Young Writers Project is a creative online community of teen writers, photographers, and artists, based in Vermont since 2006. Each week, VTDigger features the writing and art of young Vermonters who publish their work on youngwritersproject.org, a free, interactive website for youth 12-18 years old. To find out more, visit youngwritersproject.org, or contact Executive Director Susan Reid at sreid@youngwritersproject.org; 802-324-9538.
“Life is about the journey, not the destination,” it’s true, but when Mother Nature gifts us a patch of wildflowers or a brushstroke sunset on the top of our mountain, it’s all the sweeter. This week’s featured poet, Sawyer Fellows of East Burke, captures not only the personal triumph of completing an arduous voyage, but the triumph of beauty in a place it was never meant to thrive.
Hiking upward (heaven has no golden stars)
By Sawyer Fellows, 17, of East Burke
So, you’ve traveled mighty far,
beneath the damp underpasses.
Guided by rivers and the North Star,
trenched through forest masses.
I hope it is what you anticipated.
The journey is not for the weak,
what with the heavy, tumultuous wind.
Despite the trail remaining bleak,
you pressed on as it thinned.
Upon the hill, you greet wildflowers!
Rather than continue, you stop.
Grazing glassy petals betwixt
fingers, you reach the very top.
Above Earth yet under the sun, you sit atwixt.
It is a novelty to watch the sky bleed.