From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V3 #208 Reply-To: shindell-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk shindell-list-digest Sunday, June 24 2001 Volume 03 : Number 208 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] I think we know this person, or at least her Dad... [Jeff Bernstein ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 00:31:08 -0400 From: Jeff Bernstein Subject: [RS] I think we know this person, or at least her Dad... Excuse the cross-posting. This article appears in the Long Island section of the Sunday New York Times dated June 24, 2001. It is one of three articles that appear under a banner heading that reads "When the Everyday Becomes a Transforming Experience." - ---- Poetic Vision Cast on Ordinary by Robbie Wolliver While Adriana DiGennaro's peers scream over the Backstreet Boys and pass notes in English class, Ms. DiGennaro, 17, spends her time listening to confessional folk singers and writing poetry. While her Mount Sinai High School classmates were signing yearbooks, Ms. DiGennaro was signing copies of her recently published poetry book, "Peripheral Vision." Writing since sixth grade, Ms. DiGennaro, who hopes to attend Sarah Lawrence University after she graduates next year, said, "While other people see ordinary things, I see poetry in everything." "Peripheral Vision," a collection written over the last seven years, is mostly about relationships and nature. It was published last month by Writers Ink Press, a Long Island publishing company. Whether she s looking at life "through moonlight's icy glare" at age 10 or watching "the wax and the wane" of a teacher's mouth in 11th-grade health class, she sees beyond what most other teenagers see. Ms. DiGennaro, also an artist, views poetry as another art medium. "It's all about descriptive words," she said, "painting a picture with words. "But more than any other kind of writing, it's about the writers themselves, and what they choose to express." Ms. DiGennaro has received several honors: first place in the Walt Whitman Birthplace Society Student Poetry Contest as a sixth grader, an award from the Newsday/Hofstra "Our Story: Long Island" fiction writing contest in 1998 and a gold medal for Mount Sinai High School's creative writing contest last year. Her poetry has also been published by literary magazines, newspapers and online poetry sites. While her friends were at the beach last summer, she was in her room honing 70 poems for "Peripheral Vision." "This book was important to me for many reasons" she said. "It is about how I see myself in this world. As I grow older, the poems turn from observations to more internal poetry. "There's poetry everywhere. I have been chosen to express it, the beauty and art in everything." Right now she is concentrating on her book. "I remember the first day I saw it," she said. "I was pretty excited. This is my ticket to better things." She has had several readings, and hopes to start a poetry series for teenagers at a chain like Barnes & Noble. No brooding Sylvia Plath type, Ms. DiGennaro is a lighthearted and funny young woman. Although she is fond of introspective singer-songwriters like Dar Williams, who has become a mentor and a friend, she also likes cutting-edge trip-hop music. She obsesses over lost friendships and romances. Although she says she finds it difficult to relate to her peers ("I'm older than I am"), she does not view herself as an outsider. "My drug is human contact," she said. "I thrive on people. "I don't want to become what I do," she said, wistfully, about her lonely art. ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V3 #208 ***********************************