Poetry has changed the way I approach writing overall. I never tried to write poetry for real until this past summer, and now in my creative writing class, I have done more work on poems and the art of writing poetry and delved deeper into the subject than I had ever expected myself to. The most surprising part of it was this - I really enjoy writing poetry.

This may seem like an uncommon interest nowadays, but it is something that deserves more attention. I mean, you don't hear about someone working full-time as a professional poet anymore (wouldn't it be so fun to be a traveling bard?) What has attracted me to poetry so much is the freedom and flow it has brought to my writing and my mind. It has become an outlet. Any time I am emotional in any way, I can write about it in either very abstract or very direct ways. It's also just plain fun for me. Finding a new way of writing in poetry has been an adventure, and it has encouraged me to try other forms of writing that I have less experience with, such as drama.

For the rest of this article, I decided I would like to share some of my poetry with you. I hope you enjoy, and I encourage you to try writing some of your own. Don't worry about the format, or about the length, or any other technicalities. Just pour the words out of your mind and see what happens.

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I see stars twinkling on my bedroom ceiling

I spot asteroids floating across my walls

I spy planets glowing in the distance of my floors

This box that holds me contains much greater things than just I

This space which I inhabit is inhabited by space

This piece of the universe is a universe of its own

My eyes sense that which is visible

My brain makes sense of it

My imagination makes nonsense out of it

- SC

Muscle Memory

Your absence is filled with an echo,

one which I must hold on to.

Where your lips once patiently awaited mine,

my lips now eagerly search for yours.

Where your legs once intertwined with mine,

my legs now lay flat without yours for support.

Where your chest once pressed close to mine,

my chest now beats without yours to keep time.

Where your fingers locked with mine,

my fingers now grasp the sheets for comfort.

Where your eyes stared into mine,

my eyes stare into the memory of yours.

My body remembers your presence,

but the air reminds me that it is just compensating.

- SC

The Fall

Do you recall that gorgeous day of fall,

In which we sat beneath the falling leaves?

The streaming colors of the autumn wreathes

Recall that calm we felt beneath it all.

The sound our hearts did make outplayed the gall

Our minds had faced as they had met their eaves.

For that one time our eyes had set on thieves

Unlike the kind you would find at the mall.

These thieves were us; our hearts were the desire.

Each of us both were willing victims then,

And though we stole we each received no ire.

For though we knew not what we both had when

We gazed into the others eyes with fire,

I recognized as I expressed with pen.

- SC

Blue

I’ve always seen myself as a blue kind of guy.

Not like the wanting tone of Elvis’s blues,

But like the mellow flow of the ocean’s waves.

Something about the color brings me calm like the eye of a storm,

And hope like the sky’s blue that fades into each new day.

When swallows fly together and change course, gliding with the winds –

That is how blue makes me feel.

The dark subtleties of cool shade in the distant forest –

That is how blue makes me feel.

The tiny drops of rain on the window at dusk –

That is how blue makes me feel.

The refreshing splash of diving into the pool for the first time all summer –

That is how blue makes me feel.

- SC

When the Bough Breaks

Lose not hope when the bough breaks,

For this is not the end, but simply a new test;

Fight harder than ever, even as your heart aches.

This is, here and now, the vital time in the wakes

Of feeling the weight of so many worlds on your chest.

Lose not hope when the bough breaks.

Do not secede and succumb to your mistakes,

Or darkness will swallow you along with the rest,

Fight harder than ever, even as your heart aches.

Analyze, evaluate, pick up the pieces and weigh the stakes,

Though you are now at your lowest, this is the start of your quest.

Lose not hope when the bough breaks.

An upward battle, you must fight for the others’ sakes,

To find another unaffected by this, you’d be hard-pressed.

Fight harder than ever, even as your heart aches.

I beg of you to be strong while others feel quakes,

And though you are missing one of the precious eggs from your nest,

Lose not hope when the bough breaks.

Fight harder than ever, even as your heart aches.

- SC

Smile

Many would say happiness is contagious.

It is spread through the simplest of smiles.

For me, this smile often comes from Vivian, my four-year-old sister.

If it was the last thing I could remember seeing,

I would carry the happiness it gave me for the rest of my otherwise blurred life.

Picture a small, long-limbed, blonde-haired girl.

Thin pink lips spread to her newly-pierced ears.

A grin of white baby teeth unevenly set.

A nose, round as a button, casting a small shadow across her mouth.

Eyes smiling even bigger than the mouth,

Eyelids shut slightly, but irises beaming with joy.

Bangs of golden locks sitting just above her light eyebrows.

This smiling face of innocence and pure bliss is what I’d want to remember above all else.

- SC