High School Grade 10

Darren Cameron-Turner

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DAMN MY MORTAL COIL Somebody asked me whether taking all the parts off an old car and replacing them made it a new car.

And my answer would’ve been yes.

But then I remembered the skin replaces itself 900 times in an average lifespan.

So would that mean the average person had actually been 900 people?

If I called my mother would she be a different mother than she had been yesterday?

And what of me? …what of me…

Was I a new man today in comparison to me of old? Was I even still me?

Had I been me?

Who had I been before, what had been my purpose? When did I change?

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow and…

City Honors School, PS 195 Grade 11

Vianca Colón

10

DEPRESSION

Think of the discomfort of moving your feet in and out of the sheets.

Do you feel the panic?

Because I do.

Shuffling them in-between, different textures intervene, tea kettle fumes for breath and sticky saliva, summer-swooned eyes.

I am condemned to a heavy grey sweatshirt.

Shaky ankles and ditzy lungs sleepiness vibrates in my ribcage summer-swooned eyes shaded by cotton pillow cases hot rush rushing hotness rest with a flashlight in your eyes right pant leg up left pant leg down left up right down down to What am I going to do?

Not a sad self-reminding question but a “the more rhetoric you know, this line means nothing” question.

Kenmore East High School Grade 10

Eden Donelli

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AFTER “LADY AGNEW OF LOCHNAW”

Papa told me when I was very young to stop playing with birds.

“Let them fly,” he would say, “You have neither the authority nor the courage to pluck them so badly from the sky.” The day he died, I had been wearing a pink dress made of silk. Its long voluptuous sash cascaded with every skip as I returned from the forest. Although only a day old, the dress had started to tear through the brambles, leaving shreds of my mother’s handiwork scattered like stitches of the forest, sewing together the leaves of my childhood. Upon hearing the doctor pronounce my father dead, I had torn the dress ever more apart, uprooting whatever dignity had remained from trampling through the trees. My father was a merchant, almost never home, and concerned mostly with money. From his travels, he had acquired dark green drapes with gold Chinese lettering which he did not have the patience to decipher. From China, he also sent back silk, the same kind my mother used to sew my dress. I never treasured materials bought by Papa, they were the reminder of his absence in my life and his disapproving manners when he was here. Indeed, when I vowed to stop trying to shave my slight mustache and beard, Papa was blatantly against it. Well, see me now, Papa, perched like a queen with fine jewelry, perfectly at ease. Behind me is the green tapestry and wrapped around me is a sash made from the silken material of my torn dress. I am looking at you, Papa, and I have reminded the painter to include my facial hair. I challenge you, Papa. I do not know if the dead can see, but if you can, then you will surely notice the snowwhite pigeon in my hand. It looks at you too, Papa, for I have flown away.

City Honors School, PS 195 Grade 10

Ates Dosluoglu

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VIP LUNCHEON

The grass never looked greener than when the fire danced through the trees they said And they lounged in their country clubs sipping sparkling wine on manicured lawns laughing and talked of golf and color and gold and all matter of important things confident the inferno that blazed beyond their walls roaring the fury and thunder of hate Awakened was of no concern to them

City Honors School, PS 195 Grade 11

Sage Enderton

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COOL GIRL MOON I.

Somewhere in the concavity of the stars, my Goddess blinks antenna eyelashes and guides me. She tells me the emptiness that plagues me will fade, and that even the perishing organic moon I was born under will someday be reincarnated. The spaces between my fingers will be filled and the gleaming eyes of the carnivora will permeate mine. My Goddess holds a space in every flower I hang to dry. She finds a way to hook Her creeping fingers into my spine and let me know I am not alone. I think She put Us here together on purpose. The same continuum is difficult to recreate, and I know I will never pass the same double samara twice.

II.

She teaches me that the things I regret are not regretful things. I wish it had been you in my veins, sustaining me from the inside of an IV in a foreign city. I wish it had been me keeping your fists at b ay when you couldn’t do it yourself. I would have pulled my lungs out for you to breathe, if only you could breathe.

A long time ago I wanted to hold you, encase you like pink plastic covering and make sure you didn’t crack.

But everything cracks. We live underwater, in the midst of chaos and low oxygen, and when we finally start to surface, we stretch out for each other.

Sage Enderton

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III. People get new jobs, they find out they are allergic to general anesthesia, and I fall in love with you. The earth turns, the truth comes out, my good red lipstick breaks under pressure. I wish I had kissed you under the blistering sun of the dog days, sweaty and thriving and honey golden. I wish I had taken a white charcoal pencil to your apple crisp cheeks and connected every freckle until you were a sky of constellations with holograph eyes that only I could envision. The number of ancient rusting needles that have filled my head is too many for my silk doll hands. I wish I had showed them to you sooner. You taught me to throw them away and leave the cinerem for the birds.

City Honors School, PS 195 Grade 10

Carson Feero

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“CAMERA”

A sound comes from my left

People shifting around in their chairs, the quiet noise of some old game show on the TV.

and

Camera backs, shows three people

this one kid in particular

can’t seem to manage it.

Home School Grade 11

Ryan Fortner

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THE BASEMENT

Poetry lies in that one pile of junk you keep in your basement.

The pile that you want to organize but always have an excuse not to.

Some of the stuff in the pile is important: your old bike, a box of light bulbs, an extra night stand for when you get a bigger apartment.

Some of it is not so useful: an ancient Mac computer from sometime back in 2003, lots and lots of dirt, maybe a few cobwebs. Among these heaps of useless junk and these dust bunnies is the truth, how you really feel, and that is poetry.

Buffalo Academy of Science Charter School Grade 9

Sophia Giordano

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SHOWER THOUGHTS/ EXISTENTIALISM/ DAILY OBSERVATIONS

I watch the water spill down my skin the fragrant soap clouding my judgment remembering that face painted on the brick building the images and shapes from screens sweep past my eyelids squares and boxes from math class acts and scenes and quotes I’m required to remember films I will never star in places I’ll never be fabric I’ll never quilt magazines I won’t collage words I’ll never piece together

City Honors School, PS 195 Grade 11

Lucy Handman

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POST-APOCALYPTIC PEACE

Set the world on fire Watch it burn the dumpsters and back alleys The trees sing the perfect song of crackling warmth The war is burning off guns and shiny artillery turning to a crisp rust until all that remains is the knowledge of what the world used to be invested in a singular boy standing in a field of ashen snowfall holding a green wreath of holly and listening to the song of silence.

City Honors School, PS 195 Grade 11

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Lucy Handman & Hemingway Lovullo

SHANTELL MARTIN’S ARTWORK

They cross the wall like they cross the sky, the horizon, and the earth,

they stand at the sea

and observe their monotonous lives.

Live below, live below.

Banana faces obscure the lines.

Banana roads that lead to infinity and a gathering of petals and people.

We reach every day for affirmation.

Birds eye views watching us fall.

Everyone is watching with an eagle eye

as you fall to your sleep.

Holding us up, holding us up.

City Honors School, PS 195 & Frederick Law Olmsted, PS 156 Grade 11

Kareem Haq

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THERE’S A MOMENT

A moment in the morning when you’re not awake or asleep.

A moment where the weight of the world hasn’t settled on your shoulders yet.

None of us can remember it, but we all know it’s there.

The world is ours before we open our eyes.

City Honors School, PS 195 Grade 11

The 2017 JUST BUFFALO

POETRY PRIZE

WRITING CENTER for YOUNG WRITERS

We want to extend gratitude to all the excellent young poets who entered the 2017 Just Buffalo Writing Center Poetry Prize for Young Writers.

We congratulate Sumayyah Haq, winner of this year’s prize, for Earthly Delights.

About Haq’s piece, judge Joe Hall writes: Good poems take risks; Earthly Delights bets the farm in an avalanche of code-switched smarts and relentless feeling. Below its hectic surface is an original braid of Puritan, Islamic, and ancient Levantine reference and live-wire tests of the relationships between sex, capitalism, and prayer.

We might see in it shades of the Beats or even Eileen Myles, but it’s also a poem wholly alive to its moment.

This isn’t a great student poem, it’s a great poem.

Sumayyah Haq

Winner of the 2017 Just Buffalo Writing Center Poetry Prize for Young Writers

EARTHLY DELIGHTS

chilly toes dull nights in rhythmic disturbance manic readings of Hawthorne, shaking in sujood Quranic mumblings, Subhanallah, Subhanallah! Hallelujah w thin boy Holy Holy gone, touch fingers for blessing salat for days, 40 in the cave, pink curtained room, warm sweat night terror Hester Prynne, take ur baby n run 1 pm counting three creases on finger, three coffee mug drips three boys in cars, the Wilderness- unsafe R.’s teevee remember first as weed payment follows psychosis three days the needy zenith flash tits to the moon, histrionic moon, return home to mother.

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Buddhist jolt killed tortured priest, Puritan ears conch shell consummation, evil in neural pathways obsessive, abalonic Earth nymphomanic spring, oh surplus value! Run the

necessary circles around the manic center sing ballads, troubadour! sculpt the Grecian vase and read Keats letters in the bathtub bathe in narcissistic pools impress old men in hot tubs who whip out flaccid and hairy semiotic daisies in chains, petals around a Center!

Oh transcendental anthropocene run ur dirty fingernails along my stockings let Text unravel dumbly Plato and Plutarch worn out by godly mould under desolate white sheet holy veil black camelhair cloak wet thorns brittle hawthorne maternal grass and dandelions moist linoleum red condoms plastic mold devil-may-care counter-boy Capital Lust gimme hysteric peace at least Capital Self fall off hysteric mountains beetles and ladybugs in Marx’s beard five dollar bill in red panties labour power uprising rising-market fluctuation surplus for R., Capital Self R. in Chicago will you be growing a beard?

A. speaks of LCD trees katamorphic dandelions Genius rain on mullion grass, great Axis Corinthian apples, bathing in sweat

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pomegranates offer holy seed Bernini lips quiver Botticelli cups hands in du’aa to Venus Primevera! Venus oh Synapse eye-socket of peach pit, window to Forms rolling down hillside great flood. topless Venus earthly and divine, swing forth triads boogie in high eyes toss marijuana ash into pond, eye to eye don’t mean to cast reflection divination text of prophetic clouds follow the adhan east mountains move slow material groove begin with design of a Rorschach blot. hawthorn’d hills rolling car-speed hit body hit me Tantric ravage, Sufi wind tree and brow adorn sigh of the body hair and thin grass on one sigh continuum wind through uncrossed legs unchaste mystic heritage undulate on bare body

crave gospel thorn masochism Avalian hotel bed scarlet stain fragile carnage one great takbir to Whitman.

Nichols School Grade 12

Rob Hill

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SKY ALIENS

I’ve raided through closets and dresser drawers I ripped apart my bedroom and tore apart my bed frame I’m looking and looking and I don’t know why Other than I want an answer I want to hide But nobody hides from the devil and no one hides from god so no one hides from both of them in a celestial doorway a body I can’t find answers but I’m still looking and I’m not hiding I’m staring your devil your god and my entryway down from its heavens and hells down to earth

Tapestry Charter School Grade 11

Birch Kinsey

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PORTRAIT AS AN APPLE W/ A BITE MISSING inspired by Donika Kelly

I’m not afraid anymore once in life I was whole, naked I peeled off my skin, bared myself to the air and they said I was better I was without myself that brash exterior they bit me and approved but I'm quickly oxidizing and the blood gliding down your fingers?

They approved the velvet feeling in their throats They said the reds were offensive the texture distracting and most of all the taste was bad In another life I’ll surround myself with those who appreciate me whole I am not afraid anymore I will decompose with my compatriots in a bed of the finest dried leaves and my insides will show me the way to new growth They will look at my skin and see me with love

City Honors School, PS 195 Grade 11

Alaya Kirkley

27

MASSIVE QUADRILATERAL IN THE SKY

I hope it’s aliens.

I hope they come down and abduct me and run tests on me.

If it’s not aliens, I hope it’s heavy.

I hope it lowers down and crushes the entire city.

If it’s not heavy, I hope it’s a portal.

I hope I can launch myself into it and escape this world.

If it’s not a portal, I hope it’s a book.

City Honors School, PS 195 Grade 10

Aaron Lebediker

28

POETRY

Poetry is made to heal the broken heart and my heart is broken so James if you’re out there reading this I never liked your stupid skateboard tricks

City Honors School, PS 195 Grade 11

Hemingway Lovullo

29

AFTER “LIFE UPSIDE DOWN�

inspired by a photograph by Abdulrahman, taken while living in a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan

Feet seeming to touch the sky what angels can manage to laugh even as their world is torn apart?

Above there is the sky the same as it has always been.

It also cares not for the wars taking place underneath it. It manages to rise every day like the bodies propped up on hands, feet careless in the air, manage to stay in their playful position.

The boys, like the sunrise, are always smiling.

Unaware, just for now, of what lies around them.

Frederick Law Olmsted, PS 156 Grade 11

Hannah Nathanson

30

CANNED BEANS

my best friend asks me “how do you know you love him?” we are seventeen. i do not know if i love him, so i tell her that i recognize his laundry detergent and sweat stench more than i knew my nose was capable of. i explain that i have never known what ‘butterflies’ feel like but he makes me wish i had swallowed the caterpillars we observed in the third grade. i say i have never seen a yellow bird or been to hell but i know that i still want to. she breaks up with her girlfriend and i tell her “i want to write a poem about canned beans.” this is a lie and i do not know why i say it. i do not want to write a poem about canned beans. it would suck. it would probably try to become a metaphor for us and for high school, but fail. i am starting to think everything i write is about canned beans. i am starting to think my life is just a can of beans. i panic. i tell her that we spend so much time together my skin probably smells like her breath and we laugh together when the people we are with say we smell good. and we laugh apart when the lovers we are with say we smell good.

31

i begin to think that the laundry room scent i crawl into is more a collection of the people he spends time with than his own sweat, which means that to others he smells of me. which means that my next love will not be drawn to my bloodstench but rather his, left over on my skin. which means that our soulmates are always gonna be all confused and twisted up. i do not tell anyone this because i realize it means that each time we come back together we come as two strangers. i do not tell anyone this because i realize it means that the universe i will spend my eternity in is the same universe where we picked flowers for each other.

City Honors School, PS 195 Grade 11

Miles O’Brien

32

NINA’S OBJECT

Chaos & courtesy collision & color the danger of words & not of the world

Clarence High School Grade 11

London Patterson

33

City Honors School, PS 195 Grade 11

Ikuris Perry

34

ECHOES inspired by the photograph “The Covering Darkness of Night”

by Aahood taken while living in a Syrian refugee camp

I cough cosmic complications I don’t talk about myself anymore I don’t care if it’s a rock or rocket station just get me off of this place into nauseous space combust into spontaneous conversation calm the storms of toxic nouns I’m not complacent but I can’t talk about myself anymore I’m not complaining cosmos contemplate the logic I’ve already lost this game Because I can’t talk about myself anymore.

Frederick Law Olmsted, PS 156 Grade 11

Trinity Ridout

35

ROUGE

Il a un nom mais je ne lui sais pas.

Que parle quand je suis triste est le feu á mes yeux.

Elle ne peut pas être heureuse avec toi.

Il y a beaucoup fleurs á ton jardin,

et je leur déteste.

Nous sommes rouge en été.

RED

He has a name but I don’t know it.

What speaks when I am sad is the fire in my eyes.

She cannot be happy with you.

There are many flowers in your garden,

and I hate them.

We are red in the summer.

City Honors School, PS 195 Grade 10

Sam Turecki

36

BUFFALO SAVINGS BANK

Started 1849 Finished 1901 Taken over 40 years later M&T now reigns supreme over all what it holds inside its vault lines the dome that holds back the rain.

“We have your money,” they say. “It’s on our roof.”

The gleaming color of gold tells us what is inside the concrete walls, but now it is not your money. The big man, M&T, holds it all in his big meaty hands, sharing it with the other titans of this time. So long common man, entrepreneur.

Now the green, aging concrete ring follows, but it is not the Statue of Liberty.

The indestructible concrete holds up the funnel of wealth, keeping it from tipping over or crushing the bankers inside. The first of ceilings holds concrete “windows” and the etching of a hand, never to be replicated in the utility of today. Small, joined columns make up the vast, square box, stretching the tellings of time on a surprisingly small white clock over an etch of vines And torches.

St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute Grade 12

Jackie Vu

37

TELL ME ABOUT THE WAR

We’re going home! I’m finally home! We’re all alive! Riding on top of this jeep, through this parade. Fireworks going off in the air, the townsfolk throwing confetti. My brothers!

My brothers are laughing at me because I’m crying. I’m crying, I thought I was going to die in the war. I’m laughing now, the jeep broke down, we’re marching down on foot. I’m laughing now, laughing so hard that my knees are weak, my brothers are carrying me, I love them so, they love me so, please don’t let me go.

We made it to the pub, it’s all gone silent, till I hear the cheering of patrons. Scotch and whiskey spilled on the floor, my brothers are drunk and confused, the world is spinning, spinning out of control.

I’ve had my fill, threw up, I feel sick, back to the parade, friends are covered in confetti.

Red and brown confetti! We’re blowing up with excitement, the fireworks are so bright, I haven’t slept in three days, help me, help me.

I can’t sleep, but this is a bad dream. Bring us home, I said bring me home! I’m lying in this ditch, don’t let me lie. I said don’t let me die.

Hutchinson Central Technical High School, PS 304 Grade 12

Amber Ye

38

MARXIST PHILOSOPHER FRIEND

So, rather clumsily, we apologized for not being in touch Your gold-rimmed glasses reflected a melancholy light a thin layer of dust mumbled the shine of your old leather oxfords Age is unforgiving, you said as if that’s your excuse

for having stopped sending letters So is capitalism, We chuckled.

So is time, We sighed.

Buffalo Seminary Grade 12

R O W

Y A L DP