A photo of an origami crane with poetry written across its wings against the background of the sky.

A Zine about Hope – Student Showcase

In winter 2025, students at The Pearl had the opportunity to take our unique class” Sound & Ink: Music, Identity, and the Art of Zine Making”. In this class, students could receive an English Language Arts High School credit in a topical and creative way. 

We are happy to showcase our incredibly talented student, Charlie, who created a marvelously creative zine in the shape of an origami swan. 

You can read the full poem featured by Tumblr user @mumblesplash below:
Hope is a plant you can care for or kill
Hope is a discipline, something you choose
Hard to stop looking for; easy to lose
Hope isn’t something to have or to take
If you can’t find it, it’s something you make
Make it from willpower, make it from spite
Learn how to weaponize love in a fight
Hope is a shield and a thing to defend
End in itself and a means to an end.
 
Hope is exhausting, to find and to keep
It’s not a promise. It doesn’t come cheap. 
Hope demands motion, it never stands still
rolling the dice; rolling boulders uphill
Hope is the turn of another blank page 
Sometimes it feels more like sadness than rage
Hope is a burden, but it can be shared
Held like a hand in the dark when you’re scared
Or like a patchwork of words on a screen
Half the first line written by a machine
Somehow achieving some measure of good
More than you ever imagined it would
Carrying further than your voice alone
Tied by the thread we’re all following home
Hope is an underground glimpse of the sun
Hope is a poem that still isn’t done

If you’d like to see more work by our students, check out the rest of our student showcase