'Where I Wanna Live'

From Hayleah Knisley comes a poem that celebrates the way people are all different, yet also the same.  "In a world where everyone is different/Is where I wanna live"--I like that!  Hayleah is an eighth-grade student at Fairport Harding Middle School, Fairport Harbor, Ohio.  Thanks, Hayleah, for sending in your poem. 

JUST BECAUSE IM DIFFERENT

BY HAYLEAH KNISLEY

Just because were different

We shouldn’t be killed

Just because of skin

Or hair or eye color
You will call me different
Just because you want to

Maybe I wanna be different

And not just like you
A clone or an exact copy

Because if everyone was the same

The world would be boring

Like Hitler and the Aryan race

Everyone should have a place

In a world where everyone is different

Is where I wanna live

Where there is a variety and color

Not just a big mass of gray

So what if we have brown eyes

Or black hair?

Doesn’t mean we are different

Because in reality
We are all the same

'No Matter Who You Are'

Isn't this a beautiful page?  Thirteen-year-old Danielle Basista of Fairport Harding Middle School in Fairport Harbor, Ohio writes with such vivid imagery and rhyme:  "Are you shy like a turtle/Burrowing yourself in a shell/Or talkative like a parrot/Repeating secrets as if they're yours to tell?"  In a separate note, Danielle writes that after reading The Year of Goodbyes, "I have so much respect for your mother."  As do I.  Thank you, Danielle.

'Where Is The Good in Goodbye?'

This poem, from McKenna Marvin of Fairport Harbor, Ohio, includes lines to be savored and remembered.  Like:  "Where is the good in goodbye?" And:  ''Why does it take a minute to say hello and forever to say goodbye."  McKenna is an eighth grade student at Fairport Harding Middle School.  Thank you, McKenna! 

For my best friend

This is dead end

Joy and happiness, god may send.

I Cant imagine departing from you

You have given opportunities for me to do

I will always love and miss you too

I don’t want to admit that it’s the end

But I will never forget the times we shared

Whatever happens, I wish the best for you too.

The hardest part of a relationship is saying goodbye

No matter how bad you want it to stay the same

Change is always possible, you have to accept the change

Remember me and smile, for it is better to remember and cry

Where is the good in goodbye?

And why does it take a minute to say hello and forever to say goodbye.

Now that the end is near

We reminisce old memories

Even on worse times.

Farewell to all my loved ones

For it is not the end of everything

I might not be here, but you’ll always be in my heart

Don’t cry, for this is not the last time we meet

We will always remember each other

And cherish every second together.

'Look Around & Slow Your Perception'

The striking artwork and poem here are from Taylor Crow, age 14, of Fairport Harding Middle School, Fairport Harbor, Ohio.  I love how Taylor has set the words in the cloud, and then there are her words themselves:  "No matter what you think/Look deep down in someone & see the link/Before you sink. . . ."  Well done.  Thank you, Taylor. 

'I Can Only Hope It's With You, My Good Friend'

Goodbye is Just a Lie

by Kathyrn Bibeault

I shall not say goodbye,
For goodbye is just a lie.
I will often speak your name,
And look at your picture in the frame.
This will be a long ride,
Without you on my side.

I shall not say goodbye,
For goodbye is just a lie.
I shall see you again,
Forever my good friend.
Maybe in another life,
We can escape all of this strife.

I shall not say goodbye,
For goodbye is just a lie.
I love you now and forever,
I won't forget you, never.
The world I would give,
For a promise that you live.

And I don't know how this story ends,
I can only hope it's with you, my good friend.

Kathryn Bibeault is in eighth grade at Fairport Harding Middle School in Fairport Harbor, Ohio.  Isn't her her poem moving and evocative?  The rhyme and rhythm are so reminiscent of the entries in my mother's poesiealbum.  Thanks for sending in your poem, Kathryn.

Imagining Goodbye

Tori Sanborn, a student at Fairport Harding Middle School, wrote a series of brief verses imagining the goodbyes she would have to say if she had been displaced by the Holocaust.  In these verses, she bids farewell to friends, family, cat, and dog before emigrating to a new country.  For example:

I miss you now

I have not even left
For those I have loved
And those whom I have lost
I love you so
And always will

Tori also wrote this longer poem about The Year of Goodbyes:

This part in life
Was a difficult fright
For all Jews and Germans
What a sight to see
How this book touched me
And how this was a sight
It took me back to where
This first act
Has made it apart of me
This scary moment of everyone's life
Was a such a sight to see
This book was great
With a little shock
On what was happening next
This part of me came out to see
On what was out in sight
The holocaust was scary
And I do not know how they could live
But they made it through
And became free
In the wonderful land of the free

Thank  you, Tori.

'Those Terrible Goodbyes'

We've been together forever, or so it seems

But now we're apart, with no way to be together

We know each other’s secrets that we will keep for a life time

Throughout all the pain and troubles we will overcome

Being apart will be the hardest thing we've ever done

We'll fight to the finish for us to be together again

Even though we aren't together now

We'll make the best of it throughout time

We know that it is going to be tough

But we are willing to fight for our friendship

Life is going to be difficult when we are apart

But life will be better as soon as we are together again

We have known that we will have to be apart

But now that the day has come, we are not ready

We are not ready to say our goodbyes

To watch us separate with no way to fight 

Finally as we realize that our time has come

We say our final goodbyes, but hopefully not for long

We always hope and pray for the days that we will reunite

But hope that we will never again have to say those terrible goodbyes

Farewells are such a central theme in The Year of Goodbyes. This poem from 14-year-old Taylor Wilson of Fairport Harbor, Ohio, really captures the emotion behind that theme.  Thank you, Taylor, for honoring "those terrible goodbyes."