Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Springing Surprises

April showers bring May flowers, and to beat out the rainy blues, we are "showering" you with some of Holicong's most fantastic poetry and artwork!  We hope you take the time to celebrate National Poetry Month and enjoy this positively pleasant post!




Flying On Water

Six in the afternoon
Peaceful
Fiery-orange sunlight released from inside the clouds
Surrounding the heavens like a great big wall
Two blood-red knives slice through the glistening aquamarine waters
With points as sharp as a needle

Ducks swimming out of their way
Drifting across Lake Galena
They laugh and talk
Paddling the whole time
Gripping onto the sharp jet-black propellers

So peaceful
A breeze develops
Blowing proud and strong like a lion’s roar
Night slowly creeps into the afternoon sky
Amethyst-purple and apricot-orange clash for control of the sky
Slowly it turns into night

Nine at night
Animals drift off to a peaceful night’s sleep
The riders head to shore
Their black truck rumbles off into the distance
The kayaks mounted 

by Christopher A., Grade 9

Portrait by Gillian S., Grade 9


The Half-Whole Moon

Hovering
and I discovering
the half-whole moon unravelling
a gift into the light diminishing to dusk,
the half-whole moon displayed its dismembered husk.

Upon it I glanced
to find somehow it stared back,
beckoning until I was forced to ask,
what great stories do you dare grasp?
Your holes,
your caverns,
your mountains,
they all resembled nothing more than a mask.

But the half-whole moon continued to turn,
relishing what I could only hope to learn,
to earn,
but it only churned,
ignoring my pitiful yearn,
it continued to turn.

Your pits!
I screamed
craters and calderas,
nothing more than sheaves encompassed your layers.
Tell me the odyssey that has led to now,
your epic voyage of when and how.

But the half-whole moon continued to churn,
to burn my wishful hopes,
as I lay helpless,
earnest yet stern
and it laughed
and mocked
and cackled as it whirled.

The half-whole moon continued to turn.

by Joshua C., Grade 9


Artwork by Janice C., Grade 9


The Window

Have you ever been outside?
in a snowstorm?
at night?

Have you ever felt the grass?
as it freezes?
as it dies?

Have you ever sat and thought?
and prayed?
and cried?

Have you ever closed your eyes?
in disimpassioned silence?
And screamed for something?
in sticky silence?
And called out?
without opening your mouth?
Alone
In cacophonous interminable silence

There's a light on
Behind you
Do you feel its warmth?
feel its noise?

Its strange orange glow
Lends a shadow
With which you talk
With which you argue

You approach the light
Touch its surface
But it's a window
Not a door

You wipe away the dirt
The sludge
The streaky fingerprints
Left long ago

A hand appears
Not your own
You reach for it
But it's cold and gone

You smash the glass
Tears streaming down your face
But it's not there
Where?

The warm air floods over you
Like the first drops of rain
After years of unforgiving droughts

Inside you see paradise
You dive through the shards
Once vicious
They now protect you

And as you fall
You ponder
Why you sat
for so long
in the dark
in the cold
in the glow
of the window.

by Danny H., Grade 9



The Other Side of Society

I had been there all along
Clawing to get to the surface
I found that I was not
Moving forwards and finding my identity
But rather
Sinking deeper into the depths of society
I am not
Doing what is right
My ideal has always been
Doing what is best for me
Nothing is
Appreciated
It’s true that you are
Only an insignificant individual in this large universe
It’s foolish to imagine that you can be
Existing in peace
Differences are
Plagued by derisions
Never again will we fear being
The cruel and malicious tormenters
Humans no longer
Distinguish between righteousness and baseness
We are always ready to
Accept the destruction we create
And
Continue to move on for more
We cannot just
Believe everything is perfect
Nothing is what it seems to be
But we can shatter that mask
By living in hatred
A veil has been drawn over our eyes
Deep down, everyone is aware that
Nobody can escape from their fate
It’s not true when specialists say
Wounds can be healed
I tell you this
Time is not capable of patching up the gaps
People are mistaken when they believe
We will see the light at the end of the tunnel someday
Humans are intelligent
However, I concede that
Life sets obstacles incapable of being penetrated
The world knows
We have always lost
It’s irrational to trust that
There has always been another side to the story
(Now read it in reverse)

by Ling X., Grade 9


Artwork by Rachel C., Grade 8

From our recipe editor Emily W., put a spring in you step with the monthly recipe for April: Lemon Bar Peeps. Hop to it!