In Rising Voices of El Cerrito’s Young Poets, a Message About Resilience

“Resilience lives to blaze a trail that has not been walked before.” 
“Resilience sounds like cries of rebellion.” 
“Resilience is the passing of the wind—when you think you’ve lost, but you’ve actually won if you keep going.”

These are just some of the lines students across El Cerrito have penned about resilience, as part of a citywide project with the city’s acclaimed poet laureate, Tess Taylor. Nearly 600 elementary and high school students have participated in the program, culminating in this month’s release of an anthology: “Gardening In The Public Flowerfest.”

“[Poetry is] about empathy. It’s about dreaming. It’s about pleasure,” Taylor said. “And it’s this art form where you don’t need an editor or a studio. You just have a pen and paper. and the details around you. And suddenly you have a bit more power over your story and your life.”

Taylor pointed out that students in Contra Costa County schools have some of the lowest per capita funding for arts programming in the Bay Area.

“And arts programming is really important for imaginative life,” Taylor said.

Fourth grader Thomas Kasuga-Jenks said poetry’s connection to resilience allows him to imagine other possibilities. “You can make things that nobody’s ever seen before,” he said. “And sometimes the things nobody’s ever seen before have them change their ways.”

“Sometimes you’re afraid to speak it out loud. Sometimes you’re even afraid to think it out loud,” Maya Colmenares said.

“In your writing, you can be strong and you can even proclaim that truth to other people, even if they don’t agree.”

“I think poetry has always been etched into me, like faith,” said Yasmin Dos Santos Almeida, an 11th grade student.

When she thinks about poetry and resilience, she remembers immigrating to America as a child and reading a book of rhymes.

“The only way that I thought of how to learn English was to write these little sentences where they sounded poetic and rhythmic.”

The Unseen American Dream
by Yasmin Dos Santos Almeida
They crossed the border, heads held low,
Through endless nights, through winds that blew.
They left behind a land in flames,
Where tears fell like unspoken names.

The gates that promised warmth and light
Are locked, they say, “You have no right.”
How unfair this world, how cruel the game,
For some, it’s wealth; for others, shame.

The child born here, in golden halls,
Will never know the weight of walls.
While those who flee with hungry eyes,
Will face a future wrapped in lies.

The world is blind to all they’ve known,
To all they’ve left and called their own.
The laws that say who can belong,
Are written in a bitter song.
And every line, and every plea
Is drowned by power’s endless sea.

Yet still they rise, though hope is thin,
A fight to see the light within.
For the privilege of the few,
Means the broken dreams of me and you.
Injustice reigns, while silence falls,
And still, they walk—without a call.

Isaac Fried, another fourth grader, sees poetry as a way to channel his inward emotions.

“I speak up, but sometimes there’s things I just like to keep private,” he said. “ If I write them, I can write whatever I want. Unlike people, a book will never scorn me for what I write.”

Le Asia Anderson, a senior at El Cerrito High, said writing helps her look for growth within herself.

“It’s not even like I’m searching for anything. It just helps me see new things that I wouldn’t know unless I’m writing about it.”

I am a button
by Le Asia Anderson

I feel as if I’m a button,
trying in this life.
A small button.
hanging on by one thread.
Knowing that I’m trying.
Knowing that I’ll stay.
Right here
In this life,
In my life.

The students spoke with The California Report Magazine host Sasha Khokha as part of a series on Californians and resilience. To hear the students’ poems as part of this week’s episode of the show, click the red play button at the top of the page.