Poet Maddie Salinas (right) with her teacher, Nicole Frazier, at the Abydos Literacy Learning awards ceremony.

By Cindy Ziervogel

Maddie Salinas loves to sing. She sings in her church choir, she sang last year in the Quail Valley Middle School choir and currently musical theatre is her gig. But Maddie also likes to write and figured writing poetry was like writing the lyrics to a song, just without the music.

So when Nicole Frazier, Maddie’s seventh-grade English/Language Arts (ELA) teacher at the FBISD Gifted and Talented Academy gave the class the opportunity to enter the Abydos Literacy Learning, Dana Kay Barber writing contest, Maddie was excited to give poetry writing a try. She didn’t know it then, but she had just the right notes for writing a winner.

Maddie wrote her poem, “Synes­thesia,” based on the rare neurological condition she learned about from reading one of her favorite books, “Out of My Mind” by Sharon Draper. The main character was a synesthete.

Synesthesia is a condition where two or more senses intertwine. It’s an involuntary and consistent perceptual condition of mixed sensations. The five senses — touch, taste, hearing, vision and smell — get mixed up instead of remaining separate. For instance, a day of the week, say Tuesday, is always green.

A synesthete might also see a specific color for every individual letter and number. There are others. A shape; a square for instance, tastes bitter. Or, a certain musical note may smell musty.

Maddie was fascinated by this condition and spent hours researching it. Although it was first time she had ever entered a contest, that didn’t stop her from delving into it full force.

By deadline Maddie had become a poet. She turned in her work, proud at what she produced, but then quickly moved on to the other commitments of a student with a busy schedule of homework. She also had soccer team obligations. In fact, she didn’t think about the poem again until a month later when Ms. Frazier received an email with the contest results — Maddie had won first place in the poetry division.

Abydos Literacy Learning trains teachers in how to teach writing as a process. The organization is co-founded and co-directed by wife and husband team, Joyce Armstrong Carroll, Ed.D and Edward E. Wilson, lifelong educators and accomplished authors.

Every year Abydos offers a writing contest in remembrance of Dana Kay Barber, who was a dedicated teacher and active member of the group. A committee of teachers grades the hundreds of entries.

“Ms. Frazier was so excited I won. I was surprised I won since I had never entered anything before, but I was actually impressed with myself,” Maddie said.

But then it hit her — she was an award-winning poet. She started to cry. Tears of joy, she said. Right there in the middle of the hallway. Ms. Frazier was overcome with emotion, too.

“I’ve had students enter for three years now and never had a student win,” said Ms. Frazier, an Abydos trainer. “I always looked up to the teachers who had winners because I knew that their instruction was sound and strong. It was an honor to have a 1st place winner, and the award could not have gone to a more deserving, kind and hard-working student.”

But winning the contest might not have even been the best part, because what started as a challenge and novelty for Maddie spawned a web of connections no one could have foreseen.

First there was the inspiration Ms. Frazier felt in writing her original poem, “Garden Synesthesia” and becoming a featured reader for Rice University’s Words & Art, a monthly class she takes where teachers write creatively and discuss best writing practices.

Maddie’s poem caused another unexpected connection, this time for her dad, Jesse. In the very same room where his daughter received her poetry award, 200 miles away in San Antonio and some 25 years after graduating from Dulles High School he spotted his own English teacher, Almeda Crawford. They became reacquainted; he, now the father of an award-winning writer and she, 70-something and still loving being an English teacher at Dulles.

“I struggled with English and literature throughout my education primarily because English was my second language,” Jesse said. “I remember Ms. Crawford above all my English teachers. I vividly remember her excitement when describing stories and books, and the way our writing assignments excited her when someone described something in colorful detail. She would make the class laugh the way she would recite different paragraphs of stories and such. Her facial and body expressions were something to behold. She truly loved her job and it showed. The minute I heard her speak at the awards ceremony I felt like I was back in her English class. It felt comfortable. I missed her.”

The connections became even more fascinating at the awards ceremony when afterwards Maddie, her mom Claudia and Nicole Frazier were approached by Terrie Roberts, an Abydos teacher and contest judge who ironically has synesthesia in the form of hearing people speak and then seeing their colors.

After reading Maddie’s poem, Roberts thought for sure the young poet shared the same condition.

“I immediately knew I wanted to meet Maddie because I have never met anyone else with synesthesia, and since I have this gift I was hoping she and I could compare notes,” Roberts said.

So she approached Maddie and asked her if she had synesthesia. Maddie replied no, but said she could relate to the book when it spoke of music being seen as a certain color.

Besides seeing a person’s colors, Roberts said she could also tell if two people like one another or not.

“I could tell that Ms. Frazier and Maddie were very close and have a great respect for one another.”

Roberts described the process of seeing colored wisps of smoke or vapor that radiate out from a person’s head and shoulders. Kind of like cigarette smoke, with tighter curls at first and then expanding to a swirling vapor with darker tendrils extending farther out. It is similar to translucent, swirling streamers of color. “I have started associating colors with personality traits and I can usually tell if someone is a happy or sad person, and in some cases I can see if they are holding back from the world.”

Impressively, she could also tell that Maddie has another creative side. “Maddie’s mother told me she is always singing. It came to me to ask Maddie if she sings the national anthem. All three of their faces fell in amazement,” she said.

Maddie, who was as shocked as anyone to hear her colors read as red, white and blue, sings the national anthem at swim meets in Fort Bend.

Roberts added, “I knew it then, that Maddie needed to continue to hone her writing to be able to write the music and the words to all of the songs that she has brewing within her.”

“SYNESTHESIA”

I taste colors.
I smell images.
I hear colors in the presence of music.
Jazz,
Rich and creamy, thick browns and purples.
Pop,
Neon pinks and greens, sour like grapefruit,
but sweet like cotton candy.
Classical,
Smooth champagne and the color of ivory.
Blues,
The sound of a blue guitar strumming
on a cold rainy day.
Country,
Sweet and sour lemons with drops
of pure golden sunshine.
Colors flow through my mind,
Sounds burst with color,
Music notes fall on the tip of my tongue
like snowflakes in winter.

Maddie Salinas, 1st place poetry, Abydos
Literacy Learning, Dana Kay Barber writing contest

If you know of an outstanding Fort Bend kid to highlight in an upcoming edition, please contact Cindy Ziervogel at [email protected].