Running out of gas when you're in the middle of nowhere.
Finding out you looked at the map upside down when you're in the wrong place.
Eating dust when you're stuck hitching for a pay phone.
Spending the night in shabby hotels with funny noises coming from next door.
It's not about the destination, it's about the fun you have when you get there.
It's all about the road trip.

Elizabeth/Age 16

Sticky sweet kisses, laced with tears, and fears, fall gently from your
lips to mine. Sweat and salt water floating on the wind, and I come alive.

Carnivals and cotton candy hair, mingling with falling (rock) stars.

I want a summer love.

Hillary/Age 13

If I could do one thing this summer, it would be escaping - escaping from the everyday obscenities that scream at me from media. I can bask in the sun as it warms the pages of a novel, while I'm sipping on bittersweet lemonade. I would escape all people, fleeing to a nook. All my hopes and dreams could spill ink all over the black notebook I keep under my bed. Life is so cliché and trite. I wish I could tell my parents they're never right. So for now I'll keep working on my life story, fitting pages in the past, writing ideas for the future. If I could do one thing this summer, it would be to write. By the way, I wish I could say I would, but I can't...so please forgive me.

kAra/Age 16

All my life I've lived in sunny Florida. Close to the beaches, sun always beaming down. There's one thing I want to do in that sun. I want to go to the beach and learn how to surf. Ride the waves high up in the sky, the air running threw my hair and they water spraying up at me. To fly like one of the pelicans above the waves, riding it along to my sandy destination on the bank. Then when i reach land, to turn around and do it all over again, maybe with a larger wave. Just as long as its me, my board, the sun, and the water, then im happy.

Hana/Age 13

I'd like to drink a drop of sun
Pour it down my throat
I'd like to glow the way it does
Be noticed and adored
I'd like to make the world better
Shining, strong, and clear
But i could never reach the sun
Let it warm my face
For i am just another one
A simple nameless face

Katz/Age 13

A desperate wisp of smoke escapes
In the ebbing sunlight.
Stomachs eagerly growl.
The hands extended seem to
twist back and forth in slow motion over the grill.
We hope for a burst of fire
But only saddened watermelon rinds
Now limp with lost opportunity
Lie scattered about waiting for the white plastic bags to lock them away forever
As the summer's first barbeque
moves indoors.

D.L./Age 31

If I could do anything this summer I would travel across the country to
California. I would walk barefoot through the sand and stay in a beautiful city house where I could sit atop the roof at night and let the warm wind blow through my hair like a fine toothed comb. I would let the entire world encompass me in its warmth and touch. I would soak in the sun and feel the waves hit my back. Beautiful flowers would grow atop my roof and their scents would trail throughout the air like some kind of fragrant ghost, creating a memory that lasts forever, a smell, a touch, a taste that I can hold wherever I go of that perfect summer.

Caitlin/Age 15

Wake up.
No.
Don't wake up.
Sleep until five in the evening.
The better things happen at night anyhow.
Meet with my friends.
Meet with my friends' friends.
Listen to music, not just any music.
But the music that makes me feel alive.
The music that makes me feel as though maybe I should be alive.
Me and my friends shall smoke some marijuana,
only enough to let us forget.
Look at the stars,
know your insignificance.
Good night my friends.
A kiss on the cheek.
It's better to have no plans,
love, and friends.
Maybe I'll make it through the summer.
Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow.

Connor/Age 15

I dream of myself
running through a field of opium, filled with the aroma of patchouli.

The sun would be shining ripely towards me;
And I could spin,
I could twirl into a fantasy
of laughing and singing.

And through this vision,
inside my dream,
I could lye down
on the ground,
upon my bed of flowers.
I look up towards the sky
And think about what
there is that we're all missing.

I wouldn't be alone,
oh no, I wouldn't be alone
in MY dream.
Of course, there would be
someone beside me,
laughing with me.

In my dreams,
I'm NEVER alone.

Kristen/Age 14

Summer
A six letter word that makes peoples lives, or breaks them. How so, you ask. Its simple, summer is the time of parties and friends and movies. Late nights, head over heals one week relationships. The dream summer...sitting back against an ancient tree, feeling the presence of my friends, sipping vanilla milk shakes. Complete relaxation. With nothing but you, me, and the satisfaction of knowing that when put on the spot, I can say what I want something to be like.

Brittany/Age 14

getting my tan
i hear children splashing
and playing in the sand

i see people making sand castles
family's laughing together
lifeguards rescuing
as could dream on forever

as i wake up
i realize it was just a dream
all a dream that will never happen

instead...i spend my summer mowing lawns
i spend my summer babysitting
i spend my summer hard work and exercise
i spend my summer surfing the net and talking on the phone

dreaming of boys all day long
sitting around tall and strong...
from workin...and mowng...and babysitting

Chelsea/Age 14

A thousand sights,
And a thousand smells
Assault me as I walk.
So many screams,
Too many yells
Echo in my ears,
But still I love this place. I want to visit again.
This city so full of life
With no one to be my friend.
I like to wonder it's lonely streets
Unseen and unknown
To find myself once again
Before I return to home.
This place, this city
That never really sleeps
Is just like me,
And here I can be free
To discover and decipher
All it is to be me
Lost in the city's anonymity

Regina/Age 18

I'd return to the summers when life was easy
When daises swayed in light breezes
When lilacs smelled sweeter
And days lasted longer
And dreams came true every night
When I could catch fireflies in jars
When I swung from jungle gyms in my backyard
When I could run barefoot down long sandy beaches
When church was attended in cute summer dresses
When nothing else mattered but lemonade and watermelon
When I stayed up late to watch meteor showers
When I smiled just as easily as was ever allowed
When I laughed just as kindly as was natural
When nothing was forced
And everything was free
I'd return to that day
To that week
To that year
I'd go back to lazy summers from childhood...

Sam/Age 15

Suburban Dreams
I rest my head on the lawn,
It's after noon,
I'm reading a book,
My skin is itchy,
It feels like poison ivy,
Of course, I've never had it,
I watch the sky turn blue,
Then green,
Then twilight into a sudden,
Despair,
It's dark out,
I am in the backyard,
Getting fireflies,
In a jar,
The neighbors are cooking,
Barbecue,
You can hear a basketball,
The street lights turn on,
I go inside,
I take a shower,
I look out the window,
It starts to rain

Marsalis/Age 14

And Because We Love the Haiku

SUMMER breeze

the sun shines outside
a quiet breeze moves across
leaves turn on their backs

Jesse/Age 15