back to Our Projects
Studio City Greenway - Poetry for Public Art
1st place
Passing Down my Street
The shiny river made out of clouds
Passing down my street.
I always see you hiding there
so let me take a peek.
But then you go and I cry.
- Olivia Wilkey, age 7
2nd place (tie)
The River of Happiness
The river was sad and cold one day,
And a man walked by.
He laid the blanket of love on it.
He planted trees and took off the river’s cement jacket,
And the love made it clean again.
The river laughed with glee
While the fish danced the tango beneath the happy river.
The sun shone over the happiness.
And the birds came back and said to me,
“I love it here because
of the river, the river,
the river of glee.”
- Emilia Hagen, age 7
The Bird of the Night
When the waves splashed the bird had strong feeling in the river
that is now just cemented in
But the bird had strong feeling in the river
and he still lived there.
- Ian McKnight, age 8
3rd place (tie)
CRAYFISH
Red and small, happy and slick.
Sees gray rocks sparkling sands with the moon rays.
Moves in water like a flash of lightning.
River, you look mossy, mushy and unhappy.
You have a hard, strong and big cement jacket.
Still we thank you for our homes
You provide in your rocky bottom.
- Andy Arnold, age 7 and Samuel Cookson, age 8
A Conversation with the Los Angeles River
Who did this to you?
Why did your forest disappear?
Is your forest lost?
Where is the shade of your willow trees?
Where are the gracefully waving cattails of your marshes?
The steelhead trout gliding swiftly through glittering waters?
How did you come to this disastrous, sad condition?
Why did people do this to you?
- Students of Room 2
1st place
The River
River, slowly flowing
river, flying like a bird on a summer breeze
river, rolling, rushing, rapid
river, swimming, slowly, swiftly, softly, silently
river, life bubbling from it’s depths
river, wild
River, long ago
River, still peaceful, but polluted
river, a murdered man
river, carelessly cracked, crowded
river, laced with trash, strangled
river, imaculate of life
river, trashed and trapped
river, destroyed and dead
River, today
River, twisting, turning
river, like a snake
river, burbling and beautiful
river, surprising and secretive
river, strong and smooth
river, wild and alive
River, in the future
- Carly Jackson, age 11
2nd Place (tie)
The L. A. River
It’s disappointed heart, the beating of a drum.
The garbage and shopping carts, thrust upon the body like a blanket.
It becomes more and more anxious and dreams of beauty.
How it longs to become lovely again, how it longs!
It cries to the people and begs them for fair treatment.
Answer to it, for it is the river!
- Anabel Pasarow, age 9
no more
no more polluted love
polluted love, River
no more deaf persons who choose to kill
no more hatred and pain
anger coming from Nature
killed, murdered
no more unheard speech
of love for our love
River
they killed her
we want her back
no more
no more shall she go unnoticed
no more shall she slowly fade away
no more shall we wait
we want her back
no more shall we hear the sound of rushing, we shall hear the sound of
trickling waters
no more shall she scream with pain
no more shall we not hear her
the silent sound of death
no more shall we be blind
we want her back
no more shall our Mother die
no more shall our Mother weep
no more shall River cry
no more into darkness River shall seep
no more shall we slaughter her, her blood sewage
no more shall we see her pollution, her outside, we will see her inside
no more
no more
we want her back
- zoe tambling, age 10
3rd Place
It’s Lost
A lost world that used to be
A patch of grass even a tree
But a twisting trail of a small stream
We now work together as a good team
To bring back life
To bring back the river
The only thing to do is quiver
Like a prisoner in chains
Like a trashed tree
Bring back the LA river to what it used to be
The beauty it once had
That evaporated into bad
Let the prisoner come free
Let the trees be cleansed
Let everything come back
Let us bring back life
Let the lost world be unlocked
- Devon Harris, age 9
Honorable Mention
Spirit of the River
There is a dragon-serpent
Who glides across the land
In a river of pure joy, songs of life
Flow from the dragon’s soul
Many other serpents join her while
She flows across L.A.
Her green scales glisten
In the sun that gleams
But one day joy rained from the sky
And her glee flooded town
So they put the dragon in a box
A box of cement to contain her joy
She could swim freely no more
Her friends died or swam away
She could no longer sing her hearts song
Her river of joy and love and life
Was dying with the day
On her tail, one spot was alive
She hoped one day
She would be free
Oh yes
She would be free
- Darby Vranek, age 10
1st place
The River Man
He steps with bare feet into the fresh water of the river,
He feels the slippery mud rise through his toes,
But keeps on walking as if he is walking on hard concrete.
He is not sure why he walked into the water, but he knew he was in the
right place.
From his knees down, his legs had already begun to disappear.
He didn’t pay much attention to this,
It was supposed to happen.
He sank lower and lower until he felt he no longer had legs,
Then he saw two fish swim away, upstream, in the direction he was walking,
His legs.
He fell onto his palms,
He felt the same sensation,
The wet mud rising up through his fingers’ spaces.
He let the current knock him over and flip him without control,
He knew that it was meant to happen.
He felt his arms disintegrate under him, not worrying.
His arms were digging and disintegrating all at once, into the ground,
The mud under him lit up with life all at once,
But he was left limbless.
He was nothing but a stub of a man now,
Floating through the river with no real purpose.
He was waiting for something to happen, Because he knew it would.
The wings dug into the back of his half-body,
He was bloody and tired.
The wings spread, as his body became smaller along with his head,
He hovered over the river, as small as a butterfly,
His past self was forever deposited in the river,
Giving it a new life, while doing the same for him.
- Ben Rosenberg, age 14
2nd place
Home
Every year
I return to Mexico
and relish in the music that floats
into my ears and heart
the songs of the trees and the butterflies
the beauty of my land
I have marveled at the way the sun
glimmers and shines
as it takes a dip in the underwater city
that is a river
It’s called “El Arroyo”
a natural habitat
natural what a beautiful word
we need more natural
in L.A.
Why does the L.A. River have concrete?
El Arroyo doesn’t
Why must it be contaminated?
El Arroyo isn’t
My Arroyo who gives protection
warmth
love
and a home
to those who need it
You have lived for many years
Our L.A. River
needs more natural
let’s let go of
The Concrete Age!
- Melissa Lopez, age 14
3rd place
Before/After/Now
Before
there were
rivers or trees
or flowers, there
was a dragon
of excellent
power. He devoured
the dry and
barren land, and
from his tail, and
from his hand, so
beautiful did grow
the land.
After
the land had
grown and prospered
the people came
to forcefully
accost her. They
found the dragon
who made the
flowers and
slayed her to
show their power.
From her body
escaped the evils
she did devour.
Now
humans live
in a polluted
world because of
their own minds,
twisted and curled.
- Kasey Rubenstein, age 14
Honorable Mention
Sway
Interest in the blue
Darkened by the green
Floated on gray
Condensed by black
Polluted with yellow
Contained by silver
Chained against the wall
Angered one season at a time
Site for spray can spraying markings
A burial ground of what used to be
Flow bothered by artificial curves
Styro foam cup galore
With a hint of Hamburger packing
We can’t fix this by containing it
We can’t change what we have done
Break the gray
Move the silver
Cut the Chains
Lighten the green
Sweep the yellow
Let the seasonal anger pass
This way, a river, we will have
- Harut Melikyan, age 16
1st place
Untitled
Penetrate
Filter
through soil down to the field
where the dry roots await.
Evaporate
Fly
in a swirl into white puffs.
Dance
Feast
with the winds
to the tune of the happiest waltz.
Pour
Wash
with your touch roofs and alleys.
Run
Race
pebbles down the curvy meadows.
Capture
Catch
the integrity of reflection
and multiply that of the sun.
Create
Compose
a melody with the slapping of your rocks.
Nourish
Feed
the infant from the purest,
tallest breasts.
Calm
Tame
more than your children’s thirst.
- Denisse Guzman, age 16
2nd place
Inside the Lines
Is it not enough to see the sun rise?
Is it not enough to see it set?
Can it be that the rain only falls to
Nourish that which is partly true?
Or is it that the river flows so swiftly just to say it did?
Thoughts in my mind
Flow like water in a stream
A stream of consciousness
Each drop a memory
A photograph in an album
Darkness is the absence of light
But without it, light would not be
Just like a river without water
Would not exist
Flow freely
Forget about coloring inside the lines
Imagination is the key
Run like the wind through the fields
Cry me a river
That leads to an ocean
Sadly misguided
By the wrinkles in your face
- Edna Rojas, age 16
3rd place (tie)
Truth
I look at it
It looks at me
I see my reflection
And it speaks to me
The truth about the history
- Lucy Boyadzhyan, age 16
River of Words
Where does life take itself?
This is a question that one should ask.
There are many times where we ask ourselves, “Who am I”.
That is one question that won’t be solved until death.
We grow as life grows.
Bright as the river, and dark as the swamp.
Feelings are often expressed in an empty place.
That way, only he/she understands.
- Richard Nguyen, age 17
Honorable Mention
Water Shed
A drop of water
Hanging on a leaf
Steals a ray of light
As if it were a thief
The wind pushes and pulls
To make the drop let go
The drop still holds on to the leaf
But its resistance starts to slow
Down and down the drop falls
Through the city lights that shiver
And finds itself headed toward a great gaping hole
That is the LA River.
- Michael Abeles, age 16