About Me

Hi, I'm Harper Lee Simmons. It's pronounced Har-peh, because my dad's from the south. He's a foreign service agent from the US; my mom's a professor from Morocco. I grew up dividing my time between Rabat, Casablanca, and the countryside, with occasional trips to France. (I speak Arabic, French, and, yes, English.) I was born in Morocco but spent my first year or two in the States to get some fancy medical treatments. Mom and I and my brother and sister usually hang out at home while Dad's away on business. I have a younger brother, Will, and a younger sister, Charlotte. Dad named us all after his "heroes of literature": Nelle Harper Lee, William Shakespeare, and Charlotte Bronte. Mom and us kids are Muslim and Dad's a Baptist. He met my mother on an assignment and hasn't been able to get his heart away from Morocco since. Now I'm in the States attending a boarding school. I got detained after a fifty-state whirlwind tour, probably because of my religion. Living at "home" has been difficult to adjust to, but I'm getting there. With some help from my wonderful teacher and new friends, my United States citizenship has become something tangible. Oh, and I'm a poet. Yeah, I might not be your typical American Girl... but I think that's something I can live with.

19 February 2009

Frustrated

aislynn cannot write
she wants to be art-noveau
her sister walks into the room
some days she wants to be a cheerleader
it is time for dinner
aislyn cannot write
notebooks and pens are not allowed at the table

the author does not know where the name aislynn came from
but she cannot write

there are peas in a bowl
it is made of white ceramic
and it has blue pastel flowers
and some words aislynn will not read
home sweet home

she takes the extra stairs
up to the room at the top of the house
she wants to be inspired
she cannot write
she forgot to bring a pencil

aislynn cannot write
it is time to go to bed
her brother is singing and her sister is playing drums
aislynn wants to play that video game

she cannot write

This is a poem written in the style of those weird stream-of-consciousness, art-noveau writers, who are currently driving me crazy along with the really good poem I just read that I cannot imitate.  I don't really like this poem because I would never write like that...

1 comment:

Haley Hotchkiss said...

Hi Harper, I have to admit I'm not much of a poet but you write beautifully. I looked at your picture and you kinda look like me! I'm 11 and my website is http://aghaleysblog.blogspot.com. Cheers!

XOXO
Haley