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.
Emily Hess, a sophomore at Peoples Academy in Morrisville, read her poem, “The Importance of Pronouns,” at the kickoff celebration for PoemCity Montpelier on the first day of April, National Poetry Month. Emily is among a group of Young Writers Project poets whose work is on display in Montpelier storefronts throughout April as part of PoemCity.
The Importance of Pronouns
By Emily Hess
[H]e had soft brown eyes and a forgiving soul.
He had a hug that consumed me in warmth.
He had lips that curled up at the ends and dimples when he laughed.
He had a voice more comforting than Bon Iver records at midnight.
He wore recycled shoes, and a cross necklace.
He also wore embarrassment between our interlocking fingers.
He kept secrets within our late night walks and me dropping him off 10 feet before his house.
He lived in a white house, which I would never see from the inside, with the label girlfriend tattooed on my shoulder.
He left, because my existence was his skeleton in the closet.
She was afraid of what her parents would think.
Check out the April issue of The Voice, the Young Writers Project monthly digital magazine. Click here.
