Congratulations to Jeri H., a BCD 7th Grader, for being published as one of the winners of the 2015 7GP 7th Grade Poetry Contest. The mission of the 7th Grade Poetry Foundation is to transform young lives and improve classrooms by creating a writing revolution that gives all students the chance to have their poetic voices celebrated.
Through its annual anthology and filmed poetry reading events, the foundation showcases winning 7th grade poetry that unites students, families, schools, communities and, ultimately, an entire country.
I celebrate Jeri’s poetic voice, and I applaud all of our 7th graders for participating. I acknowledge her teacher Sarah Pitcher-Hoffman, and I am grateful for all of our inspiring teachers. And, I affirm BCD’s commitment to nurturing each student’s voice and accomplishing our mission to inspire the individual promise of every student.
Everyone is encouraged to read Jeri’s poem, “My Place.”
“My Place”
My place
is not a room full of people
who are yelling and laughing and whining.
My place
is not the place
where the music blasts into your ears and vibrates through the floor.
My place
is not the place where people tell you what to wear
how to talk
who to be with.
My place
is not where
the walls press in and the strobe light flashes
light dark
light dark
distorting my vision,
people’s movements
robotic, dreamlike.
My place
is the forest.
Early in the morning when the soft wind
blows the snow off the branches
and glitters gold from the fingers of sunlight
in between the thin branches.
My place
is high in a tree, where the snow sits
a foot high on every branch.
My place
is where I don’t have to talk
so nothing I say has to be censored,
questioned, overruled
by the part of me
that cares.
My place
is not where I am being judged.
My place
is where I only have to feel good, not look it
or sound it.
This is
my place.