Angelina

15

Summer is a time to play
The time to frolic in the fields
To hear the birds chirping
to hear kids laughing
Summer is the time of innocence
Of summer love
Or maybe summer heartbreak
Summer is a time for opportunity
For the next summer that lies...
Ahead

Geno

15

I spent the hottest time of the year feeling cold and empty
Most days I woke up in the afternoon battling a battle inside my head

But like a baby learning to walk
I slowly but surely got better and better

My skin and bones are still a little fragile and beaten down
But just like the sun
I just have to keep rising

monica

15

Summer's hot but yet relaxing,there's that cool breeze that has me feeling at ease, blue skies and butterflies,birds singing and people swimming.Living and laughing with family and friends, going to beaches and having a swim.

Ashley

15

the hills filled with green,
the sun shining oh so bright,
fills me with delight

Arianna

15

Summer always begins the same
No school
Immense heat
Fields change to gold
Blue skies stretch for miles
Beaches call our names
Sapphire oceans beg to be seen
Summer always make us grow
Until winter comes.
The fields change to grey
The once blue skies turn dark and black
The summer nights are gone
Then we must wait patiently for the beaches to call our names,
the fields to change to gold
Then summer will begin again.

Isabella

17

My hike to you:

This sun that I am under-
isn't climbing trees and trampolines, anymore.

This sun that I am under-
finds joy in embracing what once was mine, again.

This sun that I am under-
does not float down thy family river, without angst for future love, No!

Oh yes, THIS sun that I am under is jumping to hold the rock that catches the water, that catches me!

THIS sun that I am under knows little, but is learning, of wet tongues and giggling-
finger tip tracings and lingering,

This sun that I am under...

Trinidad

15

Summer Dew

Lying on the grass
clothes getting soaked in wet morning dew
feeling the sky, the birds, Mother Nature awakening
and ceasing to be Sleeping Beauties,
is Bliss.

Watching the sky lighten, darkness fleeing light in an ever eternal flight
iridescent blue popping into existence along the treetops
is a sight worth waiting
the world for.

Yet it wouldn't be quite perfect. Not quite yet.

For perfection is Sky Blue with puffy white
cotton candy scattered precisely around,
just waiting to be devoured,
heaven pouring in from all sides
and the faintest, ruffling breeze
preventing perfection from
stifling.
But for right now all there is
are the clothes clinging with summer dew
wet, slick, refreshing, full of promise
smelling of summer present.

Andrea

15

Summer Heat

The heat swivels off the treetops in unforgiving waves
lands and splashes on to the gray cement,
which naïvely takes in what is offered,
as if it were a child, and the object were
a lollipop.

The leaves shrivel and burn; they twist and contract,
trying vainly to be spared from the sun's rays.
The roses, premature, open small and end smaller.
Even weeds shrink away.

Summer is heat, and nothing in between.

Isabella

17

Climbing up an orange tree,

rotting leaves and poetry embrace
me:
as the flaming bird announces my coming
presence
amongst the garden trunks, high
within the walls of the unfallen fruit.
My worst fear-this is- but,
with the closing of the season
and reason to believe I'd find something great,

I climb on.

A broom, perhaps, would suit to dust away
my fear of the time in which this tree has
dwelt
with no thinking dwellers;
such as we are when all the time of day

is allotted to our inevitable smolder.

What better then, for my soul, to climb an orange tree?

McKayla

17

A Peaceful Picture Minds--
thoughts, rolling in and receding like the tide. Every once in a while, a seashell is brought to shore. A treasure to find, but plentiful in kind. No two the same, each with it's own story to tell, but really who listens to the sea more than a shell?

Thais

Frog
Frog by my door chilling every night
He just stays there staring at the moon
My mom freaks out
The frog is big
He plays with the cat,
Sleeping all day, awake all night
The frog is waiting for me
My brother always scares the frog
My mom is afraid of him,
She won’t even come in
Always calling me for help
Knowing very well that I won’t touch that frog

Michael

17

Summer
The cold is gone.
Sweat beats down your face.
Bugs eat at your legs.
The sun is left to burn your skin.
A time for the flowers to dry out
You’re stuck outside
Face full of sweat
You can’t wait for that moment when a breeze hits
Isn’t it great?
You hang with friends
No school!
A time for fun
A time for memories
Its summer!

Kiera

16

Sun
Summer is very hot
Family time and relaxing by the pool was the best
Summer is great because no school
All the flowers and bugs are out
Warm rainy nights are the best
My ice cream would always melt fast
Wind hit my face as my boyfriend was speeding on his motorcycle
Scared and not knowing what to expect when we went cliff jumping
I canned salsa with my grandma
My friends and I would always sleep in so late
I ate lots of food this summer
I love staying in shape during summer

Jennifer

17

Summer Nights

It’s the first day of summer,
Clear skys, sun beating down not a cloud in the sky,
As the sun goes down we come out to play,
We round up the trucks and find a place to play,
We turn the radios up kill the lights,
We all jump out and hop on the hoods of our trucks
All you can hear is bugs buzzing by you and the faint sound of music in the background.
Everyone is in such bliss,
Everyone gets caught up talking,
Before everyone knows the sun starts to rise,
We feel the warm sun on our backs,
We all pack up so we can come out at night and do it all over again.

Nadia

15

Summer camp is an irreplaceable experience.
Especially your last summer
The oldest village, has a tradition

"It's a two night weather permitting hike"

We packed our things Tuesday morning.
Braided hair so it didn't get tangled,
Put on sports bras,
And gym shorts,
And bandanas,
To try to look cute(!)
Overused everything scented that we couldn't bring.
And headed out.

There were thirty girls,
And one lean to in the woods meant to sleep six.
There was a lighting storm outside

I've never been so close to people
Literally and emotionally;
We played "never have I ever" in a whisper so counselors wouldn't hear
All huddled up, limbs on top of every person next to us.
While we passed s'mores stuff that we couldn't make
Because fire was unsustainable.

And after a mostly sleepless night,
We hiked over a mountain to heaven;
A clearing that if you listened closely enough,
I swear you could head Julie Andrew's belting,

"The Hill's are alive, with the sound of music."
And they were.
And we were alive with adrenaline and companionship;
We were free in the mountains.

That night we all took our "solos. "
Three hours of reflection time,
Alone in the woods.

I climbed directly up the mountain further from the clearing,
And found another, where I preceded to collapse. Breathless.
For an hour I sat and picked a pint of what I hoped were blueberries.
And then found a rock, where I read, while doing squats

Shirtless, hair down, in a pair of spandex with an hour remaining
I peed in the woods for the first time
And then laid down in the middle of the blueberry patch.
The sun warmed me, and the cicada sounds somehow felt peaceful
The spirit of the mountains welcomed me with a breeze
Just like all the people at camp had

And I sat there and thought about how lucky I was.
How even with my daily anxieties I was so stupidly blessed.
I laid there for that hour and reflected.

When we were called back,
I just wanted to keep thinking, keep feeling.

I don't think everyone had this connection with that around them,
A lot of people slept or read or wrote.
But we all felt a sense of gratitude for one another and our surroundings.

The remaining 9 days were the best of my life;
Effortless, problem-free,
An escape from reality.

I cried so much the last day.
I got a headache from dehydration.

I'm home--
I still feel happy.
I still feel confident.
I still feel as though I'm so lucky.

The mountains changed my attitude
And built friendships among the most unlikely.

The city is alive with the sound of music too--
It's just not as mellow as the mountains.
But they're both quite magical.

Jason

18

Seventeen
Waking up, bright sun
Stressful week, no fun
Swimming pool with a lot of girls
Loving life as it flows
Snapback to reality
Mom died it’s a tragedy
Cold world like iced tea
Hot days real sweaty
Basketball that’s my love
17 it was human, I’ll give it a hug
Bounce the ball between my legs
Shoot a three pointer; blow a kiss to my fans

Cody

17

Fun
When the summer comes let the sun stay long
While you give the sun joy he will torture with sunburns
But that’s okay because we get flowers and ice cream
We get time away from school
We get time to go on vaction with our family
Walking barefoot down the dangerous burning sidewalk
Looking at all these kids of America with sidewalk chalk
As their hair blows in the wind I think of water,
Streams, pools, rivers, lakes, and oceans
When I think of ocean I think of fun and vacation
I see the ice cream melting
But when summer comes there is bugs….

Effie

16

Clearing Up

Feet unwavering,
the sky above me
is a vibrant blue
that stares deep
into the stairs
ascending from
my beating heart.
Clouds like an
animated image,
so clear and sharp
that I swear
I’m dreaming.
Cause it certainly
can’t be real,
with the air so
fresh in lungs
that haven’t
breathed like
this in years.

Ming Li

15

Away

step.

step—

step;
step,
step step stepstepstep one more step to throw myself down in cornstarch-sand
it's so impossibly SOFT, rolling flowing dreamy curves until I long for the reality of an edge…
This is not my summer.
My summer is running along rough rocks, tumbling stumbling scraping granite and the deliciously real pain of a skinned knee. There is no reassuring sense of aliveness to be found in the thump of my body into bland white pillows of cornstarch.
My summer is a fierce splash into exhilarating frigidity, frantic gasps for breath re-establishing reaffirming renewing my existence. But this ocean is too warm, and so I can't tell if the salt in my mouth is seawater or tears.
rewind
(This is not my summer.
My summer is swirling curling slashing graphite running across crisply smoothed paper delineating cryptic chains of cryptic symbols that supposedly translate into my universe, and yet remain meaningless gray lines until I want to snap my pencil lead and crumple my homework and scream, "I HATE TRIGONOMETRY!"
And then my grandmother is there, a hand resting on my shoulder, grounding me and stabilizing my emotions as her deft fingers work magic on the page, bending the symbols to her will, and I gasp in delighted revelation.
But this summer, my shoulder feels oddly empty, and my grandmother's fingers are creaky with age, and her number-magic is slipping sliding slowly departing from her mind:
"are you going to be in high school next year?"
"yes grandma I already started high school."
"oh."
...
"are you taking trigonometry soon?"
and my breaths are suddenly frantic gasps of I'm dreaming I'm dreaming I'm dreaming this isn't real
this is not my summer
so I run away.)
step.

step—

step;
step,
step step stepstepstep one more step to throw myself down in cornstarch-sand
thump.
for once I welcome the impossibly soft blandness because maybe right now I don’t want my existence to be confirmed
maybe right now I want to believe that I'm not real it's not real this isn't real
my grandmother is FINE and I'm DREAMING—
but the sudden sharp salt taste suggests otherwise…
it's seawater, I swear.
drip.

drip—

drip;
drip,
drip drip dripdripdrip...

Anisa

14

Where did you go, summer?

Summer.
How you just escaped from my fingertips.
You ran quickly away from me,
Before I got to enjoy you.
Oh summer. Why did you leave?
You left me alone with the cold.
Summer. You left me with the feeling of sadness.
Summer ,I will miss you.
Your hot sunny rays.
Your popsicles that keep me cool.
Your urge to make me unproductive .
Summer, come back.
Summer, where did you go?