{"id":259,"date":"2016-01-28T14:00:34","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T20:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/?p=259"},"modified":"2016-01-28T14:00:34","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T20:00:34","slug":"pencil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/","title":{"rendered":"Pencil"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Taylor Mitcham<\/em>
\nFirst Place of the David Middleton Poetry Award<\/strong><\/p>\n

When you push me down
\nhard, I leave behind a trail of thick black smoke
\non the straight one-way roads.
\nI’m a vehicle to dreams and you
\nthink you are the driver, but
\nit’s me who makes the paper comes to life. Hazy
\nswirls dance and as you take a sharp turn, I
\nbreak.
\nDon’t worry. You
\nfix me right up with your surgical blades.
\nI’m sharp and new again,
\nbecoming the source of all creation in a vast blank
\nsheet, filling the white spaces with creatures that make phonetic sounds when
\ncramped together.
\nYet sometimes
\nyou use me to create worlds without sound but full of
\nshades which move like a washer set on
\nhigh. Shaking the very earth with your
\nrealm of ideas.
\nThe things you use me for carry
\nweight.
\nToo heavy for the
\npage to contain.
\nSometimes
\nquivering heartbeats carry the wide spaced leaf to accepting
\nstrangers.
\nBut other times
\nthe creation becomes ripped to shreds and thrown in
\nthe black abyss where everything you used me for
\nis gone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Taylor Mitcham First Place of the David Middleton Poetry Award When you push me down hard, I leave behind a trail of thick black smoke on the straight one-way roads. I’m a vehicle to dreams and you think you are the driver, but it’s me who makes the paper comes to life. Hazy swirls […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"yoast_head":"\nPencil - Mosaic Literary Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pencil - Mosaic Literary Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Taylor Mitcham First Place of the David Middleton Poetry Award When you push me down hard, I leave behind a trail of thick black smoke on the straight one-way roads. I’m a vehicle to dreams and you think you are the driver, but it’s me who makes the paper comes to life. Hazy swirls […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mosaic Literary Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-28T20:00:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nicholls State\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nicholls State\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nicholls State\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/#\/schema\/person\/073e094613b8d622621e55e100baecd3\"},\"headline\":\"Pencil\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-28T20:00:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/\"},\"wordCount\":190,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Poetry\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/\",\"name\":\"Pencil - Mosaic Literary Magazine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-28T20:00:34+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pencil\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/\",\"name\":\"Mosaic Literary Magazine\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Mosaic Literary Magazine\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2025\/04\/cropped-cropped-Jaci-Header-JPEG.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2025\/04\/cropped-cropped-Jaci-Header-JPEG.jpg\",\"width\":490,\"height\":164,\"caption\":\"Mosaic Literary Magazine\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/#\/schema\/person\/073e094613b8d622621e55e100baecd3\",\"name\":\"Nicholls State\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3328047cdfb3020290ce068d6fb7721f49d0439b10d4d4484fd91e22681411a4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3328047cdfb3020290ce068d6fb7721f49d0439b10d4d4484fd91e22681411a4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3328047cdfb3020290ce068d6fb7721f49d0439b10d4d4484fd91e22681411a4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Nicholls State\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/author\/webmanager\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pencil - Mosaic Literary Magazine","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pencil - Mosaic Literary Magazine","og_description":"By Taylor Mitcham First Place of the David Middleton Poetry Award When you push me down hard, I leave behind a trail of thick black smoke on the straight one-way roads. I’m a vehicle to dreams and you think you are the driver, but it’s me who makes the paper comes to life. Hazy swirls […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/","og_site_name":"Mosaic Literary Magazine","article_published_time":"2016-01-28T20:00:34+00:00","author":"Nicholls State","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nicholls State","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/"},"author":{"name":"Nicholls State","@id":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/#\/schema\/person\/073e094613b8d622621e55e100baecd3"},"headline":"Pencil","datePublished":"2016-01-28T20:00:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/"},"wordCount":190,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Poetry"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/","url":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/","name":"Pencil - Mosaic Literary Magazine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-01-28T20:00:34+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/pencil\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pencil"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/","name":"Mosaic Literary Magazine","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/#organization","name":"Mosaic Literary Magazine","url":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2025\/04\/cropped-cropped-Jaci-Header-JPEG.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2025\/04\/cropped-cropped-Jaci-Header-JPEG.jpg","width":490,"height":164,"caption":"Mosaic Literary Magazine"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/#\/schema\/person\/073e094613b8d622621e55e100baecd3","name":"Nicholls State","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3328047cdfb3020290ce068d6fb7721f49d0439b10d4d4484fd91e22681411a4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3328047cdfb3020290ce068d6fb7721f49d0439b10d4d4484fd91e22681411a4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3328047cdfb3020290ce068d6fb7721f49d0439b10d4d4484fd91e22681411a4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Nicholls State"},"url":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/author\/webmanager\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}