17

we play this game this masquerade
of who we are and what we feel
a guessing game that has no end
we're make up our own real

nobody's real at seventeen
everybodys eyes are closed
we hide what we don't want seen
and the rest is all that's ever told
nobody's real at seventeen
and if we are we lie
we hide what we don't want seen
and we end up feeling alone

can we just be who we are
and see through clearer eyes
clarity isn't that far
we are more than we let others know

everybody's somebody at seventeen
we just put on a big show
but truthfully i'm ready to really be seen
not as what you think i am
or what possibly could be
but who i am right here right now
I'm ready to just be me

It can be said in three words

Adoption
i wouldn't be me without this
i wouldn't know true love or true pain
i wouldn't know hardship
or see how truly blessed i am
i wouldn't know what it means to cry your heart out
or understand tears of joy
i wouldn't know true patience
or how full a heart can truly be

Book(s)
all books in general
i wouldn't know what i know
or love what i love
but one extraordinary book in particular
that i KNOW is true
and that has made me who i am
and helps me see who i cane be

Friends
both in and outside of my family
who have taught me
guided me
helped me
lifted me up
hugged me
laughed with me
cried with me
and loved me for who i am

a few things i'm grateful for today

taci with dimples that look like a doll
Mia who is fiery ,cute and growing tall
my sweet jordy who sent pictures from far away Maine
the fact that yogurt isn't a grain ( thank goodness!)

brookie who understands me the best
and my poor mom that we never let get enough rest
a hard working loving adorable dad
and that Erin brought me gluten free cookies that don't taste bad!

its always good to remember what made your day so good!

a heart full of lead and gold

my heart is full of lead and gold
gold is love
it is compassion and understanding
it is beautiful and valuable
gold radiates warmth
but it isn't strong
it's vulnerable
lead is heavy
it weighs you down
it isn't beautiful or valuable
but it's durable
heavy, and toxic

my life is a mix of metals ( good and bad)
i have a heavy, loving, valuable and sometimes painful heart
but without the bad how could i know the good? so life, i will take it
with a heart full of lead and gold

I am from ( a poem for english)

i am from old books
from rusty keys forgotten in the drawer
i am from black and white photographs
sepia tones turning into the past
i am fancy old hats with lace and frills
I am from cameo pins and fancy rings
and other lovely forgotten things
i am from the past i have never seen

i am from Haiti
from hungry nights and sweaty days
i am from first meetings and overwhelming hugs
from tear stained pillows and laughing summer days
i am from Creole and English
or the combination of the two
i am from adoption,Patience and love

i am from words
letters making beautiful resilient tones
i am from stories both on the page
and in my mind
i am from writing
letting the story bloom
and develop gently in my hands
i am from late nights eyes glued to the page
stuck in an entrancing story

i am from imagination
from the impossible
to imagination is more important than knowledge
i am creativity
from daydreams and once upon a times
to happily ever afters

i am from love
warm hugs and happy smiles
i am from feeling good and doing right
i am from family, hope, faith

i am from old books
form Haiti and words
i am from imagination and love

whant to know who i am?read what i have read

today i really heard a girl say
' I don't waist my time reading i have way better things to do'
then she picked up her i phone and spent the next twenty minuets texting
it made me laugh at how incredibly stupid she seemed.
yea because reading is such a waist of time and
I have never learned anything by reading! (NOT)
No seriously I think I have learned way more from the books I read
than I ever have or will learn in school.
That may be exaggerating things, but only a bit
Almost all history I know I didn't learn in school
I had already learned it by reading.
or perhaps because stories teach better than facts.
besides that, i learn how to feel by reading.
as a young girl i learned a true love of books from Ella Enchanted
I learned about war from Number the Stars and lilies crossing
I learned how to love, cry and do the right thing even when it hurts from Baby
I learned to look at life in the right perspective in Walk Two Moons
I learned to love the sea in the wanderer
I learned that being yourself is the best thing you can be in Just Ella
I learned a love of art in Chasing Vermeer
the list truly could and does go on and on........
even simple childish books teach you a lot
I would be a whole different person if I thought reading was a waist of time
I know I wouldn't know half the things I do
plus I wouldn't be as happy
so read your little hearts out
I know I do :)

Introduction to Poetry

by Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem

and hold it up to the light

like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem

and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room

and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski

across the surface of a poem

waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do

is tie the poem to a chair with rope

and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose

to find out what it really means.


"i think a lot of the time people tie a poem to a chair. i think they might even have the intent to like the poem but it's nature to tie it up and hack at it. to try so hard to understand it fully that they lose everything it was meant to be. poems don't need to have a confession, they don't need to be deeper than you are able to understand. can't you sky across the surface and admire the beauty that ripples across the words without diving so deep you drowned in it. just listen to it. let is whisper in your mind and shine through the window. don't hack at it. just love the sound and the ideas. for everybody who hates poetry i say, untie your poor poems and let them be beautiful. enjoy them for what they are. no more no less. "