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Hill Country Youth Ranch

Restoring and Redeeming the Lives of Abused and Abandoned Children

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Children’s Poetry

We learned early in our work that the expressive arts provide powerful healing tools for traumatized children. A child can paint on a canvas or write in a poem things they can’t yet say in a therapy office, and their work is often stunningly beautiful. Over the years, we have collected rooms full of paintings, volumes of poetry, several albums of songs, and produced numerous plays that bring all these expressions to life in drama. The Children’s Music Project brings songwriters to the table to help compose songs based on the children’s poetry and stories. Here are some volumes of children’s poetry. If you’re a songwriter, or just want to read them, we invite you to click on the image and see the poems from each book in PDF format. We know that song lyrics are different from lines in a poem, requiring different meter and phrasing. Many songs have been created from children’s poetry after rephrasing a poem, or by using only one line or phrase from the poem, carrying the poem’s theme with newly created lyrics, or combining lines or phrases from several poems. All these methods have led to beautiful songs based on the poetry. If, after reading through these works, you find you are interested in creating a song from a child’s poem, or would like to know more about the songwriting project, email Gary Priour, gary@youth-ranch.org. To see examples of songs we have created from our children’s poetry, check out our Children’s Music Project YouTube Channel.


Take Another Step

The Staircase

The Best Poetry by HCYR Children

Butterfly Mother

The Snake

In Front of God and Everybody

Butterfly Kisses

Hoping

Conversations

Holding On, Letting Go, and Walking with God

Life after "The Snake"

Looking for Love

My Heart Like a Flower

Some of the Pieces are Missing

Hill Country Youth Ranch

3522 Junction Highway
Ingram, TX 78025
Phone: (830) 367-2131
Fax: (830) 367-6108
communications@youth-ranch.org

Big Springs Ranch for Children

10664 US Highway 83 North
Leakey, TX 78873
Phone: (830) 232-7110
Fax: (830) 232-4256
bsinfo@youth-ranch.org

Enhanced Horizons

149 Camp Scenic Loop
Ingram, TX 78025
Phone: (830) 367-4330
Fax: (830) 367-2814
contact@enhancedhorizons.org

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