EC Poets Rising Stars

Last fall, sisters Amanda and Anna Beer - then a junior and a senior respectively - saw a flier posted by the English department about a poetry contest. Demonstrating the initiative characteristic of these Mountaineers, each of the sisters entered the competition independent of any class assignments or teacher guidances and were published in the 2019 Rising Stars Collection published by Appelley Publishing.

Her Tree

by Anna Beer

A secret place within the noise

A secret place inside the lies

Shining brightly however dim

Something passed on a whim

Remembered wrong although it’s right

Remembered here this single night

This quiet place under moonlight

The tree that stands silent tonight

A name left here so long ago

A name this place released to go

No stone will mark the place she lies

No one can find the tree’s true tithe

Her secret then forever lies

Hiding beneath the starry skies

A secret place within the noise

A forgotten place inside the lies

Left and Right

by Amanda Beer

It just so happened as I sleep

And what I saw in front of me

Light and darkness traveled by

Left and right, on either side

I look on left to see the light

And saw my first attempt to write

Going swimming with my friends

Or staying up to play pretend

But then I look to the right to see

Things I hid under debris

Broken mirrors scream and shout

Almost making me walk out

Nights awake and I don’t know why

Can’t express what I feel inside

Hiding from the ghost in me

The public doesn’t want to see

I walk on left, back towards the light

I start to think about the trite

We waste our time looking right

We forget to live in the light!