Hope Rahn was awarded a $1,000 scholarship from the National Writers Series for a collection of poetry she submitted. Below, we share one of her pieces, Euphoria. Hope will be attending Northwestern Michigan College this fall.

I’ve always enjoyed the outdoors and writing and eventually, I started to combine my two interests together. I fell in love with poetry in seventh grade when we did a short unit on it in my English class. I mostly write poetry and a good amount of it involves nature in some aspect or another. My senior year I attended the Career Tech Center and was a part of their new Front Street Writers Program.

I wrote this poem my junior year of high school for the poetry class I was taking at the time. The place I described in my poem was where some friends and I would go almost every day in the summer to just sit, relax and enjoy each other’s company.

Euphoria

As I went deep into the woods
I found a place of pure bliss.
Where the trees turn into fields of gold
and wild flowers cover the ground like a delicate blanket.
It’s a place where the sun always shines
and the worries of the world couldn’t reach me anymore.

There’s an opening deep into the forest
that could be missed in the blink of an eye.
If so I’d end up knee deep in swamp waters
and be swarmed by black clouds of mosquitos
fighting their way through my clothing to find every inch of skin.

Venturing into the woods I was amazed.
As I explored the golden fields I found myself at peace.
As I laid in silence I heard the wind
whispering the secrets of the world to me.
I smiled as the fragrance of daisies filled my nose
and then made way to my lungs.
I soon became mesmerized by the way the oak trees swayed in unison.

I could never be too anxious for the creatures
that might be disturbed,
all reminding me
that we must coexist.

Photo(s) by Jeff Smith