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Let my body run And my mind escape Travel to space Let it dance and shower in the sun’s harsh rays Let it be I’m pulled down to sit in a desk By a big tree With crowded branches that are so close to me No it won’t set me free  Helen Godoy is aContinue reading “Itching”

“Goodnight, kiddo,” my dad said. Turning over, he kicked the tent and groaned. But it didn’t take long for him to fall asleep. “Goodnight,” I mumbled. He yanked the blanket from me, revealing the true strength of the wind that night. Staring at the ceiling of the tent I felt uneasy. The cold currents rustledContinue reading “Her Call”

An ekphrastic poem is inspired by a work of art. “Woven Thoughts” is inspired by Jacob Lawrence’s 1946 painting, The Seamstress. https://oac.ohio.gov/Riffe-Gallery/Past-Exhibitions/Masterworks/lc/18103/lcv/s/jacob-lawrence-seamstress-1946 I must not let hate | get in the way of my own dream. Sewing clothes | has been my dream. This machine will | make me live my dream. This machine willContinue reading “Woven Thoughts”

*An ode is a lyric poem that addresses and celebrates something or someone. The doors leading to classrooms Short halls going nowhere but to school… On my way back from the bathroom, I glance into the rooms—Some with windows, most without— And see them full of zombies. Ninth graders learning algebra, Tenth precalculus, Eleventh APContinue reading “Ode to Seniority”

I could fly without them weighing me down Painting lands I’d never dreamed I danced alone in the rushing rivers How I loved the new reflection I saw But I missed the laughs and company so I returned to what once was. Now people can see my dancing and I know I need to stopContinue reading “Contorted Puzzle Piece”

*A villanelle is a French verse form in nineteen lines that follows a specific pattern of two rhymes and an alternating refrain. School is five feet from where I rest One must have willpower to stay attentive Don’t even attempt to get nicely dressed Cameras to the ceiling, unable to see our chest Our appearanceContinue reading “Online School”

“If I were a flower I would be a dandelion.” I turn my head and feel the sharp blades of grass scratch at my cheek. She is there beside me, blonde hair twisted against the green foliage, a dandelion dangling from her grasp. The spring wind ruffles through the trees and blows a stray seedContinue reading “Petals Rain from the Sky”

In his poem “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost illustrates the complexities of choice  through the speaker’s encounter with a divergence of two identical roads, communicating the  poem’s theme that although human beings are shaped by the decisions they make, it is often  impossible to foresee the outcome of those choices. Through a metaphorical analysisContinue reading ““The Road Not Taken” – A Commentary on Human Nature”

This issue of the atala was designed, curated, and edited by Editor in Chief Samantha Lowe, Editors Samantha Villafane and Logan Saenz, and NEHS Advisor Ms. Sarah Phelps Please click on thumbnails below to view each featured work:

The poetry of Emily Dickinson exhibits a command of mind that represents one of the paradigms of feminist ideology, storytelling as a vehicle for the activation of “the centrality of identity” (York 2). In her radical poem “It was not Death, for I stood up,” Dickinson reveals the pathology of oppression through her probe intoContinue reading “Ontopoetics: Metaphysical Massacre in Dickinson’s Poetry”