WITS Student Anthology 2023-24: Standing in the Same Land

Each year, the Youth Programs team publishes an anthology of the student work created in Writers in the Schools residencies. The team chooses a title for the anthology from one of the student poems published in the book. This year, that poem is “The Beach” by Valeria Ruiz Tapia. You can read it right here.

The anthology will be available for sale after its launch at the 2024 Portland Book Festival on Saturday, November 2.

The Beach
Valeria Ruiz Tapia

I’m excited 
I would feel my mom tapping on my shoulder
I had only slept a few hours because I was too excited to sleep the night before
I would take my bag already packed and get on the car 
I would listen to my dad’s playlist 
I would sing the songs with him 
I would see the sky through the window
“No mires la ventana que te vas a marear” 
I would stop looking at the window
I would fall asleep 
“Ya llegamos”
I would wake up
I would feel the butterflies in my stomach 
I would feel the sand in my feet 
I would feel the spume in my legs
I would feel the wind in my hair 
I would feel my dad’s hand holding mine
I would feel so much 
I would feel so strongly 

I dream 
I dream of not being able to sleep for the excitement 
I dream of packing my bags 
I dream of taking a long trip
I dream of listening to my dad’s playlist 
I dream of looking at the window and then falling asleep 
I dream of waking up 
I dream of feeling the heat in my body 
I dream of standing in the same land again 
I dream of the butterflies
I dream of my dad’s hand holding mine
I dream of going back to the beach 

I have a beach here.
I have written your name in its sand
I have seen your clouds in its sky 
I have crossed a river
I have climbed a mountain 
I have felt you 
I have felt your burning sun and rays of sunshine 
reminding me we cannot separate from each other
I have hidden myself 
I have hidden you
I have grown up
I have not forgotten you 
I have you under my skin 
I protect you like that 
l have you inside of me 
so that I can’t feel without feeling you 
No matter where my body feels
Every grain of sand and every butterfly
It’s you
No matter where I hide, or what coast I find myself in
You are still here
And it is your coast, your sand and your wind 
where I belong.