Ayer Shirley senior published in ‘Marble Collection’

By Kyle Bradley

Special Contributor

AYER — Jason Mills is a senior at Ayer Shirley Regional High School who was recently published in the Winter 2014 edition of the “Marble Collection,” a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering the artistic and academic development of teenagers outside of school.

Mills poem “Emotions,” is included in the publication. As indicated by the poem’s title, it is charged with emotion and indicative of self discovery.

Although Jason said he wrote the poem as an assignment given by teacher Melanie Wittmeir, he submitted it to the “Marble Collection” for extra credit and was pleasantly surprised when it was published.

The inspiration for the poem is obvious, given the oceanic language used and the “flowing” vocabulary. Jason’s family rents a house on Salisbury Beach annually and he believes his time spent there fed his vision.

In addition to his poetic prowess, Jason is seriously interested in chemical engineering and plans to seek a job in that field. Jason hopes his being published will encourage more students to submit their work and otherwise branch out artistically.

Wittmeir said, “Publication is meant to be the end result of writing.” It is unfortunate, she said, that most high school writing never makes it to that point.

To read the poem, go to, themarblecollection.org/poetry/emotions.