This poem earned Joey Lew first place in this year's international William Carlos Williams Poetry Competition.

I am asked to close up

(the body)

It is my very first operation

I took art lessons growing up, but didn't start loving it and creating meaningful pieces of my own until college. I mostly like working with oil and only paint recreationally.

Slowly, slowly, almost there, got it. The tea slushes a little too close to the edge, a threat to the open notes that lie below it.

Tank Hill is a short, steep walk from Parnassus campus. While studying for the qualifying exam in my PhD program, I spent a lot of my days sedentary, just reading and writing.

Actor and singer Franc D’Ambrosio has performed as the lead in The Phantom of the Opera thousands of times, for millions of people. And he’s achieved this momentous fame without the ability to read music. D’Ambrosio has dyslexia.

Welcome innocent. Born into this world

from the warm abyss that was once your only home.

Virgin sensations inundated with light and noise, you are still blind.

But may you feel the sun and follow it. Follow it.

Seated in plain sight he is invisible

The passersby halt for a moment to note

That something might be there, but they

Aren’t really sure.

She pauses a moment longer than most.