I have some very exciting news to share! Today, one of my pieces was featured as the Wednesday Word's on a site called Write the World. WTW is a website for young writers and is a place where we can share our works and get feedback and reviews from others peers our age. They post prompts weekly and and contests monthly, all helping writers my age stay inspired and helping us grow in our skill and broaden into different writing techniques. I post many of the same pieces here as I do on WTW, so you may hear the name pop up in other posts. As part of being featured in Wednesday Words, I was asked to submit a voice recording of me reading my piece. Click Here to View the Voice Recording
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The piece that was featured was a response to one of WTW's prompts called Unbiased Anthropology.
Anthropology, the study of all aspects of human life, ranging from time periods, to cultures, to developments. The prompt used an idea of studying things both familiar and new in order to tell a story. This was the subject of the prompt, to describe something familiar in a way that paints it in a new light. The story I tell is one of Skagit Valley. In my piece, I unacquainted myself from my home in order to try and describe it as if I was a stranger seeing it for the first time. At first, I was going to stop after the first stanza, the description of Skagit Valley on a normal summer day. But at the moment, Washington looks very different than usual, having been affected by the smoke of the California and Eastern Washington wildfires. So I decided to draw inspiration from life and contrast my two stanzas and include the descriptions of the smoky valley.
The title of this piece is Yellav Tigaks, which is Skagit Valley spelled backwards. It was part of the prompt details, in order to title the piece, to spell your subject backwards.
Yellav Tigaks
Snakes of water run through this land. The trees dip down into open fields full of red and yellow bulbs, which burst open as the sun warms them. This dip in the ground is low compared to the rocks that rise up all around it. Shining flats of undrinkable water surround this area, broken only by scattered rocks and trees that jut out. Strange furry heads peek out from the weeds that litter this water. Arched finned fish jump from the rippling waves. Rounded rocks, contrasting the jagged cliffs, scatter over the strips of land that touch both grass and sea. The sky seemed so clear and fresh. It was often clouded by rain-heavy carriers, but now, it seemed new. That was the first time we saw this new land.
The second time, you wouldn't recognize it.
Looking closer, the water that twisted through the trees is full of rocks and logs. Bulbs of color don't bloom all the time. The fields they once inhabited are bare and empty. The cliffs that seemed to reach the sky are clouded by grays and reds. You can't see the salty planes of water anymore. They are covered in a film of smoke. The animals that played in this Sound are invisible. Only the birds fleeing from fire are seen. The smoke rises up, hiding the sun and clear blue from view. It fills the land with a smell of fear. This land is burning.
Will it be the same afterward?