Orchestra, our favorite subject of the day. We rush in the music room, eager to unpack our instruments, Grins creep across each musician’s face as we unpack Our beloved stringed noisemakers. We tune, we play, we make wonderful Music, did I mention… it’s my favorite subject of the day! The music brings joy to my ears as I listen to what could be mistaken For expert symphony players. The bows move up and down In harmony on the strings. The melody moves gently as the orchestra Plays as one. Each and every player adds a unique addition To the ensemble. Solana Ordonez, 11Mukilteo, Washington
Poetry-Music-and-Dance
Friday Night at Miss Farida’s Piano Lesson
Miss Farida loves vanilla-smelling candles which flicker against the sleeping couch. I place my sandals beside the spill of shoes and slippers strewn across the plastic mat in the hallway to her room. I see the Sesame Street stickers propped near the electric piano, tangled in a hoop of dreaming dust, and the pedals, wrapped in a layer of fine metal. Miss Farida takes my stack of weary books that whimper as she turns to “Stepping Stones.” My delicate hands look like tiny mice skittering across the keys. I play to a beat from the metronome fast as a hummingbird’s heartbeat, slow as a whale’s. Miss Farida takes a pencil from her hair and writes in my notebook. “Tonight you will write a song about New Year’s.” I pick up my denim bag and dump my books into it. Already, I begin to hear the notes of endless possibilities for my composition: The orchestra of 10,000 fuchsia fireworks exploding in the air, the symphony of sparklers, the dropping ball of melody, the score of the night, filled with new beginnings. Tae Kathleen Keller, 8Waipahu, Hawaii
The Dancer
Behind the curtain of rain The Dancer awaits Her slick, muscular legs tensing, preparing, Wide eyes darting, searching. Suddenly, with all grace, she leaps through the air. Flying, Soaring, She lands with flawless balance Just in time to shoot her slender tongue into the air For dinner. The frog on her lily pad. Anna Preston,12Oakton, Virginia