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Title: Serenade
Poet: Pamela Best (Harbofields High School, Grade 10, Age 15)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2013
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
The sparrow on his feather wing
Lands on a branch,
And starts to sing.
As he lands, the branch trembles
Shaking loose some
Flower petals.
As they drift down to the ground
And alight
With not a sound,
They catch the eye of one small bee,
Who flits over
To the cherry tree.
As he hums through warm spring air
He happens to startle
A small brown hare,
The rabbit bounds into the brush
That in the Spring
Is green and lush.
I lie in the pink tree’s shade
And bask in the
Sparrow’s serenade.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: Colder Weather
Poet: Brooke Bifulco (Walt Whtiman High School, Grade 12, Age 17)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2013
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
Dimly lit pathways
and thin grey sidewalks
darken in late fall,
remain desolate
almost dead, lonely.
December air, with
its chilling
and piercing touch
desires contact from
those who desperately
avoid it.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: 400 Miles
Poet: Karen Brenseke (Walt Whitman High School, Grade 12, Age 17)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2013
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
We spent nights watching the television on mute
and sharing the silences between the songs on your
playlists.
We never wasted our words together.
Words were precious, but we didn’t know time was
too.
You’d drive me home at two in the morning.
The sound of the deserted road would fill my ears.
We’d made this travel many times before.
I never wanted to leave the car, so we both would sit
in silence,
cherishing what was left of our time together.
These silences were suddenly replaced by the noise of
your clothes
folded in a faded, cardboard box.
The distance of 400 miles now has a roar,
and the silences we once shared
are put on hold.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: Mutation
Poet: Shannon DiMassimo (Walt Whitman High School, Grade 12, Age 18)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2013
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
You’ve transformed me.
Manipulated what
Once was.
Your influence
ripples
through
Me.
Like a boot,
Intruding
a Puddle.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: One Safe Place in a Realm of Danger
Poet: Kevin Forland (Walt Whitman High School, Grade 12, Age 17)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2013
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
Rundown buildings and graffiti filled walls.
A fog of hate, crime, and darkness covers the town.
Clammy hands and fear stricken eyes cannot process
this neighborhood.
My bus approaches the church and amongst the grey
hazy streets there is
a safe haven, a refuge, a place filled with fun and high
spirits.
Adjacent to the church, the park is filled with smiles
and laughs,
despite the drug deals and criminals that linger.
The lives of teens are taken on the street corner.
The lives of children are nurtured by those few swings
and the people that care enough to push them along.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: Nightly Excursions
Poet: Sandy Gibson (Harborfields High School, Grade 10, Age 16)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2013
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
It’s time again
We descend into the darkness
Our mind takes us on a journey
And we are soon in a whole new world
The possibilities are endless
We take the opportunity to disappear from reality
To lose ourselves
Become whoever we want
It doesn’t matter how long these excursions are
We must cherish our dreams
They’re our only escape
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: To Whoever You Are
Poet: Haley Gladitsch (Walt Whitman High School, Grade 10, Age 15)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2013
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
I saw you waiting for the bus stop tonight
Your hands shaking
Swearing it’s the cold night
But I know it’s not from the weather outside
Your eyes look as deep as the ocean
And just as mysterious
They’re filled with the weight of the world
They make hummingbird feathers look heavy
I saw you get onto the bus tonight
Counting out all the change from your piggy bank
That you were saving for a rainy day
But the sky is still clear
All the stars are out
I saw you ask the bus driver
How far this much money can take you
Away from this place
But you can only run so far from your demons
Before you realize
They kept up with your pace
And you’re going to have to face them
And as I watch you take your seat
And watch a single tear roll down your cheek
I realize the ocean is not as mysterious as it seems
It’s just as lonely as you
Despite all the fish and boats that swim through
Let someone share the weight of the world with you
So you can fly a little higher
Little bird the world is not this bad
And if you’re looking for a reason
Not to run away tonight
This
Is
It.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: A Brief Encounter
Poet: Shreyas Havaldar (Half Hollow Hills High School East, Grade 12, Age 17)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2013
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
I stood on the edge of the bridge and silently
I dropped the last branches of winter into the pond
as a lifetime closed around me
and the fog swallowed it up.
A chord crept up on me;
it struck dramatically, then quickly dissolved
as if it had never been born
and then the fog swallowed it up.
The tones came from all corners of the Earth,
dissonant cries that converged about a single point.
They resonated so powerfully
that they would never exist again.
I heard it ricochet off of me
– I wasn’t ready but I should have been –
and then the fog swallowed it up.
Unfazed, the white water rushed
as obliged
but I did not say a word in response.
I coughed;
my voice unheard and uneven.
I stalked back into the woods,
and the fog swallowed me up.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: Seven O'Clock Sentiment
Poet: Emily Hillebrand (Half Hollow Hills High School West, Grade 11, Age 16)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2013
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
Each day moving farther from headbands
and closer to hair ties, each morning the white noise
of the blow-dryer shifting to the private sound
of wind in freshly shampooed hair;
you can start a whole new religion with a flatiron.
It’s safest to watch feet moving across the floor
than it is to take in a whole person, deciding through
sensible flats or dirty sneakers where to store your trust.
Learn that the girl who runs miles to throw away
thoughts
can also be the girl who sits in the kitchen every night
bowed over someone else’s assignment.
Camouflage comes in different colors –
that’s kind of the point.
Snow banks ten foot high
fence you in like firm library walls, safe and warm
and entombed with everyone else’s thoughts.
To be buried in published paper sounds like a way
of dreaming after death.
Saturday brunch and
Sunday dinner raise up rabbit hearts, laughing loud
and dancing silly in the kitchen, tripping over slippers
and briefcases arranged like mosaics on the floor.
There’s a new order in this house overturned,
the people shifting to find new slots,
wearing mom’s perfume to smell her when she’s gone.
Sweaters change chapped hands and the cold weather
teaches the need to stay together. Up to three cups a
day
and new wave stretching to the loft ceiling, waiting on
the next ticket out of here. You’re allowed to hug yourself.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: My Boyfriend Is Like My Cat
Poet: Morgan Lindsey (Harborfields High School, Grade 11, Age 16)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2013
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
My cat is lazy
My cat just sits on the couch all day
My cat leaves without telling me
My cat is too needy
My cat ignores me
My cat doesn’t like my cooking
My cat doesn’t appreciate the things I do
My cat doesn’t help around the house
My cat won’t come with me to visit my parents
I’m not even sure my cat loves me
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: Memory
Poet: Lauren Majid (Harborfields High School, Grade 10, Age 15)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2013
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
The sky speckled with colors like freckles across a tan
child’s face
An alluring lullaby of lapping waves
Wrinkling the sand beneath your toes, leaving behind
imprints of yourself
You pad your way closer to the blue abyss
The sun, slowly but surely, being swallowed by the
darkness
Soft laughter from a child echoing through the area, as
if it’s part of the scenery
The warmness, which was once pulsing through your
body, melts away
Stepping closer to the water as if in a trance
The sun continues to dip further into the welcoming
brine
The sand no longer loose but rather hard like cement
Waves erase your footprints, not wanting to leave
behind a trail
The sun disappears behind a black curtain
What was once there is no longer
No trail, just a memory
A faint reminder of what used to be
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: Ninety-Two
Poet: Homah Naim (Walt Whitman High School, Grade 12, Age 17)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2013
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
Your hand shook while you sat on the couch writing
poetry
It was the silence of snow melting away.
The rest of us were too wrapped up in our own lives,
We didn’t notice the snow was soon to be dissolved.
Why didn’t I ever sit and talk to you?
Why did I forget that snow is only temporary?
The silent conversations we had were that of birds
flying south for the winter.
The birds knew a storm was coming but all we did
was glance.
I kept lying to myself that I would sit and talk to you
one of these days.
The silence of the room when you were brought out
in a casket,
Was that of a fresh paper cut.
The last words I said to you were, “Good bye, until
next time.”
Next time you weren’t able to speak.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: Through the Eyes of a Child
Poet: Suzie Petryk (Huntington High School, Grade 10, Age 15)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2013
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
What’s that, she asked,
With eyes wide
And finger pointing at a curious sight
That had captivated her young mind.
It might’ve been the remnants of a robin’s nest,
Blown down by the wind and laying in the road,
With scattered pieces of bright blue eggshell
Waiting to be picked up by small hands.
Or perhaps it was a fancy new satellite dish
The neighbors put in last week,
That was able to receive signals from faraway planets,
Or so her brother said.
But whether it was a field full of fireflies,
Dancing just beyond her ever-reaching hands;
Or an interesting bug, being watched
As it slowly shuffled along the kitchen floor;
She was always intrigued, always fascinated
By the endless marvels the earth presented to her;
As if she was meant to live in a world of curiosity.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: Naïve Little Red
Poet: Lucy Pigliacelli (Walt Whitman High School, Grade 12, Age 17)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2013
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
I treated you like a prince.
You never treated me like a princess.
You could not get off your high horse
to see I was drowning
in the moat of your castle.
I tried to save you
from the tower you were locked in.
I had no idea it was I, the “beast,” you were hiding from.
Or that this room, you locked yourself away in,
was filled with the Witch’s candy,
her Rapunzel plants,
Rumpelstiltskin’s gold,
and BOTH of the ugly step-sisters.
So here you stay,
and I will live in a land
far, far away.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: The Prey of a Poet
Poet: Molly Prep (Huntington High School, Grade 12, Age 17)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2013
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
I run wild,
chasing those yet to be captured.
Floating, gliding, soaring through my mind
like butterflies.
My net is poised, on the hunt.
Yet, these tangles of shapes must be dealt with delicately
or they shall flee in fear.
Stalking silently,
my muse by my side,
I capture each desired essence and sound
one by one,
then finally add them
to my collection
of beautiful words.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: Phantom Presence
Poet: Madeline Smith (Walt Whitman High School, Grade 12, Age 17)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2013
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
Today has the same chill as the one we shared a
century ago.
We shielded ourselves in scarves and mittens from the
December wind.
During the course of a missed heart beat,
I came to the realization
you were going to leave me alone some day.
I asked myself why I should bother staying by your side
and thought
of no good reason.
We walked leisurely down Cardinal Lane
as you puffed on your Parliament.
We spoke of the world around us and how it would
crumble.
A conversation so vivid,
I recall, I asked you with sincere interest
what you would want on your grave.
You told me with solemn demeanor,
nothing, but a weeping willow.
Now here I stand,
with a sapling in my hand.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: Life
Poet: Olivia Vomero (Harborfields High School, Grade 9, Age 14)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2013
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
Sometimes I sit back
and look at life, like this is it?
This is what I’ve been waiting for?
This chaotic, fast-paced, spinning world?
Then I realize that every day is a blessing,
an opportunity to grow and a chance to learn from my
mistakes.
Life is a journey.
A vast ocean set out before me to navigate, direct, and
alter.
Every day with its trials and tribulations,
its laughter and tears
is not complete until I count
my
blessings.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: My Essential
Poet: Kellyjane Watson (Walt Whitman High School, Grade 12, Age 17)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2013
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
You are the pen to my newly written story,
the barre in my ballet class,
and the tuned keys to my piano.
I NEED you.
You may not be the cheese to my macaroni,
or the ranch dressing to my salad,
nor the gravy to my mashed potatoes.
But,
You are the strap to my backpack,
the bookmark to my novel,
and the sunshine to my summer.
I actually NEED you.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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