Mission, Texas- The creative writing of a student at Mission High School is now part of a book that can be purchased from Amazon. While still in 8th grade, Jose Ramirez submitted several poems for consideration by the publisher of a new book, Called to Rise: Rio Grande Valley Youth Anthology-A McAllen Poet Laureate Anthology Volume 1, by Edward Vidaurre, Rodney Gomez, and FlowerSong Books.
Now a freshman at Mission High School (MHS), Ramirez was excited to learn one of his poems was chosen for the anthology. His poem is called My Art. Ramirez says the inspiration for it came from his mother’s love of art. He says his poetry comes from the heart and is often based on memories and his thoughts on how life is going. He started writing poems when he was in sixth grade and was inspired to start trying his hand at poetry after reading work by Edgar Allan Poe. He said he tends to keep his poetry to himself, but his teacher from last year encouraged him to enter some poems for consideration in the anthology.
Ramirez says he thinks his mother would be proud of the poem being included in the book. She passed away when he was six years old.
The online description for the book says, “So we called our youth to rise and tell us in poems; What does it mean to you to rise? Guess What? They rose to the opportunity to be heard in this collection of life, love illness, politics, and hope the youth ranging from 3rd to 12th grade wrote from the heart.”
The book is currently available through Amazon.
Pictured is student Jose Ramirez (left), Edward Vidaurre, publisher/editor.
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