PVS Junior Lily Jones was selected–second year in a row–as a Finalist for Riverside County Teen Poet Laureate. As well, Lily was the recipient of the Jane Block Prize for Environmentalist Teen Poetry. Jane Block is a celebrated environmentalist, feminist, and children’s services activist in the Inland Empire. Below is a picture of Lily with Ms. Block at the November 14th ceremony. The recognition of teen poets is hosted by the Riverside County Office of Education and the Inlandia Institute. Together, the two publish a chapbook of the winning poems. Lily’s poem “The Miner’s Song” is included in that chapbook. You can find the chapbook with Lily’s poem in county libraries, or read it here at thebirdonfire.org.

Christa Jones, mother of Lily, said of the celebration of young county poets, “As a parent, the event filled me with hope for the future.”

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The Miner’s Song

by Lily Jones

If pressure creates diamonds

then I hope my mind is a coal mine,

filled with twisting dark tunnels.

A place where soot coats my fingers as I 

sift through the rocks,

the thoughts that are crowded together,

clumped by feeling,

left to wilt quietly within deep tunnels.

I’m left alone to find the gem,

to dig deep and mine

the thought in the rough.

The words covered in soot

that will bleed silver when extracted.

Let this thought spill out,

overflowing with my forgotten spoken voice,

a diamond from a void of coal,

the shards cutting my heart deeply.

The greatest exchange of all is words,

so please give me your heart

and I will lay mine bare,

stripped from barriers and lies,

splayed out only through paper and ink as

my words build friends out of paragraphs,

and I build safe houses out of poems.