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“My poem isn’t really tied to a single famous event but to personal history — the accumulation of lessons growing up from before elementary school through my senior year of high school. It’s rooted in everyday family stories (my dad’s tales of perseverance), the rhythms of my Clifton Hills neighborhood, and years spent learning science: watching the environment I grew up in change throughout time, doing lab work, and listening to classroom debates. Those small, repeated moments — late dinners with tortillas, crowded classrooms where some voices are quiet, and the seasonal coming-and-going of that pond — are my historical anchor. They show how identity, civic feeling, and curiosity develop over time rather than from one headline event.”
– Cody Simon
Poet
Middle Ground
By Cody Simon
I am from a school desk
where ideas are discovered —
from ink-stained fingers
and filing folders.
I am from a school crowded, lively and loud,
where some students are ignored;
others get their voices heard.
I am from a vernal pond, like democracy:
It depends on certain conditions.
Slowly growing throughout heavy rain,
the surface still, reflecting gray skies,
but you knew there were unseen things stirring underneath;
then it disappears just as quietly.
I am from recurring disagreements,
silenced suggestions, and often lacking the idea
to express.
I am from a small Clifton Hills community
where there aren’t many late-night debates.
Not that the people are ignorant —
simply . . .kept to themselves.
I am from “learn to listen more than you speak,”
from tame responses except when talking money,
or when the presidency is mentioned,
then things quake with noise.
I feel like I belong at home,
where tortillas are served with every meal
and soup is the easiest thing
when you don’t know what else to make.
I am not from philosophy,
but from an interest in chemistry, zoology,
and environmental sciences.
I am from a father telling stories of perseverance
despite not having his basic needs met,
and my struggle to do well in school
despite distractions to work.
I am from knowing the importance of multiple inputs
on a single thing – so you can find different ideas,
and find middle ground.
I am from knowing the importance of multiple inputs
on a single thing — so you can find different ideas,
and find middle ground.
After the debate, someone pours two cups:
one sky-blue tea, one warm-red chamomile.
Tip the cups together, observing,
as the ribbons fold into a single purple.
It does not erase either color;
but keeps them both, softer, brighter — a place
you could sit for a while and breathe,
a place with,
peace.
I am from a middle ground,
with a desire to search for others,
who share the same ground I stand in —
if there is anyone who still stands.
Meet the Poet – Cody Simon
Born in Chattanooga, TN, Cody is the son of parents who immigrated from Guatemala.
Cody is a student at The Howard School. He is at the intersection of ambitions for a
better life dreamed by his parents, and his own experience as part of a new generation of
Americans- influenced by a global pandemic, political tensions and quickly evolving
technology.
As an artist, Cody tries thinking about what it means to feel pressure from
many directions. He loves science, nature and hopes to be an ecologist: restoring the
balance of nature.
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