Take Me Away

Take me away
To the place where the wild blue violets huddle in a bed of dew, slowly unfolding
Their petals to the spring, their heads heavy with dew and shimmering tears in
spacetheir golden eyes.
Take me away
To the place where the fresh tang of pine needles and the subtle scent of lavender
spacelinger in the dizzying drizzle of light rain.
Take me away
spaceto the place where the coarse, weathered bark of the ancient redwood merges
spacewith my skin and the roots fade into my fingernails, where growing green
spaceshoots blur my feet.
Take me away
spaceto the place where the luscious sun-ripened wild raspberries grow sweet on the
spacebanks of twisting summer streams and the grizzlies fight over salmon.
Take me to the place where eagles soar, rising on warm thermals like leaves
spacecarried on an updraft of rushing wind.
Take me to the place where sun-warmed boulders sit with beaten, rough cracks
spacefilled with damp emerald moss beaded with hardened golden sap.
Take me to the place where somber craggy stags bend their heads and clash antlers
spacewith the elation of impending autumn.
Take me to the place where curtains of dark lichen sway like spiders’ silk strands
Take me to the place where the moon listens with saddened eyes to the wild longing
cry of the wandering wolf, and the glistening solimn stars harmonize with him.
Take me to the place where the frozen stream lies, tense with suppressed fury at the
confining chains of winter.
Take me to the place where the icy-sweet mountain spring bubbles gently with
lilting water music, to the pounding rhythmic, drumming, roaring thunder of the
caribou coming home to the tundra.

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Phoebe Au-Yeung, age 14
San Francisco, California
Lowell High School
Teachers: Elizabeth Rogers/Susan Terence (Calif. Poets in the Schools)