Mural Stories

Book of Big Dreams

Jaelyn Lewis - Youth Writer - Fiction

This story is about a boy who wanted to do a lot of big things and change the world.  And once he told his father, but his father did not like this idea and told his son to keep his mind out of the clouds and to focus on becoming a doctor and stop dreaming.

He did not care and kept writing and dreaming about things that he would do about the world.  And he goes to bed still writing about the ‘things he’s gonna do’ and he ends up going to bed with the “Book of Big Dreams”.  

And wakes up, goes to school, and shows his teacher the dreams.  And the teacher says “Well done!!” and when he leaves the classroom, these bully’s of his go in front of him and tells him that he’d better give them the book, and he yells “NOO!!??” As he says this, they try and take the book and they both pull and pull, ‘till they both rip the book in half.  As the bully’s recognize this, they run away from him.  And the boy starts crying and tells his teacher and she says she’ll tell the principal.  The boy runs away and out of the classroom and into the bathroom and cries and eventually comes out and avoids the bullies and goes home.  He tells his dad about his day and his dad asks “Where is that dumb book at?”  He tells him it’s in his bag and walks away.

The boy makes a new book, and realizes that creativity comes the brain, not a book.

Right at the Tip of the Mind

Adria Taylor - Teen Writer - Poetry

The boy you know

Is now the boy, no more.

Sitting on the floor, expanding infinite,

Abstract opportunities, more than ever before.

As he opens the book, 

And allows his mind to transform, 

It might just be the world.

In these stories,

Come to life with

Uncovered truths.

As the boy embarks

On his graceful youth.

The boy sitting before 

Was once recognizable,

But now his dreams

Will play disguise,

In this big puzzle

Called life.

My Impossible Blessing

Rafael J Serrano - Adult Writer - Poetry

Time is my impossible blessing.

One which as a child, gave me

Abundance enough to create universes,

In my mind, with every book.

And as the bill comes due with old age,

And “Wisdom”, I look to the young

And wish them all the time

I no longer have.

Right at the Tip of the Mind

Luke Beekman - Adult Writer - Fiction

As we turn the page, we are introduced to a young man named Zion.  Just like you and I, 

He’s one in a trillion!  Our new main character at an age, where imagination is a universal stage.

He’s picked up a book, taking a closer look.  Imagination is here!  Right at the Tip of the Mind!

It feels like a day at the pool, and ain’t that cool!  The way your legs feel when they sink into the shallow.  The way an opening line in book is like dipping toes in and letting imagination follow.  Too cool at first, then lukewarm, as we swish and swirl those thoughts so clear.  Pretty soon we think we want to dive all the way in here!  Let the story flow like water splashing from temple to chin!  We’re in!  Right at the Tip of the Mind, reality and imagination envelope us as the universe and the brainstorms all spin.  Right at the Tip of the Mind is the imagination we all live in!

Zion has opened a universe, and sees the whole thing like a foggy morning sunrise.

You can just see the dazzlement of delight in the young man’s eyes as Zion smirks.

In this district of Imagination, the universe is still big, but you don’t have to feel small.   

Just look at his shirt!  Just look across the colorful sky, you can almost seeing the layers to it all.

Wait.  What’s that!  Right there?  On the bottom left?  Right at the bottom left of the mural wall!

Left up to the narrator to find, in between some verse, comes a very important announcement.

A black hole has developed inside this imaginary multiverse!  I don’t think I like the sound of it one bit.  Zion doesn’t hear the warning.  Maybe it’s the way the light of the universe hits the morning.  The thin fog of color, revealing thought bubbles, both complete and incomplete, the cool feeling, of poetic thoughts pool at his feet.  It’s all too much fun to have our head in the clouds and dream about what comes next, than to notice our troubles.  That black hole had started like a troubled thought bubble, aftermath of a star, where it started to swirl about like a sink drain, right at the left of the brain. The Multiverse of Mural Stories might never be the same!  

Zion’s mind is still racing like a little red car, taking fast turning points, at every turn of the page. A sun hat has been swept up in the brainstorm, swirling like a little ballet dancer on stage.  It’s then, when Zion looks down to watch the sunhat complete its arc in the second act.  The black hole in the imagination has finally revealed itself, to be a dark, and dangerous fact!  Everything which begins, must have an end.  Stories, and universes are built to fit between solid bookends.  Endings exist in all of the books that the libraries lend.  As the action rises, we start to see the story’s end in our periphery.  Seeing the end is the only way we can reach an epiphany.  The two snowmen might melt into tears, but they never have to melt from collective memory.  ‘But hey,’ thinks Zion, ‘I’d love to stay!  But maybe the end of this story is a surprise beginning!’  Do you see that giraffe with the scarf?  How happily he drifts, with a smile so serene.  Perhaps this giraffe has a dream?  Perhaps that giraffe knows about the safari in the next scene!  That elephant too, marching with balloons in the grip of his trunk.  What stories might be out there for him, if we have the courage to let it be thunk?  Zion watches as a ship adjusts course, and with no remorse, goes right for the imagination portal, that black hole drain in the brain.  Kerplunk!

A War of Worlds

India H. - Adult Writer - Poetry

So much vision lay behind those eyes

The eyes of a young one with a book in his hands

His imagination nurtured under blankets of knowledge

Within these brick and mortar walls

The endless possibility of a mid that craves everything good

And could give even more back

Where will we go?

To an ancient Sahara where royalty treaded

To a place where elephants play saxophones

And where giraffes wear suit ties

This is where we will go

Venturing to a place of unspeakable wonder,

Returning wiser than before

That’s where we’ll go

To so many worlds cradled within a book