Held each spring for Arlington Public School students, the Moving Words Student Poetry Competition is a partnership between Arlington Cultural Affairs and the Arlington Public Schools Humanities Project, with support from Arlington Transit. Moving Words supports the goals of the Humanities Project’s Pick A Poet program, which invites professional poets into APS classrooms to share their experience and love for the craft with students. Visiting poets help students explore their own creativity, insight, and intellectual curiosity through the creative writing process, and provide students an opportunity to meet and talk with professional writers. The students are then encouraged to submit their work to the Moving Words student competition.
More than six hundred poems were submitted in 2017 by Arlington Public Schools students from all grades; from these ten winning poems and eight honorable mention awardees were selected. The competition judges were area poets Holly Karapetkova and Martha Sanchez-Lowery and Arlington County Poet Laureate Katherine E. Young.
To see all student Moving Words poems since 1999, visit the Arlington Transit website, ArlingtonTransit.com.
Read all 2017 Student Moving Words winning and honorable mention poems below!
2017 Student Moving Words Winning Poems
Luis Has Money
My friends and me
Going down the street
To Dairy Queen
We made it
We order
Now the moment
Of Truth
Who’s paying?
We know
Luis
– Mauricio Ventura, 9th Grade, Wakefield High School
Sadness
Sadness is a hole with no bottom
Sadness is a night with no stars
Sadness is when the sun won’t shine
And the rain won’t stop
Sadness is a shadow
But shadows only exist
When somewhere there is light.
– Bronwen Kubiak
6th Grade, Thomas Jefferson Middle School
Untitled
Driving
Really fast
Imagining buses
Velvet
Elegant
Rubber tires
-Edan Goldenpine, Kindergarten, Drew Model Elementary School
From the Mind of Led Lorenz to the Global Resistance Movements
One fragile wing flap
A tsunami’s breath away
The catalyst? You.
– Marilyn Warren, 8th Grade, Kenmore Middle School
Untitled
I am from the restless cities and the peaceful countrysides
I am from the days I felt the sun’s scorching heat
(On the nights, a cool summer breeze)
I am from the sloped mountains of Idaho
And the laid back towns of Virginia
From constantly running from the past
And Never looking back
– Matthew Kress, 8th Grade, Swanson Middle School
Sea Stars
Sea stars look like they
Don’t move all day…
long.
But you’re VERY wrong.
They eat clams and mussels…
But they do. not. hustle!
– Rachel Gaynor, 1st Grade, Ashlawn Elementary School
Wooden dock
Creaks beneath my bike
Crab pots and grey strings left out
The jetty piers groan.
– Lily Watson, 8th Grade, Kenmore Middle School
When will we go Home?
The elephants will link their trunks to others’ tails and follow the sinking sun
The birds will soar with the wind and dive into their nests
The wolves will dash through the snow howling until they meet their dens
We will get on the buses and ride through the packed roads
Finally approaching the place we call home
-Lina Kim, 5th Grade, Arlington Traditional School
Night
The ocean is an ink-black rubber band
stretching through the night.
A cold breeze passes through the city
like a mysterious kite.
The fish are swimming
deep in the sea.
Everything is silent
and no one can see.
When the clock strikes midnight
it’s another life to me.
– Jacqueline Joyce, 1st Grade, Arlington Science Focus School
Half Moon
Bright as a gem
Black and blue painted across the sky
The wind sounds like crystals falling from the air
Why is the moon so bright?
What does it feel like?
I feel so comfortable and happy as sparkling white snow
Good night moon
Good night moon
Good night moon
-Eleanor, 2nd Grade, Jamestown Elementary
2017 Student Moving Words Honorable Mention Poems
That Old Brick House
hearts will break and bruises ache
in that old brick house
dads throw fits and wives get hit
in that old brick house
times were strange but children change
in that old brick house
wounds will heal, we’re made of steel
in my old brick house
when I leave no one will grieve
in that old brick house
– Molly Lane, 8th Grade, Swanson Middle School
Nosotros Decimos
Nosotros decimos
Hablar alto!
Se túá mismo!
Pero porqué decimos
Haz lo que hacen
Y
Ve con la multitude
Cuál es correcto?
No lo sabemos
– Guy Shoji, 7th Grade, Swanson Middle School
El Hombre
Hey you suit and tie man!
Why are you on the green bus?
Are you going to the big glass building?
Anyways what are you going to accomplish in your long day of work?
You should make sure you wear matching socks next time.
And you shouldn’t have your papers sticking out of your briefcase.
Pull your tie tighter!
At the end of the day you’ll be on this bus again
with a wallet of cash as fat as a Bible.
Well this is goodbye…It’s your stop.
– Ramon Allen-Arellano, 9th Grade, Wakefield High School
A World I Dream Of
I dream of a world where women aren’t look down upon,
Stereotyped as housewives,
Belonging in a kitchen
I dream of a world where every civilian is treated fairly,
Regardless of the color of their skin
I dream of a world where we aren’t judged by our looks,
By the way we dress,
By the way we speak,
By the way we are shaped
I dream of a world where I get to change something
-Samantha Phuoc Tran, 8th Grade, Swanson Middle School
Where I’m From
I am from enchiladas
The smoke of the carne blowing in my face
From my soft cloud bed in my home
I am from karate kicks
and from rocket soccer goals
I am from Reynaldo and Maribel
I am from No drugs
From not going to church but still believing.
– Anonymous, 7th Grade, Kenmore Middle School
Untitled
Ice, snow, hail, slush,
pounding down like a thousand heartbeats,
tickling the tip of my nose
as I walk in to the blankness
of cold.
– Eve Nardone, 3rd Grade, Arlington Traditional School
One Shiny Star
It glitters like a holiday tree,
The song of the star shining.
It comes home to my heart.
You can see it.
– Zoë Spangler, Kindergarten, Abingdon Elementary School