Creative Shutdown

Valeria Blanco, Grade 9

Wheels turning 

Lightbulbs glowing 

Hands shaking 

Head aching 

Heart racing 

Ideas overflowing 

The stories inside, ongoing 

Feet running 

Computer opening 

Lots of clicking 

But no typing 

No thinking 

No words gently flowing 

No ideas pouring 

Mind racing 

Hands fidgeting 

There is no writing 

Just a person stressing 

Over nothing 

Its writer’s block, a normal thing 


Eye's Through A Looking Glass

Savitri Sasse, Grade 11

Head on Collision

Ava Buckingham, Grade 11

Writer's Block

Lauren Prince, Grade 9

Wracking my brain, 

Themes, themes, themes. 

There are so many options to write about 

Yet nothing seems interesting. 

5, 20, 30 minutes pass, 

Suddenly it has been an hour  

My mind still frantically flips through the

book of my empty ideas 

Time ticks away like molasses in an hourglass. 

As my fingers wander the keyboard, 

I realize everything I have written is meaningless 

And I delete the phrases on the page, 

Leaving it as white as a polar bear in a snowstorm. 

The bright screen burns my eyes, 

Endless cycle of typing, deleting 

Typing, 

Deleting. 

Exhausted, I begin to give up, 

But suddenly an idea flutters into my mind, 

Through my body and into my fingers. 

As if they had been electrocuted with the new thought, 

My fingers swiftly tap, tap, tap on the keys. 

Content with my draft, 

Excitedly I edit. 

Pages

1 ~Editor's Note~2The Dragon's Toe3George's 4Exotic Flavor5Paper Cutter 6Masked , Big Fish , A Plant , and Pass, Hit, Set 7The Stories of Colors 8The Lightning Monster9The Rainy Life of the Weather Named Stormy 10Tables, Reflection , Arachnid , and Distant Forest 11Discovery 12Etched Blossoms , Owl, City Scape , and Puppy 13Superior Species 14Those Butterfly Wings , Converse , Tunnel Vison, and A Cloud 15A Sea of Red 16Nebula Metro17Life of a Diary 18Flowers , Swan , Waves , and Grass 19The Dragon's Tooth 20The Girl in a Dress 21Burning Out , Blue Dot , A Southern Feminist's Manifesto , and Silhouette 22The Fire Kindling: Chapter 1 23The Perfect Student , Social Pressures , and The Perfect Student 2 24Patina Nightmare25Eventide26Creative Shutdown, Eye's Through A Looking Glass , Head on Collision , and Writer's Block 27The Road to the Championship 28Reconnecting With Nature , Eos , you were a summer thunderstorm , and Reconnecting With Self 29Senior Spotlight: Ava Muller, Photography, The Landing , Tranquil , One-eyed Flyer , Grief , Dreamer , Fractured , Breakin', Lost Lives , and Lilypads 30Senior Spotlight: Maggie Huffman, Digital Illustration , Nice to Meet You!, Exploration of "Circe", Surfs Up! , The Return of Morales , Companionship , Mandalorian , Ambush , Just Hangin', and The High Priestess 31Senior Spotlight: Jolie Stumpff, Poetry , Don't, Muse, Being a Boy , In Search of a Cosmos, Overstimulation , Wheels , and Final Moments32Playing Time Struggles, Head in the Game , Sky High , and Moment of Glory 33Pollination , Azure Afternoon , Creator of Color, and Elegant Emu 34One , Fido , Heart Handles , and Early Birds35Dedication: Katherine Berdy