KHS to host night of poetry
Courtesy photo Former Kellogg High School student Sage Bryant reads one of her own poems during a live reading event last year. KHS will be hosting their first live poetry reading on Dec. 6.
KELLOGG — The Creative Writing department at Kellogg High School is getting ready for their first public event of the year.
After expanding from just one class to now having both beginners and advanced courses this year, instructor Kelton Enich has a plethora of creative authors and materials at her disposal.
Enich has even allowed her advanced students to take the reins on most of the reading events for this year, including coming up with the theme, order of readers, programs and finding the emcee.
The upcoming event is themed “Black and White” and guests are encouraged to dress up in their favorite “Black and White” era throwback costumes to listen to the readings.
The level of work that goes into each live reading at one of these events is impressive to say the least.
“Each student has spent over a month working on their particular poem through the drafting and revision process,” Enich said. “After peer revision, drafting workshops and student-teacher writing conferences, they will have completed 4-5 drafts of their poem. The class is very centered around careful revision and deep critical reflection, and it’s so much different than a normal English class. Their efforts in revision definitely shine through when they read their polished work to the audience.”
As mentioned prior, the advanced class has been actively planning the event, but they are also working to make sure that they have pieces ready for presentation, which has essentially doubled their workload as the event approaches.
Enich has loved watching them band together to make sure that not only does the event go off smoothly, but also that they are supporting one another’s creativity.
“My Creative Writing 2 class has definitely come together as a family after two years of being together and it’s incredible to see how much they support and encourage each other,” Enich said. “For them, this class is no longer about the grade. It’s about pushing themselves to be the very best writers they can be. It has been an incredible experience to watch them grow.”
Unlike last year, where the events were free, this year the readings will have an admission fee, $3 without a costume or $2 with one.
The money raised through admission will go toward the publishing of the class’s first collective poetry works.
Enich and her class plan to hold two more events following this one, one of them will be a collaboration with the KHS art class and then a poetry slam in the spring.
The event will be on Thursday, Dec. 6 at 6:30 p.m. in the Kellogg High School cafeteria, light refreshments will be provided.
For a few examples of the poems that will be read during the event, visit www.shoshonenews press.com.
Songs of the Sky
Darian Hill, Freshman
The sky is sun-warped;
a lad sits in a meadow under
the dome glazed with sunshine.
The wind buzzes and whispers
like school girls telling secrets
between chain-linked fences.
The wind howls with song
as loud as an orchestra parading
with flutes and harmonizing
with the sound of trumpets.
Eager to see the sunset
the lad gracefully sings a tune.
The daylight fades along with the clouds
and wisp away into the night sky.
The melting sun stains the sky over the horizon
and a haze of darkness rushes over.
the world around the boy seems like graveyard,
darkened with wind whispering its secrets.
But the sky, the vault to heaven,
is awake,
beaming with light bulbs
that tell stories of the galaxy.
The lad sits, eager for the day to vanish
into something more beautiful,
for the sky to disappear into a film of orange and red,
his moon-skin bright like the midnight sun.
In that moment, the boy was thankful.
Thankful for the melting sun,
for the beaming light bulbs that followed,
for the next day that was bound to come.
Guide to Creation
Jess Hoaglan, Sophomore
Watch the stain swallow your sketch
and seep through the paper sheets
like rain dotting the pages of a book.
Coat an old brush in faded rainbows,
and paint the rising sun,
or the delicate flush of petal.
Craft careful words
close enough to disappear in.
Free rivers’ flow from brushes
with silver and periwinkle paint.
Replace the vacancy with galaxy dreams,
where every piece of page is manufactured to be predictable,
a barren landscape of counterfeit sameness.
Don't you want to fix it?
Reflect imagination with unique hands,
and forge windows to the impossible,
with every brush stroke
streaking the paper with a plan.
Change their eyes,
and re-imagine
flower beds as swaying forests
and glassy puddles as roaring seas.