Home Grown: Poetry By Students at JCM-Early College High

PHOTOS BY ANNALISE BENNETT

Featured in Vol 8, Issue 1: Jackson Grown

Our Homeland 

Addison Brown

Growing up anywhere has its ups and downs.

Its hills and valleys, valleys and hills.

the grass that rises on the hillsides of Jackson

On the valleys of our land.

The grass that tries to grow in places it shouldn’t; 

In our ditches we dig to let water flow

In the plots of land to make our community grow.

The clouds in the sky full of rain, 

Full of sun

Full of love

Full of snow

The smallest cities

The biggest crowds

The unperfect farms

The imperfect people

The people from everywhere 

The people from nowhere

Inside of the state

The land of the volunteers

The land in which we’ve all shed tears

The land that keeps our holds in place

The land

Our land.


Hey Neighbor!

Amani Alshaef

Hey Neighbor!

Hey Aunty!

Hey Neighbor!

Hey Cousin! 

All gone.

Jackson, Jackson is my home now

Everything so new

People I do not know 

Kids stuck on screens

The childhood I had filled with love 

Gone. Gone. Gone.

No friends

No family 

Just me, my sister, mom, and dad

The childhood where I was with cousins 24/7

Gone.

The neighborhood where it was filled with family 

Gone.

The nights with family 

Gone.

The sleepovers with all my cousins 

Gone. 

The corner store 

Gone.

The feel of protection 

Gone.

The food

The air

The people

All different 

It was so warm there 

Family always together 

But it is so cold here

So many problems

Do not get me wrong 

Jackson has its positives

As you live here 

You get fond of it 

The school is amazing

Neighbors are decent 

Land is beyond compared to where I am from

But Detroit is my home.

But Detroit is my home

The place I yearn

Where my heart belongs

The place I feel safest.

Hey neighbor! 

Hey stranger! 

Sounds odd on my tongue

But here is where I stay.


Lasting Times

Bethany Knott

The days are slow 

but the years are fast

to be known and loved

from here and above

is it enough to make things last?

It feels like my childhood is over 

I grew up too fast

sleep through the days, through the nights I ponder

of memories which I grow fonder

is it enough to make things last?

Ignorant and blissful

matured too fast 

no more playing pretend

is this the end or

is it enough to make things last?

As I get a paycheck, a boyfriend, a car

time flies by too fast

the yarn of my life unravels

as I think back to that day in the gravel

am I enough to make things last?

The answer is not in myself

nor in others, I've found past my sorrow

don't sit by the side, dormant

spend your life in the moment

and remind yourself

there is a better tomorrow

Watch the sunrise

eat that cake

in a million ways

give yourself a reason to wake

We persevere 

together our skin thick

rise as a community

past our insecurities

we are Jackson grown.


Changing and Gaining

Damona Posey

Since I was little

 this town has never stopped

 growing. It lives on thriving 

never shedding a feather. 

I would often say 

will this place ever stop growing?

Day by day improved. 

Shiny and new, 

open minded, full of positive attitude 

The weather’s always sunny

and cloudy. Growing up here 

is the best I have been. 

A town that gets better with

every fix. With me I will admit. 

The town seems smaller 

but is growing right before our eyes. 

And the best of it all is 

I get to be a witness to it. 


Amani Alshaef is a senior at Jackson Central-Merry Early College High School. She was raised in Detroit, Michigan but later moved to Jackson, Tennessee when she was nine years old. She enjoys spending time painting and participating in events with family and friends. She hopes to open several businesses with her mother while earning her bachelor’s degree.

Beanie Knott is a freshman at Jackson Central-Merry Early College High School and is a survivor of their middle school emo phase. After moving in a giant circle across the U.S. three times, and even across the Atlantic, in the span of eleven years, they finally settled in Jackson for good. They enjoy terrible jokes, the color red, pretending to be an old lady, and survive solely on the broke college student diet. 

Damona Posey is a junior at Jackson Central-Merry Early College High School. She has always loved writing poems and writing has been one of her favorite hobbies growing up. She would always have a journal with her just in case she had an idea that came to mind for her next story. In her head, she imagines that she is a famous writer and that everything she has written has come out great.

Addison Brown is a ninth grader at Jackson Central-Merry Early College High and is officially classified as an emo kid. She’s ambitious and passionate about everything she does. Throughout her life Addison has been involved in scholarly life everywhere she lived, including the poor mental health, diet, and sleep schedule.

Annalise Bennett was born and raised in Jackson TN. She graduated high school this spring and is enrolled at the University of Chattanooga where she plans on majoring in Graphic Design or Marketing. She is passionate about anything having to do with art and never leaves the house without her film camera.