In the spring of 2025, we were pleased to work with with Genesee Hill Elementary School second graders to create original poetry. This web page and our anthology of the student’s poems are the culmination of this project, in which students from four classrooms worked with Jack Straw’s professional writer Vicky Edmonds to write their own poetry. This is our sixth year working with Genesee Hill Elementary students to help them create and share their poetry and build respect for each other’s experiences, and we look forward to many more.

We created an anthology of the students’ poems, The Daylight Waits for Me, and shared it with everyone who participated.

Purchase the book here

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to express how grateful I am to have gotten to work with Genesee Hill teachers, staff, and students through Jack Straw Cultural Center over these last several years,” writes Vicky. “It has been one of the brightest and most beautiful parts of each school year for me since we began, and this year was so sweet I feel like I’m still glowing! . . . I hope you love these children’s writings as much I do. They are vulnerable, brave, and beautiful, and they are examples to us all on how we too might embody more of those qualities in this world.”

The Daylight Waits for Me: Genesee Hill Elementary Poetry was produced by Genesee Hill Elementary School students and Jack Straw Cultural Center with the generous support of the Washington State Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture and The Creative Advantage, Harvest Foundation, and individual donors.

The Jack Straw team included writer Vicky Edmonds, designer Levi Fuller, project coordinator Daniel Guenther, and Executive Director Joan Rabinowitz. Special thanks to the students of Genesee Hill Elementary and Genesee Hill staff. We especially want to thank teachers Alison Aylesworth, Tasha Barnes, Danielle Jones, Renee Marroquin, and Erin Munavu, who helped make this project possible.

Cover photo by David Lee, used under Creative Commons license CC BY 2.0.

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