In our poetry program, students study contemporary and classic poets, and then create their own poems in response.
While this form of creativity feels like a welcome contrast to core academic courses, students learn important writing and editing skills. The experience of challenging, creative writing is often the path that leads to a love of reading and writing.
Every year, a student-led editorial team produces Nautilus II, an anthology of student art and poetry that has received critical acclaim.
Destiny Bermudez
Where I’m From
I am
where the kids yell out
and the moms are even louder
I am
the biggest jungle, full of chaos and love
in the park, with lit grills
where the Dominicans blast the bass from their Hondas
$1 dollar for a pedauga
and a sun-baked rock
To sunbathe on
I am
every child and adult involved in a water balloon fight
A party every summer night
man, I am
missing my home
in the Bronx
Jasmarie Hernandez
The Hidden Lotus
I look into the mirror
And see the pain in my eyes
Don’t know what to feel
Why do I try?
Just a bunch of bottled-up emotions.
Blue tickles. Blue skies
Going through the motions
Running away. Stuck in a maze
Around the commotion of encircling pain
My tears fall with the growth of a lotus.
If you didn’t know
I hope you notice
You gave me a spark of love and focus
Have faith in God and never feel hopeless
Like the leaves of a lotus
In the wind
While blooming in your way
Of the chosen
Kianna Marie
Making Beauty Out of Every Disaster
“The most beautiful part of your body
is wherever your mother’s shadow falls.” Ocean Vuong
Everywhere
So beautiful
Her mother’s shadow flows through her
She unintentionally follows. As they grow
Together. They are
Divine feminine.
She is her. Her shadow
Cast through her
Allowing just enough space for her chest to
expand with each breath.
Now as they are one,
She embodies beauty out of every disaster.
Making
Each mistake
Count.
Guided by disappointment. She made
The most out of her mother’s flaws.
Though it filled her with anger
She embraced their dark feminine
She used this
It shaped her
She has her own shadow now.
Molly Moynahan
I Want to Be Your Song
Just like your namesake, you have
Provided me with fortune and nourishment
I want to do the same for you
I want to be the sage in
Your heart, expelling your demons.
When the golden fire kisses
the horizon, I know
Ours looms hotter.
When the cold silver floods
The air every night, I know
I’ll be kept warm in our nest
Of contentment. When our child has grown
And our faces wither, the constant
Of our connection
Will keep youth
Trapped in our hearts.
When you pull your dreams
Into reality, I want to be your muse
And when your last breath
Forces a word from your tired wings
I want to be your song.
Avionna Bradley Naylor
GRATEFUL
God bless the ugliness
in my soul
Let the beauty trapped
in this
Broken shell
finally show
You may fall
but just rise up
Again.
Let your lights
Gleaming across
the bridge spark
Myself, unlatched for a while
as if it were normal to be torn apart.
Avionna Bradley Naylor is from Springfield MA. She is twenty-three years old, and mother to a young toddler. She is an exceptionally driven young woman, who both began and graduated from the HiSet program in 2022.
Aaliyah Carrion
Holding On
Holding onto
exhaustion, onto
fear,
lost and lonely,
angry,
crying through the night,
to be clean,
to be happy,
holding on for
my beautiful daughter.
Aaliyah Carrion is nineteen years old, from Springfield MA, and a mother of a one-year old. Her goals are to get a HiSET diploma and start planning to go to nursing classes, while also getting approved for an apartment. She enjoys listening to music, drawing/coloring, writing, and spending time with her daughter.
Hailey Vazquez
I and You
I
I am a luminous scarlet
arch of sky
as if
it was wearing
roses and the moon, I am
more than
just dry and green
kinda like oil in a glass
of water, more beautiful
than the murkiness
of the ocean.
II
For you
I would walk the earth
and back
For you
I would give all my days
For you
I will love until time stops
And for you I would
show you the light in life
And for you I would travel
till the end of time to love you
But only for you.
Hailey Vazquez is eighteen years old, from Springfield MA with a one year old daughter. She is a very talented writer and poet.
Angela Flores
Sometimes, A Tribute to Jericho Brown’s The Tradition (an erasure poem)
Sometimes what I love
doesn’t show
up at all.
All my
anxiety
is
Separation anxiety. I
sweat
into
The earth
as I
repair it.
The value
of sweet music
wandering.
What rots between
our feet.
In my own skin
But
imagine our
safety
Could not see
to tell
the truth.
Angela Flores is twenty-one years old, from Springfield MA and mother of a young toddler.
Laura Ortiz
Where do our tears go?
Where do our tears go when we’re trying not to cry?
Holding our breath, inside
the world becomes obsolete.
Tears endlessly flowing
as we fall asleep.
Wednesdays
We turn off our phones, close
our eyes. We can still see
the ghost of the screen
behind our eyes. Bright
but slowly fading into
nothingness. Our minds
are buzzing and humming
our bodies sore, and filled
with lead. The ancient AC
rumbling eternally
silent to our ears.
Like Filigree Lace
Compulsion
is barefaced. The girls smashed
their secrets.
Like filigree lace, grimly potent
they dove, with elegance and bandaging
ravished to tell.
Laura Ortiz mother to Gabriel. She is twenty years old, and has graduated Valedictorian, Class of 2022 at The Care Center, Holyoke MA. She is from Springfield MA, and aspires to be a doula or midwife. Laura enjoys nature, books and reading, and spending time with her family. In 2022, she was one of two HiSet poets awarded a Debut Collection chapbook, published by The Field Office’s Weight of Bees Press.
Josellyanne Santiago
I.
A bright sharpened shell
inside, soft
drifted from sea.
Outside, ugly
alone in the dark
unknown, spinning
In waters beauty
Dark fall
Bright rise.
II.
I am
slowly changing
so empty but full.
I am
a controlled or uncontrolled bundle
of joy. Living
For another Living. Living
awake and overwhelmed, day
and night. Pure
For my forever-lasting loves
of joy. Bundling another
day, do it again
I am
snoozing the alarm
for another time
Again, awake
by the voices
in my mind
Another day, do it again
Those jeans sitting in the dirty laundry bucket
Overused, throw them
On again.
Sweaty palms on the bus ride to peace
Breathe another day,
Again.
Josellyanne Santiago is mother of three. She is twenty-two years old, from Springfield MA, and loves art and poetry. In 2022, she was one of two HiSET poets awarded a Debut Collection chapbook, published by The Field Office’s Weight of Bees Press
Mariangelic Felix
Untitled
11 times
i can’t breathe
i can’t breathe
i can’t breathe
i can’t breathe
i can’t breathe
i can’t breathe
i can’t breathe
i can’t breathe
i can’t breathe
i can’t breathe
i can’t breathe
till beautiful black skin becomes coated in blood red
till mothers and siblings see their loved ones pushed to the concrete
the light in their eyes extinguished
how many times will we see lives murdered on our streets?
how many more times until black lives finally matter?
even if you batter and bruise us, we will not fall
not today, not ever
we will not stop as long as we have to tell our young children they may be shot for just playing
till law enforcement stops comforting white privilege
to them, the lives lost are just another name on a piece of paper that will never be looked at twice
to them
black lives
are a danger.
how was 12 year old Tamir Rice a danger?
how was George Floyd a danger?
and how is suffocation not?
i am not black, but i see you
i will fight for you, fight with you
till black lives finally matter
till we finally get justice.
#blacklivesmatter
Janeia Price
Name it Beat
Inspired by Jo Harjo
I release you, broke, no-money-having self
I release you,
You are getting on my nerves but pushing me to do better.
But now, ‘cause of you, I’m in school doing what’s best for Wynter.
With my GED and my pride, I will achieve what’s best for my daughter.
I release you I release you I release you I release you
I’m not afraid to burn it out.
I’m not afraid to eat noodles every day.
I’m not afraid to wear my same four pairs of shoes.
I’m not afraid to be scared, of getting it, or losing it.
I’m not afraid to be nappy headed.
I’m not afraid to be black.
I’m not afraid of people of who talk down to me.
I’m not afraid to make it out I’m not afraid to make it out
But come here, Janeia Price, doing it well
I am so focused and you are so ready to be successful.
Janeia Price is a 19-year-old native of Springfield. She has an infant and is an excellent bowler.
Haliegh Moynahan
Instructions on Not Allowing a Man to Control You
Don’t let him tell you what to do,
don’t allow him to tell you what you can and cannot wear
don’t let him tell you that you can’t go out
don’t let him tell you who you can and cannot hang out with,
don’t let him push you around, don’t let him talk bad about you.
Don’t let him it you.
Don’t allow him to make you feel like you’re flawed because he knows he’s flawed,
don’t ever allow a man to make you feel like you’re worth nothing because you are worth something.
You are beautiful and worthy
of so much more than what he tells you.
The more and more a woman listens to negative things being said about her,
the more and more she’s going to believe it.
Get yourself out of that situation.
Once you’re out give yourself a chance to be happy again,
give yourself a chance to grow in life without listening to a controlling man.
If you didn’t finish school, get out and finish school and graduate because
You can do it.
And don’t ever allow anyone to tell you that you can’t.
Accomplish things in your life and do everything you dreamed of wanting to do
in your life with a man telling you can’t.
Haleigh Moynahan is from Chicopee. She is the mother of a school-aged child and is currently pursuing her HiSET.
Sylvia Torres
Superhero
My superpower is being the best mom I could be.
My villains would have to be any
One who would try to take my daughter
Away from me.
I do everything for my daughter
Feed, bathe, clothe, take care, buy stuff
And love her always.
I will always tell my daughter
Who’s bad and who’s not,
Who to trust and who not to.
Who will always be there and
Who will not.
My daughter will have the best life
Better than I did.
I will protect her
From all the foster homes, all the placements
All the hard times away from family.
I’m her superhero by just being her
Mom.
Sylvia Nicole Torres is a mother of a beautiful 2-year-old girl named Sairenity Caballero. She is from Springfield. She enjoys writing poems because it speaks to her and how she is feeling.
Jenniffer Gonzalez
Someday It Will Be Worth It
After Ocean Vuong’s “Someday I’ll love Ocean Vuong”
Jenniffer. Don’t give up.
It might be raining now
but it won’t rain forever.
Everything will be okay. You are
your own motivation and always have been.
But now, Aleah, you will be my motivation too.
No matter how many times we may struggle, we
will always keep moving forward. Are you
listening, Jenniffer? Are you ready? You’re back
in school now, and I cannot wait to finally say
“I made it.”
Jenniffer Gonzalez lives in Chicopee, but was born and raised in Holyoke. She is the proud mother of a three-month-old baby girl, Aleah. She plans on getting her HiSET soon. She wants to make her family proud and to be a role model for her daughter.
Natasha Torres
New Year
After Lucille Clifton’s “i am running into a new year”
I am running into a new year
and the old years flew away
like the air I throw out my nose
like the love that broke my heart
and it will be hard to let go
of the memories
of what I said about myself when
I promised myself to stick alone
and focus on myself
but I am running into a new year
and I beg life
to give me a fresh new start.
Natasha Torres is a young mother who was born and lives in Springfield. She is a graduate of The Care Center’s Humanities 108 college-level course.
