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This week, we present responses to the following challenges: Icebreakers. New classes, new classmates — it can be hard to introduce yourself to someone for the first time. Describe some ways to “break the ice” with people that can begin a beautiful friendship. And general writing.
Prompt: Icebreakers
By Marina Sprague
Age 17, Chelsea
I always have trouble talking to strangers.
It’s something that’s just not in my nature.
But this is a new school and new year —
might as well try, I have nothing to fear.
So I get the courage to ask him his name,
then see the book in his hand and know we’re the same.
We share our interests on various books and stories,
finding out that we love the same categories.
And before I can think or comprehend,
I end up having a brand-new friend.
Prompt: General
By Eloise Silver Van Meter
Age 17, Fairlee
They don’t understand
how my small body and developing mind
can hold so many leaves —
how my feet are suppressed,
yet hold the trunk that is my body.
They assume my toes are given space,
my heels are moisture-filled,
and my soles hold strong as roots.
They fail to understand the fact that my legs
are in constant insurrection.
They assume my knees willingly follow my energetic calves,
and that my heavy thighs do not burden my every step.
They cannot fathom the drumbeat in my belly as I come near,
nor do they understand the scars my back will never let go of.
They do not understand the tickle underneath my arms, guiding me,
nor the fixed position of my collarbone.
They assume the rain does not bother me,
that the burn of the breeze does not set me aflame.
They find it hard to truly comprehend
the cracks in the skin on my neck,
the bumps behind my ears,
the drought my eyes experience after a flood,
the waterfall erupting in my throat,
the heaviness of my lids,
the itch of my eyebrows,
the envy of my lips.
They don’t understand any of it,
yet they have all felt it before.
By Eden Anne Bauer
Age 15, Hanover
Do you ever feel so tired
that when your eyes close
and you linger upon the same thought
for a moment too long,
you’re suddenly fast asleep?
Your mind works overtime
to juggle the daily happenings,
with a soothing buzz in the background
behind your train of thought —
the lovely image of a cup of cocoa
while curled up on a couch —
that leads dreams to take you
somewhere else for awhile.
I think I’ll lay my pen down now,
let these words melt into imagination
and take me far beyond my room,
to the spice-scented pines,
to the rolling green hills and rocky shores of the coast.
I’ll leave behind the worries of today,
leave tomorrow to its course.
My eyes are closed, yet
now I see all the world
in a million undiscovered colors.
Let me dream awhile, if you please.
Let tomorrow wake me up
after a good night’s sleep!