Young Writers Project is a creative online community of teen writers, photographers and artists, which has been 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 12- to 18-year-olds. To find out more, visit youngwritersproject.org, or contact Executive Director Susan Reid at sreid@youngwritersproject.org and 802-324-9538.
If you’re one to mope about the gloom or grumble as you fasten that last, highest button on your coat, insulating yourself against the chill, this week’s featured poem, “Seasonal Opportunity” by Colchester’s Aida Russell, might offer you a new mindset. Though it may feel like winter is the season of wind down and letdown, it’s only what you make of it; soon enough, the optimism that arises with the warmer weather will be reminding us what the cold superficially held us back from.
Seasonal opportunity
Aida Russell, 16, Colchester
Opportunity is but a moment in our lives,
that leads to both good and evil.
It can lead to justice in the court,
or prejudice on the streets.
That is just how the world starts —
opportunities to achieve,
destinations that can be met,
and a sun that always adds light to life.
The flowers start to regrow,
our attitudes start to look up,
and our opportunities start to grow with them.
This new spring,
of new hopes and dreams,
springs onto us in seconds.
The tides shift and that opportunity,
it is not as prevalent.
Instead, it just sits and waits for you to continue
with the opportunities you have been gifted.
It solely remains for you to achieve something,
anything you can.
Summer delights humankind with a new sense of freedom,
from the rolling, aquamarine tides
sliding against the soft, warm sands,
to the rigorous mountains that peer over our shoulders.
No stone is left unturned.
The summer just continues to float like a zephyr of opportunities.
Autumn, a time of being yourself
and preparing for the seasons yet to come.
A point where most fall into other habits.
The mind starts to hibernate.
We start to close our minds,
to accept the harsh winds along with the changing leaves.
The season of change brings us new mindsets,
those of the negative kind.
It will be fine because we are survivors.
We know how to survive harsh winds.
We are intelligent creatures that can find a solution.
It will be okay.
When winter comes, it breaches our hearts.
It can dull the mood to the point where we have to find a celebration to survive,
a purpose to thrive.
Otherwise,
our hearts can fall into the darkness of the snow.
The snow helps reflect the overbearing sun,
blinding the eyes of those who attempt to brave the cold.
It is intimidating when it is cold —
incredibly so.
But we are survivors!
So we push through the cold to come full circle,
back to the changes of spring.
