In May 2023, Write Out celebrated our third annual chapbook publication! We had a launch party for the community, with students reading the poems they wrote.
The cover of our chapbook was illustrated by one of our La Casita High School students.
Throughout the year we focused on questions of ecology and nature, asking the students to imagine what life would be like as a bird, what environments matter to them, what their own internal ecologies would resemble, and what those ecologies would need to grow and thrive.
The chapbook is filled with stories of dream worlds, poems from the point of view of a tree sparrow, chilling ghost stories, haunting remembrances of lost homelands, and as always pieces of writing shot through with life, joy, and outrageously funny and insightful perspectives on nature, love, friendship, and home.
Below are a few excerpts from Write Out: A Collection of of Creative Writing, Volume 3
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Anais, 11, Girls Inc. at the YWCA
What I Would Do If I Was a Bird
I would fly around the world and explore places every morning and find bird friends. Find food, sing with my friends and dance with my friends.
The first place I would fly is Paris because I want to see the Eiffel Tower and steal people’s bread—why not? And sit on people’s windows—I would see their bedroom, their kitchen, their big couch. Some people painting, making a birds nest.
Then I will travel to a new place. I would travel to Canada. I would steal some syrup. I would watch the waterfalls and go to sleep in a bird nest.
When it starts to get cold, I would go to a place that’s hot, like Florida. I would watch the water and the waves move back and forth. I would visit my dad. Probably wouldn’t recognize me as a bird.
In the summertime, I’ll go home.
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Fatma, 14, North Side Learning Center
Sharp Second
I feel the cold wind tickling my fingertips turning it numb as the wind unwinds me My cheeks and nose turn to a cherry I sigh to the tiredness of the morning to see a puff of white smoke shoot out my mouth My heart starts racing and I start sweating in my big winter coat I’m now breathing at a fast rate with the breaths of air shooting per second I take a break to pick up my pound heavy backpack and feel my heart pounding Like a woodpecker pecking at a maple sap tree The leftover rains seep through my white crocs making my socks wet The wilderness is much larger than man