Welcome to The Heartbeat of Pen and Paper 2019.
The collected works in this anthology are written by high school students
and faculty members from Summit Public Schools: Rainier and Piedmont
Hills High School of the East Side Union High School District in San Jose,
California. I am very proud of the work that has been put into every poem
submitted, and I congratulate every poet for their work and contributions to
the making of this project.
For this project, I have reached out to as many poets as I possibly could in
the East Side Union High School District of San Jose, California, as well
as other writers from surrounding high schools who might be interested in
sharing their poetry for this cause. I originally came up with the idea of
creating an anthology for my final English project of this year, but after
seeing the enthusiasm of the poets that I have come into contact with, it is a
goal of mine to continue this project in the years to come. I hope to be able
to not only expand this project to include visual arts, but also continue this
project to produce multiple volumes to be published annually.
In the making of this project, there were many obstacles and challenges, of
course.
The long wait of two months for submissions and the extra weeks
for editing was a lot of work in such a small amount of time for one
person. On top of that, this is the first anthology I have ever worked with.
There was a lot to think of and plan for in terms of organization of the
poetry and the style of the final outcome. Even though there were many
complications, it is a great pleasure to finally release the works of these
wonderful poets.
Poetry is my passion, and I am a strong believer of the powers of poetry.
To me, it has the ability to touch the heart and soul of anyone who comes
in contact with it, no matter if they are the writer or reader. I have made it
my mission for this project to show that poetry is by no means just a bunch
of oddly clumped words on a paper, but rather the manifestation of the soul
of another person being put into words.
With that being said, enjoy the works of the writers who made this all
possible.
The Heartbeat of Pen and Paper is available here on Amazon.
Keith Dinh
Student of Summit Public Schools: Rainier
Editor-in-Chief of Summit Public Schools: Rainier
Passion in Poetry 