Poetry

Silvia Baker

Home

I have never been a small town girl

But there’s something about the way every

Ancient,

Gnarled

Oak

Reaches for the dawn with

Knotted,

Twisting

Fingers

Their branches like cracks in a summer blue sky

That makes my soul sing.

There’s something about the way the world sounds at night,

Every

Singing

Cricket

A chorus in my ears,

Every

Star

Alive,

Their winking eyes illuminating my walk down an asphalt road

That makes my soul sing.

There’s something about the way I know

Every

Winding

Road,

Each path a different memory,

Every

Trail

Explored

A hundred times, marked with footprints made long before mine

That makes my soul sing.

There’s something about the way the sky looks

At

Exactly

7:22 am

A new dawn, hope incarnated

Promising

New

Beginnings

And a life worth living because it’s mine

That makes my soul sing.

The poem won third place in the Jackson District Library Young Poets Competition in 2024.

Silvia Baker is a high school senior. She plays tennis, runs cross country, and has two cats whom she adores. Her hobbies include reading, writing, and creating art of any kind. She has always aspired to be an author, and poetry is one of her favorite forms of self-expression. She hopes to attend college after she graduates high school and pursue a degree in Creative Writing and Anthropology.