Our Poet Laureate, Jenyth Jo, recently hosted a poetry contest. The theme was "Double Vision: If hindsight is 2020, what do you see when you look back? What do you see when you look forward? Write a poem that considers the double nature of being in transition. What insights have you gained? What questions still remain?"
Here is the winning poem:
Growing, Blind
by Kinsey Ybarra, California High School
What if the caterpillar had known,
before his time
That with all his elegance of prismatic design,
he would one day become a butterfly.
Would his credence in
Mother Nature,
furling himself into a cocoon of uncertainty
Still be seen as bravery?
And what if the Sun had known,
before she set
That with all her colors of kaleidoscopic grace,
she would rise again in the morning.
Would her yielding herself to
the Moon,
stepping aside to let the other shine
Still be seen as strength?
But what if we had known,
before the years of seasons flow
That with all our triumph of pure determination,
we would achieve greatness.
Would our leap of faith into
the Future,
treading into foreign waters to spend our days
Still be seen as fortitude?
The truth is not your answer;
for there is an underestimation in
being blind.
In order to see growth,
one must look to the past, not
The Future—
it holds questions
and secrets you haven’t yet thought to keep...
But if one is aware of what lies ahead,
then that is not growth at all,
but rather knowing.
Knowledge from the past may set direction
upon careful reflection
It is Uncertainty that pushes
a miracle into a masterpiece.
Yes,
The butterfly is beautiful because the caterpillar did not envision
The sunrise is beautiful because the sun did not expect
And our futures will be beautiful because we will not presume.