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 Stoll, 17, of Georgia, Vermont explains the background of his poem, That Song Sounds Like Blueberries: “I wrote this poem about my younger brother, Will, and I when we worked at a blueberry field last summer. This was our first paid position ever, so we were both very excited. I had just gotten my six months on my driver’s license, so Will and I drove ourselves to work, and it was the first slice of freedom we had ever had. On the way to the field every morning, Will would play ‘Runaway’ by Kanye West, and I would roll down the windows and we would sing along as loud as we could. Almost a year later, whenever the song comes up on the playlist, my brother and I can’t help but grin.”
That Song Sounds Like Blueberries
By Ben Stoll
[C]ould you play that one song?
You know the one I’m talking about.
You know,
the one we blared from the car stereo,
with all the windows rolled down so all could hear,
the song we would play picking blueberries
in that all-natural,
weed-choked
berry farm.
I want to be reminded of the times
I would pick four flats to your two.
I want to remember the day
when I traversed the fields
to see where you were,
and to my horror and great amusement,
found that you were lying on your back
eating a spilled flat of berries
in all your sun-kissed glory.
I want to envision our last day on the job,
you and I sitting on a picnic table,
gulping water and complaining about the smell of skunk.
Could you please play that song?
The one that reminds me of a summer well spent.
Check out the May issue of The Voice, the Young Writers Project monthly digital magazine. Click here.
