Santa Fe New Mexican – February 26, 2015
Posted: Thursday, February 26, 2015 8:00 pm | Updated: 12:06 am, Fri Feb 27, 2015.
By Emily Davis
Generation Next | 0 comments
There was a time when Serafina Ridgley rearranged the magnetic words on her refrigerator while clad in Pull-Ups. Now she’s a junior at New Mexico School for the Arts, arranging words on paper to write poetry. “Words have been a form of oxygen for me,” she said. She’s not alone. Marissa Sanchez, a junior at Santa Fe Prep, recalls “writing on everything. It started out with finding words I liked and writing them all over notebooks and the walls in my room. … Writing is a way to express myself and poetry is my outlet.”
Nico Montoya, a senior at Santa Fe High School, discovered his talent for creating song lyrics. “Mostly because of my brother and his friends [who are musicians]. When I was in eighth grade, one of my favorite teachers asked me to put together a concert for the songwriters who wanted to show their work, and that’s what really got me started writing music.”
These three teens have one common artistic character trait: the desire to write poetically. All of them have been writing since they were children, and all hope to pursue a career out of their creative abilities. “I never used to think of myself as a writer or poet until people started connecting with my work,” Sanchez said. “Now, writing and poetry have become huge parts of my life, and I hope … that someday I can get one or more of my books published.”
“What I want to do with music is inspire people,” Montoya said. “Even if I don’t make it big I won’t be mad because it’s not all about being rich and famous.”
Ridgley said she’d actually be OK if she became a starving artist: “If my way with words leads me there, then I will consider myself successful.”
Inspiration comes from different sources for each student. For Montoya it is “uplifting songs … lyrics that have an effect on our [sense of] virtue. … Anyone who preaches peace in his or her music is a great artist to me.”
Ridgley said she finds “human intricacies and complications to be a great source of inspiration.” While Sanchez said, “Words themselves are so inspiring to me. You can take a jumble of words and put them so beautifully together to create something that has so much meaning and feeling.”
Jud Osborn, a creative writing teacher at Desert Academy, said poetry helps teens express and comprehend their own feelings. “Through the writing of poetry, people of all ages have the opportunity to further their understanding of the world around them and to explore the depth of their own personal beings,” he said. “This is perhaps more relevant for teenagers, as the world is constantly bombarding young people with complications and expectations that can force identity issues into a state of crisis.” Even as readers, he said, teens can benefit from poetry. “There is … something spectacular that happens when a student comprehends a difficult poetic or fictional technique and utilizes it admirably for the first time. I could spend all day reading and analyzing poems with students and feel like I have the most wonderful job in the world.”
Joan Logghe, poet laureate of Santa Fe and a longtime teacher at the Santa Fe Girls’ School, has worked with teens and poetry for decades. “It’s that secret and true voice that, once expressed, you can’t take back,” she said of teen poets. “I have seen so many teenagers light up at the surprise of their own poetry. … To be able to live a creative life is the greatest gift.”
Writing, of course, is not always easy. It has its trials as well as its triumphs. “Writer’s block will be the death of me, because when I reach that point in my creative process, absolutely every poetic thought I have comes to a screeching halt, ” Ridgely said. “Despite this, I am motivated to keep striving for the right words because [they are] tools for self-expression that are entirely necessary to my survival.”
“I have never felt like giving up,” Montoya said. “But there are times I get bad writer’s block or won’t want to finish something. When there’s a lot on my mind, I will write something to an instrumental [song] and try finding … that certain feel to it.”
Sanchez said she has never wanted to give up when it comes to penning poetry. “It’s where I go to bring myself up when I feel like giving up on other things. Writing … has been there for me when no one else has. It has lifted me from the darkest of places and brought the most light into my life that I could ever ask for,” she said.
All three said poetry has helped them grow as individuals and understand themselves more. Ridgely may have spoken for all three when she said, “Poetry has given me the intoxicating power of finding a unique voice and not being afraid to use it. The power that comes from raising your voice is synonymous with a lifechanging experience.”
Emily Davis is a senior at Santa Fe Prep. Contact her at emilydavis@sfprep.org.