ideas

1. Watching the stars while pointing out constellations. The winter is the best time for this because the skies are always clear, and my favorite constellation is out then.
2. Walking at night in poet’s snow*.

On Eloquence

By W.T. Smith
Hanover High School, Grade 11

What would we give for eloquence?
Would we change what we had to say?
What did we do with innocence?
Did we lose it along the way?

How many times are decisions made
By the words that we know how to use?
And how often do we give our dreams away
Because we have to choose?

So if you speak a different tongue,
Will you dream a different way?
So strange how often dreams are hung
On what we have to say.

It’s all been done before:
Whatever I choose, I’ll be copy copy copycat;
Not an original idea left here for me.
Dig deep to unearth what remains
And find everyone’s been there before.
Stuck in someone else’s rut
With spinning wheels
Churning out idea after recycled idea.
Copy copy copycat.
Everything’s been taken—
Take two, take four, take sixty-nine—
Action! Already been done
With copy copy copycat ideas.