Graduation Poems by Teen Poet Laureates

By Julie Finegan, Visual and Literary Arts Coordinator

This year, the City of Pleasanton Teen Poet Laureates undertook several programs and events.  They collected encouraging poems for the military, written by residents, and sent them off to soldiers overseas.  They juried poetry submissions from middle school students, created an anthology of poems written by the winners, and held a culminating event for the students and their parents.  They held a couple teen oriented open mic “coffee nights” at Inklings Coffee and Tea, and participated in the Pleasanton Middle School poetry evening hosted by teacher Barbara Comstock.  Two of our teens, Kyler Juarez and Kyle Mular, are graduating from Amador and Foothill, respectively, and we wish them the very best of luck in their futures.

Following is a poem by each of the graduates:

The War

By Kyle Mular

 

Dark looms over

Eternally.

A hero

A star

Always pokes through.

A silent one

Where the world

Shall speak for him.

A long fight

An eternal war

Drawing closer and closer to

What seems like a victory

For the now.

Because once

The sky was complete darkness

Now there are stars.

If that means anything

It’s something that can be grabbed.

Happiness

No matter how ephemeral.

Must be fought for

Must die for.

Must live for.

 

Ode to High School

by Kyler Juarez

 

The years have come and gone,

The winds of change at hand

Our days have waned to nights

Filled with study, though we stand

As one school united,

Shrouded in victory, both meek and strong,

Awaiting the passing minutes

Till we are liberated from our youthful bonds

We stand upon this grassy plain,

Arm in arm and hand in hand,

Though the minutes tick slowly on,

We reminisce the times we’ve had

 

Tears flow and goodbyes said,

How silly they once seemed,

A distant travesty,

That we should say goodbye

To those friendships born in adversity

The road stretches before us,

And we gather, awaiting the call

Yes, how silly it all once seemed,

When we were still very small,

But though our features change,

And we grow older, wiser, and strong

That sensation never diminishes,

Even now when we feel two feet tall

 

The world is waiting, with breath that is bated,

To see and hear the words of our generation

We are adults, yes, but forever children too,

Holding each other and crying anew

The lessons we’ve learned, the friendships we’ve forged

Are too plain to be mistaken

As the knowledge we’ve acquired to better our nation

The sun is bright on this Midsummer Day

And it feels as though it may all slip away, but never fret

For don’t you see, high school is not just a memory.