Orpheus<\/p>\n
by Miles Hewitt<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
& in between passionless crimes\u2014<\/p>\n
(so for the lack of humanity,<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0the careless abandon<\/p>\n
and the forgoing of burden)<\/p>\n
I looked into your eyes & thought<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I AM ORPHEUS<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
& you smiled<\/p>\n
& asked me<\/p>\n
what I was thinking about<\/p>\n
I brushed you away<\/p>\n
off the bed<\/p>\n
pushed you over the nightstand as<\/p>\n
the lamp with wavy grasping shade reached<\/p>\n
& the globe on the shelf & the maps<\/p>\n
on the walls slipped & sighed<\/p>\n
& you collapsed on the ground\u2014<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u2018I don\u2019t know\u2019 \u2014<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
but I wasn\u2019t lying.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Miles Hewitt<\/a>\u00a0of Vancouver, Washington was one of five student poets chosen as finalists in the National Student Poets Program. Miles represents the West region of the United States. The awards were announced at the 2012 National Book Festival in Washington DC in September.\u00a0The\u00a0National Student Poets Program<\/a>\u00a0is in its inaugural year. It is a joint project of the\u00a0Alliance for Young Artists & Writers<\/a>, the\u00a0President\u2019s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities<\/a>, and the\u00a0Institute for Museum and Library Services<\/a>.<\/p>\n Miles has been writing since the third grade.\u00a0In the eighth grade, he discovered musical artists Bob Dylan and Paul Simon and moved on to songwriting. Since then, he\u2019s penned more than 100 songs and self-recorded two albums. Miles fell in love with poetry more recently. A junior now at the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics, he\u2019s a member of a small group of writers that come together to workshop one another\u2019s pieces and offer support. Outside school, Miles serves as the President of the Young Democrats of Clark County and as the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of his school newspaper. He\u2019s considering a career in political communications or speechwriting if the \u201crock-and-roll-poet\u201d line of business doesn\u2019t pan out.<\/p>\n READING IN OLYMPIA: \u00a0 Miles Hewitt and Kathleen Flenniken will be be presenting poems (and perhaps Miles will perform a few songs) at\u00a06:00 p.m. in the Columbia Room of the Legislative Building (State Capitol) on Thursday, November 29. The\u00a0program is sponsored by the Washington State Library and is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Orpheus by Miles Hewitt & in between passionless crimes\u2014 (so for the lack of humanity, \u00a0\u00a0the careless abandon and the forgoing of burden) I looked into your eyes & thought I AM ORPHEUS & you smiled & … Continue reading