Photo by Taylor Cote
Over a beautiful Thanksgiving meal high up in the Andes in a remote lodge on the banks of the Achibueno, the New River Academy enjoyed an inspired poetry reading. Zoe Ross read aloud the poem which was a collaborative effort of the American Literature Class. Zoe, Clay Whitiker, Alex Anderson and Eric Bartl had slaved away on this poem for four consecutive days while we were in Pichilemu, sitting on the beach and using the surf and sand as inspiration. They used their vocab words in the poem; and you could see the jaws drop as they rhymed Convivial with Unbelievable and Unspeakable, Eremitic with Roll the Credits, and many more….Taylor Cote, my ultra-creative creative writing student, read her own poem, the product of many hours of class and free time. Hers utilized an intricate rhyme scheme that pulled us right into her words, and she mentioned every single one of us in her epic. There was a collective murmur of delight when she rhymed “the scenery is breathtaking, even though we be test taking…” Double syllabic feminine rhymes rock!!
Matt Hill read two poems he wrote, both old fashion ballads utilizing an abab rhyme scheme. He is a buddy Robert Frost, which makes me, his Vermonter English Teacher, extremely proud.
Tracy d’Arbeloff and David Hughes read aloud from Pablo Neruda in both English and Spanish, and Tino Specht gave us an unusual treat by reading an EE Cummings poem in both languages as well. EE Cummings takes his poetic licence off-roading, so to speak, and he is a challenge to read aloud in English. So cheer to Tino for the beautiful reading in Spanish! Eric Bartl read aloud from Robert Frost’s The Road Less Taken, The official New River Academy Poem. And I read two poems, one I wrote in creative writing which I’ll post here, and one that I wrote nine years ago, when I attended a traveling adventure high school.
It was a lively, peaceful and rare gem of an evening. There was candle light, fire light, steam on the thick glass windows and outside a sky blazing with stars and a white moon. Inside we listened to one another, applauded each other, and each gave a small speech of personal thanks to each other, our families, the school, the country of Chile, and the people at home who helped us get here.
Thank you! We are so grateful!
–Melina
Tags: Academic Report, Academics, Gap Year, gap year abroad, kayak high school, melina coogan, new river academy
