Young Teen Poets – By Rosa Pelaez

It all starts with pen and paper. As you walk across the hallways of your local high school, you might not stop to notice all the kinds of talents your fellow student have. One of the most hidden of teen talents is writing poetry.

“I like to write, because it allows me to express my feelings,” said Ive James, senior at ACE.  “I’ve been writing poetry and music since I was a freshman in high school.”

All across Danbury students awake from bed, go to school, and come home with a lot on their minds. Some are stressed about many life long problems, meanwhile others stress about current issues. 

Either way all of us young teen poets connect with one another by our strengths in writing. The common uses of stress, the passion for writing, and the poets who inspire us, all have a connection to who we are.

  “Writing poetry helped me get all my emotions out, since I didn’t have the best childhood,” said Ernie Price, senior at ACE.

Price has been writing since he was in seventh grade and he writes depending on what his mood is. Just like him, a lot of other young teen poet’s writings connect with emotional feelings. 

James, who was inspired by Jay-Z, and Price, who was inspired by Shakespeare, both wrote poetry to women. After being asked if they thought writing was hard they both said no. You don’t have to be famous, to be considered a poet; it only takes the ability to write.

Poetry allows every single person (no matter how old, young, big or small) to give the readers a visual understanding of what were hiding inside. It also allows us to express ourselves not only in person, but to our readers. 

“I like to write because writing poetry helps me clear my mind,” said Jessica Siguenza, Junior at ACE.  

Writing poetry doesn’t only allow students to forget about current issues, it also acts as a stress reliever. Just writing by itself eases minds, and allows us to artistically express ourselves, and post our hidden talents.  

  “If just anyone reads my poems they probably won’t believe that I wrote it unless they were really close to me,” said Geslene Rodriguez, Junior at ACE. 

Like Rodriguez, and me, all poets have some of the same qualities. Most student poets aren’t only writers in reality, but they’re actors in disguise. Most of what we’re hiding is a side of us hidden so deep that in only a pen and paper is it easy for us to express. 

A simple sentence itself can only express so much. The pain we hide, the tears we shed, the happiness we hold, the love we seek, and all other emotions we own, can be expressed creatively through writing.

Ever hear that expression, a picture is worth a thousand words. Well just imagine how much more a poem is worth. If the young poet is as creative as they are expressive then the more powerful the poem comes out to be.

“Writing poetry comes out naturally,” said Price.  

A poem is an original piece of writing; it’s not just words the author throws out on a paper. It’s the things we’ve been through, the feelings we feel written down on paper, and the creative flow each poem has allows its readers to see how much the poet is connected with his or her work.

“Poetry has to come from the heart. It’s easy, but it doesn’t just come up the way you might want it to, but after the first couple of lines it gets easy,” said James.