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Poems by Teens

Painting

by Jenna Levine, 2023

I twist open the cap,

And tip the bottle over.

The colorful liquid pours out onto the pallet.

 

My soft brush

Pushes into the paint

Spreading it around the flat pallet.

 

The canvas, stretched,

Plain and white,

Ready to be defaced

 

The first stroke is always The scariest

Breaking the white of the canvas

Removing the silence of the blank surface

 

Once I start

I can’t stop.

 

I’m waving my paint brush back and forth,

The strokes come naturally,

Easily

 

I paint

And paint

 

Until the painting is finished

I step back

And

 

I hate it.

Cherry Blossoms

by Courtney Harrington, 2023

In April they bloom

full and bright

their pink petals decorating the once barren trees.

They are so beautiful

but beauty never lasts.

Almost as soon as they appear

they are falling back into the earth

disappearing

until next April

What Am I?

by Sara Pearl, 2023

I’m a caterpillar at first,

and I like to eat leaves.

When I grow up, I get to be free.

I get to go up in the sky,

where I can fly.

What am I?

Sometimes Silence Is Better

by Jenna Levine, 2023

The loss is like someone

Ripping your heart from your chest

And crushing it in front of you.

 

In a matter of moments, 

Everything is heavy.

Your legs are weak,

And you can’t move your arms.

Some words try to escape,

But nothing comes out.

The only thing escaping

Is the salty liquid that’s pouring from your eyes.

 

The signals from your mind

Tell you to brush away your tears.

But you let them fall.

You let your face turn red with dejection. 

Your head fills with memories, 

You’re remembering…

What you did and didn’t do with them.

What you should’ve done, or shouldn’t have done.

It all blends together.

 

And you realize

Everything is quiet.

The silence consumes you

And you feel calm.

It’s not all so loud anymore.

Your mind has gone empty.

Behind sniffles,

You hear the silence.

Nothing can be said or done to make things better.

There’s no changing what happened.

The only thing that’s playing as relief

Is the silence.

 

The car ride to the hospital we all know,

We know there’s nothing to be said.

The silence consumes us,

And we’re left to think.

 

What will be different now that he’s gone?

How much will his passing truly affect us?

What happens now?

 

The family fills the room,

Gathering around the lifeless shell of a person,

Who used to be your father.

 

The Silence is loud.

No one dares to break it.

 

Later that week, 

“I’m sorry for your loss”

Fills the funeral room,

But it doesn’t make it better.

Silence would be better,

Much better than this.

The generalized apologies,

Lack personality,

It lacks true empathy,

Frankly,

It feels insincere.

 

It would be so much better if everyone

Stopped talking,

Stopped trying 

To make things better.

Stopped everything,

And embraced the silence.

 

Silence is peaceful,

And never awkward.

 

Silence is personable,

It speaks more than you think.

 

Silence is pleasant,

Relaxing and

Far,

Far from the noise of the world.

 

The noise is obnoxious,

Stress inducing,

Loud.

It’s distracting,

And irritating.

It keeps you from staying focused and on task.

 

Silence is better.

The silence swallows you whole,

Allowing you to reminisce on the world

Your life,

Your actions,

Everything that led up to this moment.

 

It’s all because of the silence,

There’s no judgment in silence,

No fake apologies,

No pretending to care,

 

Just peace and quiet

That is why

Sometimes silence is better

Give Me the Cooling Night Sky

by Markos Rapitis, 2022

Give me the cooling night sky in all its beauty.

Give me the pretty fireflies that light up the night.

Give me the grass that is covered in dew.

Give me the chance to look up in the night sky and see the stars.

Give me the sun with all of it’s heat to warm me up.

Give me the evening when all goes quiet to watch the sunset fall.

Spring Raindrops

by Vienna McCarthy, 2022

I see May flowers Blooming
I hear birds singing their sweet songs
I feel the light dripping rain drops on my arm
I taste the sweet honey suckles in the yard
I see the bunnies roaming, and the rain drops dripping from petal to petal
Spring is in the air everywhere

Never Ending War

by Yvette Malavet-Blum, 2022

9/11/2021

Twenty years later

We write about our heartbreak

And let the tears fall on the page

Twenty years later

We bring our heroes and heroines

Back to their families

In coffins to place in their graves

And I let the tears fall on the page

The image of the generals

Saluting the flag Draped coffins

Woke me from my sleep

I wrote about my misery

And deep rooted

In a world that salutes the remains of

Dead twenty- year olds

Who never knew peace

Most of them immigrants

Their lives shortened

The hurt cut me deep

I want more in my lifetime

I Want peace

I turn the page of current events

And always another war

Why Us?

Why Me?

What can I do for my country?

But sing

Oh Say Can You see

Crash

Anonymous, 2022

Waves crashing and the wind howling

My eyes are closed, taking in the sound

Crash, whoosh, whoosh

I feel relaxed as water sprays my skin like a mist

Crash, whoosh, crash

Sand is in between my toes

Whoosh, Crash, Whoosh

The wind gets stronger and the waves become larger

WHOOSH. CRASH. BOOM.

The bright sun is about to set

My mind clear now, I feel renewed

CRASH.

April

by Bilal Choudrey, 2022

April’s here!

And we are here.

So let’s grow rows of poems.

Each word is a poem seed.

Plant and read.