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Title: The Backseat
Poet: Lila Amin (Walt Whitman High School, Grade 12, Age 17)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2017
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
Throw what is futile to the back.
I sit where shotgun refused to sit,
Where all the wind blows,
Creating a tornado, so I
Eat my hair and the polluted air.
I sit where I cannot hear the front seat conversation,
I cannot see the laughing or the crying,
Where I can only hear the distant echoes of music,
Like he is singing to me from Times Square, but I am in
Harlem.
The black leather blocking my view,
I am restricted to only left and right,
Like Solitary confinement,
I see what they already saw,
And it stays tested.
I spy with my little eye...
Nevermind.
I am backseat,
No attention is paid, I am
Unheard voice singing the unsung song and I am
Where they refused to sit,
Seat belt locking me in for the ride.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: Dream of Amithaine
Poet: Chris Benincase (Harborfields High School, Grade 9, Age 14)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2017
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
Inspired by Clark Ashton Smith
In ancient lands long forgot,
A sacred kingdom shall be sought,
Where falcon banners shall unfurl,
Above the courts of gold and pearl,
And blood again will stain,
The emerald gardens of Amithaine,
A crusade to take, perchance,
That ancient city of romance,
Where violet waters flow,
From regal towers to valleys below.
But these conquerors shall find,
No kingdom of that kind,
For the realms of this scene,
Are only found within a dream.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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| Title: The Waiting Room
Poet: Emily Blank (Walt Whitman High School, Grade 12, Age 17)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2017
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
A sobbing mother sits in a cold plastic chair shaking,
a fragile tree in the midst of a hurricane
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: The Midnight Masquerade
Poet: DeannaJames Bunce (Half Hollow Hills High School East, Grade 11, Age 16)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2017
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
We’ll rendezvous at half past twelve,
After the noise of the night dies down.
I search for you in the dark
With outstretched fingers,
Reaching into the shadows for your hand.
My breathing becomes shallow
In anticipation as I hear
Your approaching figure.
We stand close enough to touch,
And suddenly
Our masks drop from our faces.
The truth is revealed.
We see each other for the
First time in the gentle glow
Of daybreak.
But we do not flinch
From our flaws.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: Our Purpose
Poet: Aimee Cameron (Harborfields High School, Grade 9, Age 14)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2017
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
Every day I see her
Walking the same cursed street
Waiting to meet
Her Purpose –
Every day I wonder
Where will you go?
But no one knows
Your Purpose –
Every day I strive to be
The best version of me
Still looking to find
My Purpose –
Stop waiting, Stop wondering, Stop looking –
Let your Purpose find you
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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| Title: The Evening Before Winter
Poet: Elizabeth Hardwick (Walt Whitman High School, Grade 12, Age 18)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2017
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
I marveled at the colors of change
Leaves of flame carried through the air
With them the scent of smoke
Yet no fires in range
How cruel to admire the beauty of death
Bursting into such lovely hues
As Nature graces us one final time
Before drawing her final breath
As she awaits her white funeral
The biting wind rushes over the expectant earth
With only softly setting snow
Present for the memorial
But how treacherous to grieve again and again
As without fail death comes to lovingly embrace
Her after so long
Yet every time
She welcomes it with open arms.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: Note to You, Then
Poet: Bradley Landberg (Huntington High School, Grade 12, Age 17)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2017
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
Can you still not see it yet?
Twenty thousand dewdrops hence
The Sun – Her light – it shines so bright
Sweeping gently those tired nights
Can you still not feel its warmth?
Washing out the brazen storm
By fiery embrace it soothes
More than the swashing swell of Moon
O mirror passed – found reborn
Dare not drown yourself in scorn
Soon enough this night shall end
And Her light will – always – make amends
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: The World Around Us
Poet: Katie Latko (Walt Whitman High School, Grade 11, Age 16)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2017
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
One step
at a time.
People observe what life thrusts
upon them.
In return
they change.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: I Am Who I Am
Poet: Jillian Leydon (Walt Whitman High School, Grade 12, Age 17)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2017
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
A poem for Kafka’s Metamorphosis
I am who I am
Not.
I am who people believe me to be,
lost in translation.
I am a feeling
not a description.
My story is told by those who love me
Because I am the feeling of love...
Love
Am I loved?
Or absorbed
Am I the beauty of an existential reality?
Or the product of an undefined soul.
Pay no attention to those who make me, me.
I am a feeling of relief.
To wakeup
and stay awake
In my own Mind, Body, and Soul.
I am who I am.
Whether or not you are around.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: The Pulse of the World
Poet: Genie Miraglia (Harborfields High School, Grade 10, Age 15)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2017
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
The moment the earth was formed it started.
Life began to form, life began to move,
Each new being, each new event, forming a cell in the
heart of the world.
And the pulse begins.
The second you are born you become a part of the
pulse.
The events leading up to you, the events created
because of you, the events resulting from you,
Each create another cell in the heart of the world.
And the pulse continues.
A symphony forms a tangible version of the heart,
Each instrument working together to form music,
all beating to the same metronome.
Tic, tic, tic, goes the metronome. Boom, boom, boom
goes the heart of the world.
And the pulse never slows.
As each new cell is formed, the heart gets larger and
larger,
The pulse, stronger and stronger.
The heart will beat for lifetimes, the heart that runs the
world.
And the pulse never stops.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: The Path
Poet: Michael Morck (Walt Whitman High School, Grade 12, Age 17)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2017
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
I like to take some time when I reach another
corner.
To look down at the path I just walked
over.
Examine all my steps and what I left behind.
All the pits and the holes and places where my sole
dipped
and I could’ve tripped.
To see the places where my sole raised
and I walked unfazed.
I like to take some time when I reach another
corner.
To look up the path I’ll walk over.
Examine all the pits and the holes and
all the places where I’ll be raised, and I’ll walk unfazed.
I like to take some time when I reach another
corner.
To see the beauty in the cycle, and never stop walking
forward.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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Title: The Intrinsic Nature of the Human Soul
Poet: James Reilly (Walt Whitman High School, Grade 12, Age 17)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2017
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
Why is it people never stop questioning?
Why am I here?
Where do I belong?
Why should I care?
I suppose it's better than cattling around.
Human explosive emotion drives
humanity to new heights.
It's the true beauty of the human to
inquire,
perspire,
and conspire before we
expire.
In such a small time,
we never truly move past ignorance.
Momentarily,
we will all be
eternally blissful.
So stop asking.
Let the truth,
your truth,
shine.
Be sure of it and yourself.
Allow your soul to become a great poem.*
In time your truth will reign above all else.
*From Walt Whitman's preface to Leaves of Grass
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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| Title: Same
Poet: Jordan Roiland (Walt Whitman High School, Grade 12, Age 17)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2017
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
He had never known love to be
anything but a contract to have children.
Stories of a religion
played through his mind.
Of sinners, cities destroyed, God's wrath.
Prayed his youth away,
to no avail.
Tears shed, sleepless nights
wondering the cure.
His mind, clearly impure.
If the greatest commandment is love
Why should his be invalidated?
He immersed himself in literature
finding factors which could explain,
what he felt so intuitively.
No matter what he found, incomplete felt it still.
Birth order, x-genes, was he simply mentally ill?
Prison statistics, international findings, and the APA,
All trying to explain why he is gay.
Gay means happy
But happy he was not.
His soul destined to rot.
Himself he fought.
And all it was he sought
was love.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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| Title: Colors
Poet: Danielle Silverman (Walt Whitman High School, Grade 12, Age 17)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2017
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
Orange as the pumpkin sitting on the bushel of hay.
Orange as the steaming sweet potato, served at the
family dinner.
Orange as the fallen leaves scattering the lawn.
Growing and changing
With the falling leaves,
We drift and we float.
Red as the paint on her nails.
Red as the wine in the glass.
Red as the little girl's velvet dress.
Brown as the dirt tracked into the house, wiped on the
mat.
Brown as the acorns, landing haphazardly across the
yard.
Brown as the newly bare branches on the trees.
Windy days and pale skies,
As former friends walk by one another
In silence.
Yellow as the flame of burning candles.
Yellow as the embers in a warm fireplace.
Yellow as the bright sun beginning to set.
Purple as the blanket sprawled over the couch.
Purple as the deep colors of the sky at dusk.
Purple as the mums, freshly planted in the ground.
These are the apples,
And the changing leaves,
We see as we walk along unmarked trails.
The seasons change,
Friendships end,
Room for new beginnings.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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| Title: Boy
Poet: Taylor Taranto (Walt Whitman High School, Grade 12, Age 17)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2017
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
Blind to the pain in blue eyes,
Blind to the black and blue
showing through
the covered skin.
Anchors tied to rough rope,
rough rope tied to ankles,
no one saw the legs bleed
as the metal did their deed and
sunk
down
to the ocean floor.
Feet swelled and chilled to the core.
The face turned a different hue,
it was blue.
You know, boys can get hurt too.
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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| Title: It’s Not a Stick…
Poet: Juliana Tom (Harborfields High School, Grade 9, Age 14)
Other Collaborators: AB Graphics (Placard Designer)
Year of Creation: 2017
Medium: Poem digitally printed on styrene placard
Approx. Dimensions (HxWxD): 11 x 24 in.
Description: Teen poem printed on styrene placards and displayed in the interior ad spaces of selected buses in the HART system.
Markings/Inscriptions:
It's not a stick...
It's a wand,
A wand that can cast many spells
It's not a stick...
It's a sword,
A sword that can slay many dragons
It's not a stick...
It's a microphone,
A microphone that can take you to Hollywood
It's not a stick...
It's a key,
A key that can unlock anything
It's not a stick...
It's a staff,
A staff that gives you the ultimate power
It's not a stick...
It's a spoon,
A spoon that can make any meal taste good
It's not a stick...
It's a telescope,
A telescope that can see anything
It's not a stick...
It's a lever,
A lever that can turn anything on
Street/Site Location: HART Bus System
Owner/Administrator: Town of Huntington (Public Art Initiative)
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