Jacob’s presence entered the Library Meeting Room where Sassafras Literary Exchange awards for the Youth Writing Competition were to be presented, not excitedly, but like a whisper of gentle breezes promising a bright future of balmy weather with only a hint of showers, and emblazoned on his chest, “61 Main” in a bold pattern with a streak of bleached, work-earned color decorating his t-shirt.
Poetry awards were presented first, and it was my pleasure to award the quiet, young man Second Place in High School Poetry with the contemplative verse, “Dead Poet Banter.” When the High School Fiction First Place award also was claimed by Jacob, I knew he was destined to be a Writer. “The Old Man and the Sky” is a descriptive, futuristic tale of the last manned space-flight of the 21st Century: “The stars, though, how they sparkled. Apparently, some impish hand had scattered diamonds across bucketfuls of jet-black ink, and then splashed it all over the walls of the universe.”
The middle child of the family, Jacob enjoys reading, writing, music, working at 61 Main, and riding his Honda. The future holds a career using his love of English and his creative writing skills. Motorcycle trips such as the one detailed in “Cruising the Parkway,” another First Place Jacob earned for High School Nonfiction, are on his short-term goal list for this summer. “Cruising the Parkway” was Sassafras’s favorite of Jacob’s entries as he captured the essence of the Blue Ridge Parkway, while succumbing to the depth of description, imagery, energy of language, and emotive experience. Phrases such as “We blasted through the morning, shaking the dew off the leaves and the sleep out of the world” and “… promising to return … and ride once more through these sun-seared halls that smelled of wild honeysuckle, that misty perfume of romance and danger” and “… the sun melted into a glowing tangerine that had been cast in liquid bronze, dripping its burning light onto the world in weary waves of amber.”
Jacob – continue writing as long as you hold the expressive language skills and the depth of feeling in your psyche. We want to hear more from you, so also continue to experience those adventures that make you the unique young man that you have come to be. Keep your sleeves rolled up, earning the right to continue enjoying the benefits of a hard day’s work. Writers write; thus, they live, and we readers reap the benefits.
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