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VPR's coverage of arts and culture in the region.

Young Writers Project: 'If I Could Fold The World'

Writer Sophie Usherwood from Hanover, NH, meditates on the creation of origami flowers, relating the handiwork back to a bigger personal picture: her desire to help the world with her own nurturing touch.
Photo by Sophie Usherwood, 15, Hanover, NH
/
YWP Photo Library
Writer Sophie Usherwood from Hanover, NH, meditates on the creation of origami flowers, relating the handiwork back to a bigger personal picture: her desire to help the world with her own nurturing touch.

Once I folded an origami rose,
with layers of curled petals spiraling,
gently leaning back in the sun,
wrapping in close to itself.

Imagine if I could stretch my arms
and reach, miles and miles,
grasping the North Pole with one hand,
the South Pole with the other,
folding the northern tip of Canada
down to the equator.

People would dance,
arms curled around each other.
The world would gently lean back
toward the sun.
The world would wrap people in,
close to itself.
If only I knew how.

The instructions are not
folded away in a drawer,
hidden among layers of paper.
Leaning back into my imagination’s fire,
I must find my own way
to wrap my hands close around the idea
that will let me fold the world.

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