Douglas High graduate receives writing honor

Carson Valley Swim Center director Kirk Chiapella's daughter Kristina wrote the poem of the year at University of California, Santa Clara.

Kristina was one of 17 2005 Douglas High School graduates who received a full-ride Raymond Berner Foundation Scholarships.

A quick Google search reveals that Kristina is writing for The Santa Clara, the university's weekly newspaper. She's had more than two dozen bylined stories.

I want to climb

Mount Everest

and stare at clouds from 30,000 feet

to leave footprints with my burning muscles

on the diamond hard ice.

I want to see

my name in harsh fluorescent lights

screamed across red carpets

and splashed like coffee on your newspaper

to leave kisses with fever-red lipstick

on the minds of the world.

I want to mix chemicals

explode them like fireworks in my test tubes

something so acid it will burn

your cancer up like kindling

so you can get out of that hospital bed

and breathe into fresh air

silent with wonder.

I want to stand

on Florentine streets with my gypsy brethren

selling roses to gelato-eating tourists

and when they stop at the kiosk to buy their souvenirs

and find their wallets gone

they will mutter angry curses and know

that I have been here.

I want to swim

through the blood stream of my children

to pack up my love for them

in brown paper bags with turkey sandwiches

to scold good sense into their bones

and tuck them in at night with a story

dusting them with the essence of myself

so that I will live on forever in their minds.

-- n n

Record-Courier Advertising Manager Joanna Reeves' last day was Wednesday. She is going to work in Coos Bay for Janet Geary.

Joanna started her tenure with Swift Communications at The R-C around Thanksgiving 2000.

She left in July 2002 to take over as ad director of the Tahoe Daily Tribune and then returned to The R-C in January 2004. She was the originator of The Business Record. She wrote a column in that publication I would have been happy to have for the regular edition.

Joanna and her husband Bill live in Carson City and were near victims of the fire that swept through the west side. They were both great fun at our get-togethers and will be missed.

-- Kurt Hildebrand is editor of The Record-Courier. Reach him at 782-5121, ext. 215.