About the Young Writers Project
YWP, an independent nonprofit based in Burlington, Vermont, engages young people to write and use digital media to express themselves with clarity and power and to gain confidence and skills for the workplace and life. YWP publishes about 1,000 students’ work each year here, in newspapers across Vermont, on Vermont Public Radio and in YWP’s monthly digital magazine, The Voice. Since 2006, it has offered young people a place to write, explore and connect online at youngwritersproject.org, which has only one rule: Be respectful. For more information, please contact YWP executive director Geoffrey Gevalt at ggevalt@youngwritersproject.org.
Samuel Boudreau, who graduated from Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans in June, undertook an independent study of poetry in his senior year of high school and was the Poetry Out Loud Vermont State Champion in 2014 and again in 2015. This is one of the poems that Samuel wrote during his senior year.
The Violin’s Melody
By Samuel Boudreau
[I] hear the violin’s rubbing call
and it resonates within the
thick roots of my heart.
The wholesome low notes
are glazed with sadness.
With every stroke,
the burnt-colored instrument
gets heavier and heavier,
while its sound touches
the darkest part of my mind.
The violin sits upon every thought,
and it makes me cry
tears of heartache and loss,
tears of desire and failure.
Tears meant for the violin
because it knows what the songs mean.
For me, the deep notes are my life.
Each pitch is a correlation of my mood.
Each melody embodies my thoughts –
let the violin play on.
