![](https://westseattleblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/charli.jpg)
Word is just getting out about an achievement by a young poet at West Seattle High School. Freshman Charli Elliott read one of her poems at a Seattle Arts and Lectures poetry event at Benaroya Hall in December. The headliner was award-winning poet Terrance Hayes, in the next photo with Charli, who read a poem inspired by his work.
![](https://westseattleblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/charliepoet.jpg)
WSHS shared it with us, to share with you:
Freedom of Speech
by Charli ElliottI want to always rise to the
Challenge. I want to never sit alone.
I want to learn to talk and be heard.I want to watch as the grass grows
Old and dies. Month after month. Year after year.I want to see. If the moon can rise
Every night, I want the taste
Of freedom on the tip of my tongueI want to touch you, dance with you on
A cloud made of light. I want to lose myselfIn the labyrinth and rolling waves
Of your eyes. I want to free myself
Of hate. I want to be free from the shackles of freedom.I want to be free, and free of freedom,
With its cold irons clasped on your wrists. ItsFrenzied thoughts, its open plains, and definition
Tied neatly with a bow. I want to be free of
Words without meaning and listlessness. My anger,My loss and apologies, my doubt.
If the rain can cleanse the earthI want a fresh soul. I want the stones wisdom
And the earth’s flexibility. I want the lights
Ubiquity, but not its invisible touchI want the reliance of the sun, but not its fury.
I want the strength of the universe. I want to searchThe rolling hills of elsewhere and find
You there. I want the tips of your fingersIn the small of my back. I want to be the tree
But not the leaves. I do not want to be the grass
I do not want to be the dew covered spider web,Or the spider. When I leave this body
I want to be sheer power. I want to have a voice.
(Charli’s proud mom, by the way, is Sonya Elliott, who coaches her and other athletes on the WSHS girls’ basketball team, and is also a writer.)
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