[Y]oung Writers Project, an independent nonprofit based in Burlington, engages young people to write and use digital media to express themselves with clarity and power, and to gain confidence and skills for school, the workplace and life.
Check out the most recent issue of The Voice, Young Writers Project’s monthly digital magazine. Click here.
Each week, VTDigger features a writing submission – an essay, poem, fiction or nonfiction – accompanied by a photo or illustration from Young Writers Project.
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, share their photos, art, audio and video, and to explore and connect online at youngwritersproject.org. For more information, please contact Susan Reid at sreid@youngwritersproject.org.
“Not all who wander are lost,” Tolkien once wrote – and his words remain a nugget of sound, encouraging advice even today. This week’s Shelburne-based poet, K. Cleveland, writes a thoughtful piece that gives thanks to those who once pushed them out of their comfort zone and into the world, while at the same time admitting that some of the best experiences we have in life are with another by our side.
Wandering
By K. Cleveland, 13
“Wander,” they said.
“Wander the world. Test the limits. Explore.”
So I do.
So I wander, and I explore.
In the daytime:
The grass is made up of strokes from a painter’s brush.
The sun is a ball of laughter.
The trees are proof of resilience.
The river is the sky, liquefied.
The clouds are balls of fluffy cotton.
At night:
The grass is tinged with what looks almost like frost.
The moon is peaceful.
The trees are guardians against nightmares.
The river is molten silver.
The clouds are but a whisper, a lullaby just for me.
Wandering has shown me the colors of the world –
wandering has proven worthwhile.
But next time I wander,
I want a friend to share the wonder with.
