SAL/ON

A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures

Category: Youth Poet Laureate

“Silence is a limb,” by Fatra Hussein

My limbs go loose. Digging deeper and deeper into the earth. As if they are searching for food. My blood seeps out. I wince at the wound. It’s been there since I learned how to talk. It kept me silent when they wronged me. My throat is dry. I search for water as if she […]

Read More

“Dear Spanish,” by Mateo Acuña

Hello old friend. Have you stopped hiding from me? Have you stopped pretending that you’re listening just around the corner, is that why you touch me with silence? Or is it because two worlds are tearing me apart and I don’t have enough native blood in my mouth to bring you as sacrifice? You of […]

Read More

A Conversation with Mateo Acuña, 2023/24 Seattle Youth Poet Laureate

This month, we’re sharing stories woven with heart and light from our youth programs community. In the interview below, our 2023/24 Youth Poet Laureate Mateo Acuña shares the path to writing his first collection of poetry, where he finds inspiration, and what dedicated space and mentorship as part of the Youth Poetry Fellowship (YPF) program […]

Read More

“Oh, the Places You Could Go” by Kyle Gerstel

Two roads in front of you, you take the road less traveled. Pfft, easy. Wait. Is that a Third road? When did that get here? They multiply, or at least You start to see more and more, but when there are more than two roads to choose from, when you’re standing in the Center of […]

Read More

“To travel is to be a passenger whose” by Adhya Kona

To travel is to be a passenger whose Memory is something that follows us where our lives themselves cannot. Personhood in motion is merely moment, after moment, after all; pieces of ourselves we put together and craft a vessel out of to take us from place to place. Like the mythic Ark, the stories that […]

Read More

“American Poetry” by Zinnia Hansen

American Poetry I imagine my brand-new copy of The Best American Poetry 2021 lying stiff and silent after the apocalypse. I’d like to remain conservative a little longer. save seed for winter. watch it sprout in the spring. I break bread by myself, sitting on the floor, hunched over by the fire, like God’s lap […]

Read More

“the poet” by Aamina Mughal

the poet this is you on your knees, surreal roses unfurled in a ghastly inversion at your feet. you balled your fists and balled your eyes out while you were patted on the back, like the ancient, quranic rage in your head could be tapped out. you are on your knees. you thought what a […]

Read More

“The Just Compromise” by Adhya Kona

Plato once asserted that justice, in the scheme of morality and goodness, ultimately comes down to compromise. We discussed it in class, so it must be true, but tell me, philosopher, if perhaps I could arrange for a meeting with your dust and bones—   Is it a just compromise, every time the story plays […]

Read More

“Standstill / Stand Still” by Kiana Gladney

At the peak of my anxiety, consumed by emotion, overwhelmed by intrusive thoughts, I’m at a standstill. I don’t know when my home got bigger or I when I simply shrunk, but my house is far too big for me, and lately I feel so small. At a standstill of uncertainty, I’ve found that lately […]

Read More

“Cubism” by Zinnia Hansen

“With your pictures you apparently want to arouse in us a feeling of having to swallow rope or drink kerosene.” – Braque to Picasso Maybe it’s as simple as this: Maybe God’s hundredth name is His face. I try to paint it on the moon, but I can’t reach far enough to fill His craterous, […]

Read More