Life vs Death -- according to Jaelyn

Last week Jaelyn came home from school with a postcard From Creative Communication stating:  Congratulations Jaelyn!  Your poem “Life vs Death” has been accepted to be published in the book A Celebration of Poets. 

The postcard stated that her poem is in the final competition and may be a Top Ten Winner.  They needed us to give permission for the poem to be published and to order a copy of the book if we wanted.  Jaelyn told me that her Reading teacher had entered her poem in a contest through Creative Communication. 

I am so proud of not only her ability to express herself in writing, but taking the risk to write something that shared a deep part of herself.  The part that struck me the most was not that her poem was selected to be published and in the final competition.  Rather, after asking a few questions, I found out that only the style of the poem was given by the teacher for that particular assignment and she chose the topic herself.  

Life vs Death

Life
Energy, giving
Everlasting, laughing, busy
Birthdays, balloons, flowers, grave
Miserable, crying, struggle
Apathy, inactivity
Death

I have read and reread the poem over the last week or so and finally tonight asked her permission to share it on my blog.  Every time I read it, I am struck by how powerful it is and a window inside her thoughts about life and death. 

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