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.
Ben Maksym of Grand Isle was inspired to write this poem while working as an intern with Young Writers Project during the summer. Ben, a Vermont Commons School graduate, is about to begin his freshman year at college in New Brunswick, Canada.
Chill Piano
By Ben Maksym
[W]hen people ask me, “What music do you listen to?”
I want to say,
“Have you ever heard a piano,
over sparkling drinking and
confided conversations?
No, not that fast piano, or that happy piano,
but calm,
chill piano,
a walk down a nighttime street,
or a lazy morning,
or a breeze,
or a thought,
but a lost one. Not found quite yet.
There’s still some mystery in it.
That’s my favorite.”
Check out the August issue of The Voice, the Young Writers Project monthly digital magazine. Click here.
