The world is like a library, a huge, sprawling archive of every word ever written, and we are the books that line its endless shelves. Everyone has their own personal differences, and no two people can ever be exactly alike.

Dreams become actions
impossible becomes possible
it’s what I love to do
becoming focused on my goals
reaching those limits
passing the bar
once I get a new idea
I go with it
I don’t give up
I would like to change the world

Who’s experienced the bone-crushing feeling of being bullied? The tear-pulling fear of being abused again and again? The heart-piercing sadness when a loved one is lost?

I smile when people ask if I’m all right
But inside I’m screaming and aching
I feel as if my world is an act
I act my smiling when
I want to kick and thrash everything around me
I act my laughing when I want to cry

There is a person behind all of the makeup. A person behind the designer jeans.

Shhh. Be quiet and search inside. Maybe you’ll find what makes you unique.

I may appear confident, But I often am still searching for answers. I am almost thirteen and I am constantly trying to figure out who I am.

The rustic smell and the crisp turn of the pages let me live out my dreams. They inspire me. They are the fairy tales, and let me escape from life. Then I finish them. And I am devastated. But they complete me, and interest me.

Most importantly, I don’t want to just be another face in a yearbook. I want to be someone who people will remember for just being me.

Who feels…like nothing is impossible when you try hard enough. Like dreams are never just dreams. Like life is a blank sheet of paper and, everyone writes their own story.Who wants…To do something that goes beyond herself.

We’re just dancing,
partying,
smiling. Having

Fun

For once in our lives;
being ourselves, knowing
no one can judge us. It

Is

I wish…
I could run like an Olympian
I could draw without restrictions
I could dance like nobody is watching
I could sing as pretty as a mockingbird
I wish…
I could be a world traveler

When I think of Iowa,
I think of cattle,
I think of the rattle under the road,
driving by humble abodes.
I imagine cornfields,
I imagine barns,
driving by the farms,
I hear the rumble of tractors,
the thunder in the sky during summertime,

i, the definitive
the only you in the world
i am and you are individual
we are separate
we are absolute masters
of our individual perceived universes.

Marina Green had always been the epitome of normal. She got good grades, but they were nothing phenomenal. She was pretty enough, but no great beauty. She had friends (did one count?), but was nowhere near a social butterfly.

Seeing out onto the entire field and beyond,
Like seeing out onto a battlefield during a war
While being guarded by the tools of ignorance,
Being the catcher like the general of the team.

I am an athlete,
trying to train hard;
to reach the top.

SMACK!
I get knocked down,
but then I get right back up.

To continue on.
To be a champion.
I am an athlete.

If only that person were on the same planet.
If only that person were in the same hemisphere.
If only that person were in the same continent.
If only that person were in the same nation.

Kids can’t win.   

The start of the race isn’t always easy
They say to just put one foot in front of the other
Then repeat
How can you repeat that when you’re racing to find yourself?

I have been told
I am genuine
By my teachers
By my friends
By my family
When I was younger I wanted a different word
Humorous, pretty, or courageous
Now that I am older
I have realized
The word genuine means

I walk through halls, the halls of a school. 
It’s a lot different than it was
Just five weeks ago.

I now know quite a few kids now,
They thought of me as the new kid,
The outsider, I don’t know if they still do.

There was once a bright, new, shiny car
with a big engine and all a child’s wildest dreams within.
This noble stallion would speed through all the others,
roaring by them like a lion chasing its prey
through its black-floored, circular jungle.

In my poem “Out of this World,” I explore the theme of oppression and the ways in which Leonard Peltier’s Prison Writings and Rachel Zucker’s “Paying Down the Debt: Happiness” evidence this central theme.

Who wishes...
she could live in the sunny, tropical Bahamian world for a summer
she could experience the ear-popping adventure
on an airplane
going place to place
visiting the breathtaking sights around planet Earth

I Wish
To create new and innovative objects
For the joy of finding a new building block of the universe
To write the published wonder that will spread throughout the world
To smell the delicious food in front of me, soon to be in cookbooks everywhere

I wonder.
I wonder who the person I’ll become in twenty years will be.
I wonder if I’ll be helping someone in desperate time of need,
or saving someone’s life on an empty street.
I wonder if the mountains I climb

lightly sunkissed skin and bright grey blue eyes
sympathetic, funny, crazy
daughter of a caring, loving mom named Carmen
who loves…
making new memories
gaining more friends
and…
laughing so hard my stomach hurts
who fears….

I Wish I could travel across the world seeing different
places and meet different people,

I Wish I could travel through time and space seeing
different times and worlds,

I Wish I could fly and explore the sky and all its wonders,

Of all the questions,
one stands out.
Who do you want to be?
I want to be someone whose life is overflowing with adventure.
I want to travel and explore.
It would be great to see monuments as bold as stars.