List of 20 news stories.

• 2025 Daystar Haiku Contest Winners

  Juliette Watson '30, Vidwan Aryan '27
  Daystar once again hosted our annual Haiku Contest. A haiku is a 3-line poem, where the first and last lines have five syllables and the second line has seven syllables. 
  . . .

• Beginning

  Amelia Andersson '28
  Fireworks
  
  Exploding out of the depth of winter
  
  Fracturing the desperate clench of death....
  . . .

• Boom Boom Aesthetic

  Camille Pittard '29
  on Instagram feeds martini glasses clink in
  what feels like a never-ending loop,
  photo carousels from nights out show
  low-lit steakhouses, tartare and souffles, and
  what, in this economy, is screaming Luxardo cherries?...
  . . .

• C

  Aaliyah Padilla '25
  it’s become more of a silent whisper
  on sidewalks
  taxis
  familiar places
  unfamiliar places
  saying to just go.
  going, gone.
  . . .

• El Abrazo de Puerto Rico y Hawái

  Gabriella Rinaldi '26
  Ay, me duele la cabeza.
  
  Dígame sus preocupaciones, mi hermanita.
  
  Hermana, mis hijos están enojados,
  Un tercio de ellos están en mis caminos,
  Mis hijos fuertes luchan para mí,
  Un hogar donde su líder no les quiere.
  . . .

• Ghosts

  Sarah Li '30
  But do we have the rights,
  
  To not believe in ghosts,
  
  To not believe,
  
  That those who passed are somehow here?...
  . . .

• In Memoriam

  James O-Dowd '26
  Empty? But yet I feel full, full of thoughts,
  
  swirling around like a bathtub when the plug is
  
  pulled....
  . . .

• Lament After Sunday Funeral

  Aidan Chan '26
  You don’t move on after loss
  you move with it
  
  Shake hands with grief,
  welcome her in, she’s here to stay
  Pull her a chair at the table—
  offer her comfort for free
  She is not the monster you first thought her to be
  . . .

• Louis XIV: Composed upon the Palace of Versailles, Christmas Eve, 1685

  Ashley Deng '27
  I am the absolute monarch of France,
  I built a palace, rich and grand, to dance.
  Beneath the weight of France, I stand alone,
  A king, like god, yet still I feel unknown.
  . . .

• Memento Mori

  Micah Betts '26
  Sitting there amidst skyscrapers it looks like a piece of history had forced its way through.
  
  Memento mori engraved on the ramparts,
  
  a dead language for a forgotten building from a bygone time.
  
  Memento mori....
  . . .

• Mi Madre Pintada

  Elissa Matthews '25
  I am my mother with a painted face.
  I hum the lullabies of the night and
  She belts the ballad of the dawn...
  . . .

• Photograph of Her

  Audrey Xia '29
  I was sorting through old boxes
  Boxes meant to be thrown away
  When I found a photograph...
  . . .

• Put Your Headphones On

  Eric Lowe '28
  November Has Come, heavy with smoke and missing faces,
  down by the Enchanted Waterfall
  I watch the years break apart like soft bread.
  
  Three Little Birds shiver in the branches,
  singing songs no one listens to anymore....
  . . .

• Thawed Out

  Ashley Deng '27
  Each flake descends through crisp and quiet air,
  While on the couch I rest with cocoa near,
  Its warmth a balm, a solace for the year,
  The trees, with snow, no longer stripped and bare.
  Alone I lie, the heavy snow so rare,...
  . . .

• The Light on Your Face

  Anonymous
  charred sunsets – sights scarred
  horizon tattooed eyelids
  my eyes burn raw with
  your tears, your blood in my veins;
  so we scorch our pains with mirth....
  . . .

• The Prize

  Emily Dinescu '29
  Dedicated to Malala Yousafzai
  
  From mountain schools, where bullets rang,
  
  A girl stood firm, through danger sang.
  
  Books in hand, and eyes so wide,
  
  She faced the dark, she did not hide.
  . . .

• The Story of The Door

  Julianne Gonzalez '28
  Around the corner, hidden away in the dark recesses of the hall, lay a small wooden door. It
  had weathered many storms, its rough
  wood knotted with age. The iron bolts
  were corroded, and the stone entranceway
  was worn, cold, and uninviting.
  . . .

• Villanelle

  Oren Arbisman '27
  Inside this complicated world, built like a maze,
  will these problems ever have solutions?
  My intuition is telling me there’ll be better days,
  
  where the sky won’t be masked with haze,
  and the stars can be seen through the pollution.
  Inside this complicated world, built like a maze,
  . . .

• What If I Killed the Sun

  Anonymous
  If I did, I wouldn’t see myself.
              How could I, when the sun’s not there to see?
  No, he’s nothing special; he’s not that bright,
               he’s not immense; he’s a yellow dwarf
  . . .

• A Notch in My Heart

  Ashley Deng '27
  Adrenaline rushes like the Shenandoah.
  Uncontrollably,
  Like waves crashing on the shore.
  
  A hug,
  A kiss,
  A touch of the hand.
  Each gesture laden with unspoken meaning...
  . . .