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Upper School English teacher Heather Ewing’s shared a selection of poetry written by students in her writing classes. The first poem, Always By Your Side by senior Kathryn Greene, was one of two poems by Farragut students to earn the 2018 Regional Scholastic Writing Award.
Always by Your Side
By Kathryn Greene ’18
Down syndrome:
A genetic chromosome 21 disorder causing developmental and intellectual delays
Ignorance:
The lack of knowledge or information
On April 7th, 2008
Was born one of god’s greatest creations
His eyes were shaped like almonds
Face round and pale
The doctors locked their eyes on him like a bride peering through her wedding veil
Their eyes danced on his face as if they’ve never seen a crying baby before
The room soon became a blur of disarray
Doctors were feverishly double checking papers, while nurses ran around the room and became Nascar
racers
All movement stopped in unison
They gathered around my mother like a priest giving communion
Words were spoken slowly and softly as if they were afraid the words would jump out and attack my
mother
Incapable, they said
Institutionalize, they said
Inhuman, they said
This baby’s life will never amount to anything, we heard
I peered over at the pale faced baby in my mother’s arms
My mother held him the same after those words
My mother kissed him the same after those words
The look of love in her eyes never changed after those words
The world is ignorant, incompetent and most of all inconsiderate
For creating false images and feeding off the innocent
We claim we’re a country with vision, yet it’s filed with illiterates
They can’t read between the lines and see the promise in your eyes
Because you have defied every obstacle they put in front of you
Elijah Bernard Greene you are not different, you are unique
From the way you speak to the way you think
They don’t want to see you happy baby boy
They don’t want to see you thrive
But just know that when the whole world is against you
I’m always by your side
Swimming through your Ocean
By Brielle Benefield ’20
With hands like an ocean
You push me away,
And pull me back in
Int the light, you’re as beautiful as
The clearest waters
In the night, you’re as dark as
The deepest abyss
At first you were a rope,
Tossed to me in my time of distress
Now you’re the weight that sinks me
To the bottom of the ocean of pain
There once was a time where I
Enjoyed swimming through your waters,
Now I’m struggling to surface
I’m drowning in your lust.
The Other Side
By Robert Bedny ’18
As she walked away,
Her reflection was separate.
An individual flipped to see the other side of things,
The underside of things
The undermined things that we can’t see out here.
She could see the mountains,
And they could see her.
But her reflection could see the roots
from which those mountains occurred.
Obscure and unsure,
She just kept walking.
From the Rooftops
By Casey McKee ’21
At times, I wish that I could stand on top of a tall building
and tell the world to take a breath.
Everyone struggles with something,
people stretch themselves far too thin.
They reach a breaking point in which
they’re metaphorically drowning under ice.
No breath, no way for anyone to hear you scream for help.
Sometimes someone will be struggling, and you’ll have no idea.
People are constantly battling against themselves,
trying to follow the path that everyone says in life is right.
Every move is a punch,
every word is a bullet,
and every thought is a stab in the heart.
We use humor to cover up our emotions
like makeup so no one can see us struggle.
Most people can’t comprehend the fact
that you don’t have to conform to society,
and it’s okay to not be okay.
I believe that only you have the power
to truly understand your own self worth.
If you are constantly on edge,
just waiting for something to go wrong,
you’re never going to appreciate everything that is going right.
The mind is a scary place,
but only if you let it be that way.
If everyone took at least 1 minute
out of 24 hours in a day to take a deep breath
and realize that you cannot control everything in life, and realized
perfection is not the answer…
the world would be a better place.
Man as the Author
By Caleb Lemmons ’20
Life is a book,
With each his own author.
Pages inside all, none the same.
One page smelling of salt and shipwrecks,
Another of women and wine.
Chapters separate the transitions of life.
Infancy to childhood.
Son to father.
Apprentice to soldier.
Foolish to wise.
The more interesting it gets,
The farther you get to the end.
As the pages close,
You remember the fond moments,
Hopeful that your book will be remembered.
Masquerade
By Linda Delgado ’18
Disguised I assisted
at one of the masquerades I was invited to
I modeled colorful masks
like the colors of the dresses
that I daily used as a disguise
to look just like the others.
To look how they want to see me
I covered my silhouette with any display.
For the ones that saw me
I looked normal
in those carnival parades.
Between the couples that were spinning,
one day I found her.
Beautiful as a full moon
that lights at dusk.
I shared the dance
to the lady moon of the mask
that she wore it to show it off as her face,
but upon discovering her true face
I found nothing behind.
I got scared and gazed at her empty face,
she said “They are all like this, didn’t you know?”
With a sweet gesture rather than an elegant one
my night light waned,
a moon that finally disappeared
at the morning of my comprehension.
I went to try to find the one that I called friend.
Underneath the mask
I found no one with me,
I searched between the poses, the comedians,
between the skilled and beginners
that act to the face of the dreamer,
and only I had that face.
Since then I daily take off that mask
that made the habit
of such persistent makeup.
Like the unmasked song
I show myself to the one,
that perhaps does not like what
he sees when he looks at me,
or even feels uncomfortable
when there is nothing to see inside him.
Now I’m not unmasking
when I find anyone
who covers acting.
When they cheat on their happiness
I only see imitations of humanity.
What they could have been and are not
between vainglory and compassion.
What I am, I cannot see,
what you can see, I cannot hide.
I do not carry my armour.
The one that hurts me
will see inside the wound
that my impure blood
keeps my heart open.
Shadow
By Erick Bennett ’18
Hey there, it’s me. Your shadow.
The distorted, blackened, vision of yourself
Flickering in and out on the sidewalk
Just a manifestation of all you’re trying to hide
Just the agony of being who you are
Everything you don’t want the world to see
I am everything you don’t want the world to see
But yet you run from me.
Why are you afraid of me?
I am part of you.
I know more about you than anyone else.
We can never be separated no matter how fast you run
But in the afternoon sunlight, I can be you
And in total darkness, you can be me.
The day you decide to stop running, is the day that the word truly sees who you are.
