Young Writers Project is an independent nonprofit that engages Vermont and New Hampshire students to write, helps them improve and connects them with authentic audiences in newspapers, before live audiences and on websites, youngwritersproject.org, vtdigger.org, vpr.net and cowbird.com. Young Writers Project also publishes a monthly digital magazine, The Voice. YWP is supported by this newspaper and foundations, businesses and individuals who recognize the power and value of writing.
Young Writers Project kicks off its 10th year with a Celebration of Writing on Friday in Burlington. The celebration, which takes place from 7 to 9 p.m. at Burlington’s Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, will feature the release of Anthology 8, a selection of the best writing and photography from YWP this year. A Burlington-based slam poetry team, Muslim Girls Making Change, will perform. For more information, go to youngwritersproject.org.
There in the middle of the field
is one very small well.
It is like no other,
as you do not drink the water from just thirst.
You drink it when you feel a great sense of desperation
and need help.
You go to this well and call out,
“Help me, oh, help me!”
You can hear the water rippling as the magic works,
making the bucket rise from below
as it is not left above at all times
because you could steal the magic
by stealing a drop from the bucket.
If you did such a thing, you would pay greatly,
as they all have.
As the bucket is rising, you feel much happiness
as your troubles are about to be banished.
But it will stop when it is just out of reach,
no matter your height.
May you be 6 feet or 4, it is always just barely there
and you grapple with it.
Now, you see, you have to tell it your reasoning and be true.
Otherwise, it will lower back down,
along with your happiness,
because the dear creature who controls all these wishes and handlings of magic
has no want for greedy liars,
only wanting to help the true-hearted and less fortunate.
Most think that the well alone is the magical being,
but they don’t know the man who controls it,
lowering and raising the bucket.
Yes, he does it with magic,
but the well does not operate by itself,
even though it is the man’s life companion.
As they spend their many days chatting and granting wishes,
enjoying each other’s company,
these two have wishes of their own that they want people to follow:
Enjoy those around you,
and be true to them — and yourself.
On a sunny day, Cecelia and I were walking in the woods. We were going to the river to skip rocks. But on the way we found a blue frog in a hole. He could not get out and was asking for help.
We helped him out of the hole and he turned into a genie. His name was River. River gave us one wish. We wished for super powers. We wanted to be able to swim under water for a long time.
River turned us into fish. I was blue and Cecelia was red. We liked being fish so we decided to stay fish forever. We lived in the river.
Slosh, sploosh. I was hiking up a big mountain. I had been hiking for 30 minutes when I finally came to the top of the mountain. The weird thing was that there was a creepy wishing well in the middle of a small clearing. I walked around it, checking for anything strange, but it was all clear. Just for fun, I reached in my pocket and pulled out a quarter. I closed my eyes and wished for no school and flipped the coin up and into the top. It fell in with a splash.
Suddenly, a big, blue genie appeared and said, “Wish granted.”
When I blinked, I was home eating supper. I had no idea what had just happened, but I decided to keep my mouth shut. Then I finished my supper and went to bed.
The next morning, my mom came in and said, “School’s canceled; they said something about the day being too sunny.”
I remember thinking genies have a sense of humor.