Young 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.
At first blush, a jet-setting lifestyle sounds enthralling — new settings and sights to take in, the whirlwind of it all. No doubt your feelings would change, however, if you then had no stable home base or support system to return to. This week’s featured poet, Anna O’Reilly of South Burlington, tracks the journey of a simple leaf flitting from shelter to shelter as it reflects on the turbulence of its solitary life.
A leaf’s journey
By Anna O’Reilly, 15, of South Burlington
I fly across the glamorous, glistening water,
through the meadows,
over the houses,
leaving my home behind.
When I land at my new home,
I know it will soon become a memory.
When the next gust of wind comes, I will move.
Another journey.
Another home.
I lie under an apple tree,
confused as to why I always have to move.
I wonder if my old home has changed at all…
I change homes multiple times a day.
When the winter comes,
I’m trapped under a cold, frigid coat,
with no family to warm me,
no friends that I keep.
Just me, and sometimes my reflection.
I learned to not grow a bond or trust others.
They will always leave.
We will always separate.
Another big wind comes.
Another journey.
This is my life,
for I am just a leaf.
