context awesome interesting creation anything profound creative expression flowing unknown imaginative internal thinking challenge expression interesting fun freedom care adventurous confessing weird choice spontaneous transition dirty curse words diverse interesting concrete jungle place horrible lovely damp home city unfortunate over-populated cool community home concrete jungle place horrible home dirty transition internal spontaneous fun city interesting confessing
city/home
a poetry chapbook by Surrey High School students
The following poems were writen during a workshop with students from Surrey District 36 Learning Centres. We met once a week for four weeks. During this time we thought about Surrey and how to write about the city where we live, go to school, and make a life. What emerged was a collection of poems that uncover a version of Surrey that is unique to these poets. Edited and Designed by Taryn Hubbard, tarynhubbard@gmail.com May 2012
poems Welcome to Surrey!
5
Oliver Ferland
It Got Burnt Down
6 7
The Problem Rebecca Belgrove
Mother Weighs Water Here 8
San Jose
Kaitlyn Taylor
David Ellison
Performing Asphalt
9 12 13
an exquisite collaboration
22-23
The Game
24
Surrey
25
Sara McDonnell
14
an exquisite collaboration
Tracing the Fraser
21
Graham Palframan
an exquisite collaboration
The Loop
You Cannot Contain Me
20
Nisha Sandhu
an exquisite collaboration
Glory/Dreams
19
David Garratt
Travis Girard
Surrey
Damian Cheveldave
The Older Days
18
Paige Ferguson
Cheyenne Shouting
In Surrey
Beautify the Landscape
Surrey
26
Darcy Blyth
15
You Beautiful, Liar Roxanne Hawkes
27
I Moved Here
28
Town Meeting
Jonathan Rempel
Damian Cheveldave
King George Blvd. @ 72nd Street 29
The Land
Chris Pettigrew
Kaitlyn Taylor
Less Than Two Weeks
32
Darcy Blyth
Victoria
37 38 39
Sara McDonnell
Mayors Need a Shake
33
Cheyenne Shouting
Chris Pettigrew
Graham Palframan
The Family Business
Walking
41
Paige Ferguson
35
Who Is
40
Darcy Blyth
34
Just
A Different Story
Our Facts
42
Oliver Ferland
36
Paige Ferguson
Here
43
Graham Palframan
art Sara McDonnell
cover, 4, 30-31
Nisha Sandhu
10-11
Darcy Blyth
16-17
Taryn Hubbard
44-45
Paige Ferguson
47
bios Contributor Notes
46-47
unknown imaginative internal thinking challenge expression interesting fun freedom care adventurous confessing weird choice spontaneous transition dirty curse words diverse interesting concrete jungle place horrible lovely damp home city unfortunate over-populated cool community home concrete jungle place horrible home dirty transition internal spontaneous fun city interesting confessing unknown care expression curse words creative adventurous interesting challenge lovely
Welcome to Surrey! by Oliver Ferland
Cloverdale, Fleetwood Guildford, Newton South Surrey, Whalley diverse, arts, culture, history crack, meth, hoes, heroin depending on how you look at it. It’s all a mystery. Wavepool waterslides take you for a ride Yet outside the doors it’s just more in a place so mean the trees stay green sandy beaches, farms they cause no harm unlike that needle in your arm.
It Got Burnt Down by Cheyenne Shouting
West Whalley was located on 132 and 104. But, many years ago it got burnt down. There’s a legend that one of the teachers who worked there is the one who burnt it down. People say she was sorta crazy. Now there’s a new high school there and it’s called Kwantlen Park. Now at Kwantlen Park, the teachers are telling us how it got burnt down. There’s so many different stories , I can’t remember.
In Surrey
by Damian Cheveldave
Vaisakhi in Surrey in his is really stovepipe very wacky hat damp and at the festival he hunted stars.
Mother Weighs Water Here by Kaitlyn Taylor
Here she grew weight a point surrounds her flat skin into dust deep scraps thirty thirst here water them houseplants lucky here quick disaster eyes filters soft glass gleam underwater when lakes friends packed bridle mothers meet stilettos togethers bubble-kisses sleepy light mothers bodies wave thrilled half-swimming whipped rhythm haze slows path sunless chopped months now unsalted we wash lean petals saddles colourless muscles dripping heat with strain sea-scent dig watching bank without thrust mother firm beaching stirrup bath muddy share water moon light tugs possible ocean beast land can already swim mother weighs water here.
The Older Days by Travis Girard
In the past we saw a brighter side of things. From new roads and sidewalks glistening with lights warm with safety. Its night twins to day workers come out. Workers of stores lingering everywhere as the day brightens and progresses into a beautiful scarlet night. Time progresses on and we come into the era that has lost its way with technology, and buildings. The children used to play but now they’re stuck indoors hypnotized by T.V. and technology as for buildings I see nothing more than a single leaf in my palm with tears from an eye, like when a loved one has died.
Nisha Sandhu
10
exquisite corpse Taken after the Surrealists, we each wrote two lines of a poem, folded over the top line and passed it along for the next poet to write two more lines. With only the last line to write from, what results is a series 11 of collaborative collages that think about Surrey.
Performing Asphalt an exquisite collaboration
Reflect strategy for the future metro, urban, rural and remote it’s like a snake flowing out of your tank taking its chance of world wide financial feed the tall towers of glass made of steel and concrete I sometimes just sit on it so I’m not bored but concrete is old and I feel no need asphalt is being poured over the depths of this city like time is improving and fast people continue into town down river banks continue driving fast as they could.
12
Glory/Dreams
an exquisite collaboration
If only a hard and fast rule: stay on one side of King George Highway wait for the oncoming bus the daily loop wait for the opening bus doors and step outside onto a grey sidewalk rain beat. Street sign reads: Hooker Crossing. Chocolate rain no fun it keeps to live and die without pain the bittersweet revenge of hate devours every pathetic symphony towards what is consciously known to be Surrey with all its glory and dreams from hooker to drugged out we are the condemned doomed to spend time in empty city lots where the waste and debris of dreams lie.
13
The Loop
an exquisite collaboration
Wash over a perspective for a breakthrough SkyTrain Station the flash of lights enlightened my eyes to the whereabouts of my destination like an angel’s flight I go straight in for my kill over a mouse to feed my fill through a tunnel past flooded fields that threaten newly paved roads I yell at them to get them to move but they just stare! they look back and forth with eyes as the time keeps on like a crazed SkyTrain sliding off tracks of what’s normal? Soundtrack to Sound of Music, movie Edward Scissorhands electric toe fungus.
14
Tracing the Fraser an exquisite collaboration
That’s difficult. One time bygone and a relatively slow lane get me some mad hat sun in the sky where the lost souls never die just like those in the mind body and heart where a home is built surrounded by evergreens to purify depths like trying to see a reflection in a dark lake with rims shimmering with every light that hits as the slow flowing Fraser passes beneath the cranes and cables of a new bridge we, in fact, unstable and fringed no one knew but all the pictures are collected to keep in their memories good or bad.
15
Darcy Blyth
16
17
Beautify the Landscape by Paige Ferguson
Green spaces by concrete transit parks nearby to beautify cars, trucks, buses traffic flow stop and go corner markets money lenders often more than coke venders pretty life but look twice friends meet new ones greeting old strangers creating dangers stay on the sidewalk just as a car wouldn’t hit you there: properly listen.
18
Surrey
by David Garratt
Hour to hour, day to day it’s unclear if this city stays the same on my way to school, the mall is quiet as I return the vast crowds never tire that mall employees never differ but no customer is the same the gloom of the weather falters but the clouds steal the sun away I smell the rain on the concrete and like before am on my way.
19
The Problem
by Rebecca Belgrove
Here’s the place where I grew up at times it can be beautiful but mostly it’s ugly it seems small but feels so big every year the weather gets cold the people seem to get colder. The problem is change but, also, the lack of change.
20
San Jose
by David Ellison
I was born in San Francisco but grew up in San Jose. San Francisco has the Niners, and well after I left, San Jose got the Sharks, which is funny because San Jose isn’t even on the Bay and the closest it comes to salt water is the mud flats of Alviso. San Jose is where I grew up. It’s where I learned to drive on the backwaters of Los Gatos, where I had my first job working in the stockroom of a Jewish giftware store. My best memories are of driving with the windows down at the midnight of summer. The heat and smell of asphalt lingering. This was as cool as it was ever going to get.
21
You Cannot Contain Me (move to the music) by Nisha Sandhu
I don’t know if I’ll ever consent, subside to the conformity content in this reality you have transposed for me. I will never subside to the conformity or be happy in this reality you have transposed for me. In this society living is easier with eyes closed. Could it be the eyes of random passer-bys or the gradual demise of all our sunny skies? In this concrete jungle, you’ll find insatiable hunger, greed, lies, and lust for what, we are unsure. Watch how they condemn us.
22
In this concrete jungle, you’ll find insatiable hunger, greed, lies, and lust for what, we are unsure. Could it be the eyes of random passer-bys or the eventual demise of all our sunny skies? Yet, I’m happier than I could ever be with the conformity in this reality you have transposed for me.
23
The Game
by Graham Palframan
People act like we’re in a game yet things don’t really work like that if you get shot there’s no fairy to heal you damaging yourself isn’t as easy to see as hearts disappearing from your screen when you steal from someone they can’t just go and find something to replace it in a treasure chest there are no retries or second chances, once you’re done it’s a permanent game over.
24
Surrey
by Sara McDonnell
Shoes on wires! The tight-rope walkers fell. Lights and gas, the smell of home. I see trees behind, grow taller with each step. Monsters made of asphalt ate them. Am I allowed to know?
25
Surrey
by Darcy Blyth
Corroded buildings towers mirroring off one another the odd green field damp crumbling the forests disappear lights sprout from concrete foundations stars driven away by burning street lights dogs in the park nature on TV walking in the dark shadows creeping figures meow.
26
You Beautiful, Liar by Roxanne Hawkes
Ego through the roof. quarterback, Surrey Community Football.
Bears?
not so much, I have trouble, consuming your ever-so-intense presence, like the sweat seeping through a man’s skin, you are ever, so, salty. * Brush my hair and pull, call me Jane, call me a tool, drugs from Surrey streets are dirty, but you, I, we still need it. Influence my life with stolen bikes and never ending crack prescription drugs and methadone. The downs never get you low enough, and the ups never get you high enough. high low my friends, how are you, thank you for your attendance today. * 1 is too many and 1,000 is never enough. Keep telling yourself that, honey. Because I think 5,000 is never enough. The drugs in this town are fucking with everyone’s heads. The clouds of smoke, coming from corners of the strip, the ripped pants, no pants, of your dealer’s new, clean, 400 dollar pants. 27
I Moved Here
by Jonathan Rempel
I am an immigrant here, too— here from the emptifull fields of impossibly small town Manitoba from gothic cathedrals and historic free for all Europe from idyllic fields of Langley that get lost in the Robson Streets, the East Hastings Streets, the Sea-to-Sky’s. I moved here with all the ugly jokes and gruesome newspaper stories and slander and sneers head vying for the prime-real estate at the forefront of my mind. I moved here.
28
King George Blvd. @ 72nd Street by Chris Pettigrew
walk past the bus stop Newton when will it stop addicted back to the stop free smokes Hey, look, one of those people I used to know “got any smokes?” “No.” OH, come one, makin’ me frown sun comes up, always goes down the song that’s been playin’ in the back of my head eats eats eats away, my soul—what a day, eh?
29
the newspaper We called them newspaper blackout poems. The following poems happen when a Sharpie is taken to the online news.
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The Land Kaitlyn Taylor
Flickering street lights vehicles flood along Fraser Highway splitting youth suspicious neighbourhoods fast food lounges pretty houses with pretty flowers ugly basements with marijuana burnt street lights toddlers jailed in playgrounds junkie wonderlands middle class wastelands almost a free land Lower Mainland
38
Victoria
by Sara McDonnell
after the Victoria Order Nurses Vicky & Margarette are working away on their papers. Vicky is to the left with her humble smile and Margarette is amused by the attention, but not fond of it. They discuss dinner ideas and both come to the decision of potatoes, mashed. Their minds wander to tomorrow and the shade of lipstick they will bare.
39
A Different Story by Darcy Blyth
The same old path we all walked the same but before each eye was a story of our own through each eye a different Surrey is known.
40
Walking
by Paige Ferguson
Athletic Park townhouses x 2 detached homes attached homes traffic light button Chevron McDonalds Tim Hortons sushi Subway TD Bank skatepark hill go up Wired Monk left turn character homes character homes paths Hillcrest Elementary field of grass park, hang at dark
41
Our Facts
by Oliver Ferland
This land is plagued with heroin and crack it’s a fact I walk with it at my back Oh look! Another crack shack. Even with all the negativity animosity pushing us away from unity I still keep my smile for a while in this land so vile the trees, so tall yet they will fall by the hands of the greedy who don’t care about the needy over population ever growing homeless, even when snowing people, overworked getting marked for their change yet there is no change no matter how hard we try eventually we die. It’s a fact.
42
Here
by Graham Palframan
nowhere nowhere nowhere nowhere nowhere nowhere nowhere nowhere nowhere anywhere but here
43
context awesome interesting creation anything profound creative expression flowing unknown imaginative internal thinking Cheyenne Shouting is a challenge 16-year-old who likes hanging expression out with friends. interesting fun Chris Pettigrew enjoys freedom reading. care adventurous confessing Damien Cheveldave likes music and reading. weird choice spontaneousDarcy Blyth is an artist. transition dirty David Ellison is a teacher curse words at Newton Learning Centre. diverse interesting David Garratt notices concrete jungle the little things. place horrible lovely damp Grahan Palframan home plays hacky-sack and listens to city a lot of Nirvana. unfortunate over-populated cool community home concrete jungle place horrible home dirty transition internal spontaneous fun city 44 interesting confessing
contributor bios Johnathan Rempel is a teacher at North Surrey Learning Centre. Kaitlyn Taylor’s favourite poet is Charles Bukowski. One day she’d like to own and run her own coffee shop. She blogs at iamhumanwaste. tumblr.com Nisha Sandhu is interested in Bob Marley, Led Zepplin, and Jimi Hendrix. Oliver Ferland is interested in native culture, and appreciates poetry and art. Paige Ferguson lives more in the summer than the fall
Rebecca Belgrove is a student in SD36 and enjoys hanging out with friends. Roxanne Hawkes likes to write. Sara McDonnell appreciates the sky and the sea, and prefers exploring nature rather than being indoors. Taryn Hubbard is a writer and editor. She blogs at tarynhubbard.blogspot.com Travis Girard is working on a manuscript about teenage zombie slayers.
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doing the work
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made in Surrey, B.C.