Student Poetry: “Writings From Under the Willow Tree” and “Judge a Book by Its Cover”

Writings From Under the Willow Tree

-Chloe Randazzo

I know it's downright lunacy

And for me it’s really bittersweet

To think of all the space between

A tragedy building on my memories

Taking up a different part of me

I know your safety will last for centuries

A castle of salvation, walls of history that became pure misery, Devastation for the both of us alike

Your friends, our second family

Jet black hair and electric eyes so evergreen, stained with Tears bluer than the glacial seas

It’s the fact that you made me love you even though you’ll never Know about me

In a tunnel where you’re the darkness and all the light

A stone aged through the years with wilted flowers and dried Sunlight

You gave me unrealistic expectations of what love should be

Hallmark standards, disney stories to the utmost degree

A primrose with an undertone of the mercurial evening

The red camellias littered on the landing

Tells me the time is far away from when you’ll be leaving

So please just take my hand and meet me near the willow tree

You hit me so hard that I still can’t breathe

Knocking out splintered weaponry, the leaves so dead that Wouldn’t leave

And catching all of the best fragments of me

A sapling that broke through soil, nevermore a tumbling weed

The sea seasoned air, watered mist from ocean beads

A ship once wrecked with a couple less debris

There’s no fickle future that we can foresee

So please just meet me by the willow tree

Some branches will always remain a little weighty

Cut through the twigs of fakeness, bleak niceties, this new age Whomping bourgeoisie

And in this moment, just hold me close under the willow tree.

Judge a Book by Its Cover

-Chloe Randazzo

Fact: Mental health is currently one of the most stigmatized issues

Stigma stems from a lack of awareness, education, and perception

People are afraid of what they don’t understand

Assumptions of your character based on an illness

Defined by your disorder

Don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t defy the basic rules of order

Say we need to change it, but see nothing on the newsstands

Prisoners inside of our own frame of mind because getting help is a crime

Academy award for pretending to fit into the herd

Because, well, welcome to the real world

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