“Light,” by WITS Student Jaeden Caldwell
November 5, 2015
Light
My mind is like a light bulb
getting switched on and off.
When I get turned on my mind explodes with ideas,
all filling my brain with different
things to do, write, play.
It is a magical thing, a feeling that can’t be compared with any other,
my thoughts lighting up as if there was a sun
shining through my soul,
spreading happiness through my body,
giving me a smile that lights up the world.
But when my light gets turned off
my mind is suddenly empty,
all the ideas and magic
that had previously filled my brain,
gone.
The sun that lights up my world,
spreading joy and happiness,
becomes a dark, black husk,
infecting the little land inside me
with gloom and sadness,
giving me a frown that darkens my soul.
If you are there
and can hear me,
please,
turn me on.
Jaeden Caldwell wrote this poem while a student at Cascade K-8 Community School in 2014-15, with WITS Writer-in-Residence Vicky Edmonds. He read it to open for SAL’s program with Elizabeth Gilbert, who spoke on creativity and her book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear.