Jacqueline Chow, a student at Highland Oaks Elementary School in Arcadia, is one of KCRW’s featured poets for the Young Creators Project.
Jacqueline Chow, a student at Highland Oaks Elementary School in Arcadia, is one of KCRW’s featured poets for the Young Creators Project.
Photo courtesy of Jacqueline Chow.

Young Creators Project spotlight: Jacqueline Chow

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Each day this week, KCRW is spotlighting the homegrown budding talent sourced via the Young Creators Project, a community arts mentorship platform celebrating the creative work of SoCal residents under 21. 


Jacqueline Chow, 11, is an avid reader and huge fan of bugs. The future entomologist also writes poems of all kinds, all the time. When not engaged in one of these hobbies, Chow enjoys playing board/word games and soccer, and raising  awareness about the plight of animals like the vaquita (a porpoise species that is near extinction, with only nine left in the world).

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Read her poetry submission “Ode to the Ground” below. 

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Ode to the Ground byJacqueline Chow

You hold me up so I stand tall 
You try not to, let me fall You support me everywhere I go 
And everywhere I go, I know That you'll always be there for me 
You catch me when I stumble and trip You hold me tight in your powerful grip You let my shoes tread on your head With no complaint, to be said 
Even if I run and jump 
You move me along, sprinting fast 
You help me go, others past My pounding feet meet you every step I take 
You try not to let yourself quake Though sometimes you can't control the urge 
You allow the bugs to make their home 
In you... and me to comb Through all the grass and dirt and rocks 
And all the tiny burrows, locks To find the bugs and hold them 
You welcome sunshine, welcome it in 
And store it like a storage bin You soak up the sun that makes you hot And let me lie there, though I ought 
To be practicing cello 
Without you, everyone would be 
Floating in the watery sea 
Or floating up, in the air Or the core of the Earth... it's hot in there, 
Hotter than the surface of the sun 
I love you , love you! You're the best Better than bugs (1 must confess) 
I owe my life as I know it to you And I'm thankful for all the things you do 
For me. 

Thank you ground! 

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More: 

Young Creator’s Project - Music
Young Creators Spotlight: Taty
Young Creators Spotlight: Ruler of Program
Young Creators Spotlight: Ras
Young Creators Spotlight: Magnus Ferrell

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