Last fall, sisters Amanda and Anna Beer – then a junior and a senior respectively – saw a flier posted by the English department about a poetry contest. Demonstrating the initiative characteristic of these Mountaineers, each of the sisters entered the competition independent of any class assignments or teacher guidances and were published in the 2019 Rising Stars Collection published by Appelley Publishing.
Her Tree
by Anna Beer
A secret place within the noise
A secret place inside the lies
Shining brightly however dim
Something passed on a whim
Remembered wrong although it’s right
Remembered here this single night
This quiet place under moonlight
The tree that stands silent tonight
A name left here so long ago
A name this place released to go
No stone will mark the place she lies
No one can find the tree’s true tithe
Her secret then forever lies
Hiding beneath the starry skies
A secret place within the noise
A forgotten place inside the lies
Left and Right
by Amanda Beer
It just so happened as I sleep
And what I saw in front of me
Light and darkness traveled by
Left and right, on either side
I look on left to see the light
And saw my first attempt to write
Going swimming with my friends
Or staying up to play pretend
But then I look to the right to see
Things I hid under debris
Broken mirrors scream and shout
Almost making me walk out
Nights awake and I don’t know why
Can’t express what I feel inside
Hiding from the ghost in me
The public doesn’t want to see
I walk on left, back towards the light
I start to think about the trite
We waste our time looking right
We forget to live in the light!
