MY YEAR IN POETRY SCHOLARSHIP SLAM
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I am somehow both the person I was a year ago, and someone else completely
I have experienced things that have helped shape me into someone I want to be
I have fallen in love within this past year
To her I had clung,
Haunted by the melody she’d sung.
Only bitter pieces remained,
And the numbness waned.
“Don’t cry,” she’d say,
Hero's don't have to wear capes
Demons don't have to be in movies
My demons lived in my head
And by the day they grew stronger
My heros are both alive and dead
And by the day they grew greater
I treated my body like a project
Like I was paper that has been scribbled all over
Like every haircut was a draft
Like every mistake was a typo
I didn’t blink for an entire year.
I taped my eyelids to my brows and suffered so that
My sixteenth year wouldn’t be in vain.
Now- I reach the summit
and sigh,
watching as the heaving breath becomes fog-
then melts away.
And I smile, clutching aching sides.
It's hurts more than I care to admit
this year of days passed by.
It was the Little Things that saved me, the Little Things that did.
The Little Things that stopped me from lie, sin, and fib.
The Little Things, the insignificant,
I wasn't sure of the mess on the ground
A turn of the corner
Face down
The quiet shuffling of my feet toward...
One Century seems long,
When you are young,
But once you live for at least 100 years of age,
You might be a sage.
Other times you may have passed.
2016?
I’m sorry, but we don’t talk about 2016,
The year of Harambe memes,
The divorce of Pitt and Jolie,
Death of Alan Rickman, Carrie Fisher,
And David Bowie,
I kept talking about the past
Although I live in the present
The world is advanced
I continue to learn new lessons
Just a year ago I remained clueless
On where to go with life
My mindset was ruthless
Last year was the year I fell and couldn't get up
We hoped and we wished but it was never enough
It started with you and I ended alone
Last year was the year I fell on my own
They were three years apart.
And she gave him her heart.
After two years,
She cried in tears.
Her name was Jade.
And she felt so played.
The day she was gone,
He knew he was wrong.
Tides of Change
Drifting
Shifting
Divided our peoples
Like seagulls
Flying in the wind
The lighthouse of hope
Flickering and fading
As sorrow seeps
Into the masses
Time is a cruel teacher, merciless.
I watched seniors graduate, then
took their place.
I learned poetry is in people
and places, and that things
change, even people.
A person wears a mask as a diguise to entertain or terrify, but that is not always the case. My mask is used to hide from the world. Used to hide the my worries and fears.
The days before my 18th birthday,
I dreamed about the person I would become
When I finally transformed into an Adult.
I would wake up each morning at seven-thirty,
Make my bed prim and straight
About a year ago,
I had friends who shared
No writing interests such as mines.
We were still friends with a good flame.
Today, those same friends still share
A small wave crashed into me
I didn't falter
I convinced myself I was nothing
To feel nothing
A bigger wave crashed into me
I staggered
2016. A brand new year;
365 days of new beginnings,
of new experiences and new
people. Who would've known that
January ,1 2016 would mark the
start of the year of changes. First,
I stood here before,
dreaming to soar,
Thinking about all that was in store.
Wishing all be well, but I fell.
I still dwell,
in the shadow of my past.
I still dream to be,
Past few years i was stuck in a pit
full of arrogance and shit
I felt proud for all the sins
i commit
Lying, cheating, and stealing
I have to thank the Lord
In my eyes, the world has grown
Satisfied with being owned
“Who cares?” is the phrase of choice
We have a say, but not a voice
Our minds are but the mirrors of
My year
My year?
A roller coaster taking a nose dive off a pier.
I've lost some,
Far and near.
Some close and dear.
But I persevere
I ask myself, why am I here?
It was a year of strife and pain,
it was a year of stress,
Yet I would suffer twice as much
to earn what I've been blessed.
Had one thing not been in its place,
our love could not have been,
Dad lost his job of twenty years.
Dad lost his house of fifteen years.
Dad had no where to go,
but to a motel downtown,
costing next to nothing.
He never told his kids where he was staying
This year, I burned myself away
I let myself wilt
Without dismay
Often, I was horrified
A world in meltdown
Triggered my pride
And let me drown
I got up, though
I always came around
A year ago,
I was meshuga in the mind,
I was caught up in a shoddy lifestyle.
I wouldn’t have thought about exceptional conditions.
Now in this time,
Before, I thought I knew it all,
but over this year,
I saw my old vision fall.
I traveled to the places
I thought I knew,
and during that time,
my world vision grew.
Poverty became real.
Ups and downs,
Downs and ups,
I am analyzing which of those my year had more of.
Let us start at the forefront,
The coldest month in Virginia,
And the unluckiest month to me.
Perhaps the world is naught but a bubble,
hovering and twirling with the winds of Fate-
'oer sands of Time, and Wonder.
Our hourglass past a fading dream-
the spark of Hope snuffed like a candle in the breeze.
The Paradox That Was 2016
Your 2016.
My 2016.
The year of attacksThe year of deathThe year of Trump.
A year So much has happened in a year I fell I rose I ran I stood strong I learned things, about the world, about myself I struggled, I broke I healed I bonded, lost friendships and formed stronger ones I built faith and watched it come crumbling
What a joke.
I’m not going to try to get too political,
Antagonistic,
Sarcastic,
Pessimistic.
But it’ll be damn hard not too when talking about this last year.
At the beginning of senior year, I was in a daze.
Blonde, still short, and almost ready to graduate.
And I thought nothing of it.
I watched my friends apply for college.
Winter.
January 30th, 2016
I officially start my 19th year.
I am strong and I am proud.
Spring.
March 2016
I begin my journey into sisterhood.
There are some ways I am the same.
There are some ways I am different.
As a senior, I am in the bay,
As the unforgiving tide pulls me out to open waters.
Last year, I was dawn's early light.
Such a simple thing
A framework of muscle
The will to sing and shine
The urge to dance and dazzle
today is the day i learn acceptance
i learn to tame the ferocious beasts inside me
not by beating them into submission, or leaving them in cages
until i hope they starve or wither or grow old and die
I was looking for rosy skies
easy path up to success
But those ways were twisted lies
pushing me down with less
My heart ached to see reality
the ground was swept out
January.
“New year, new me.” I said.
Week one,
“Please get better.”
Week two,
“Don’t talk to me anymore.”
Week three,
Twenty. It’s not a hard burden to bear.
But bent steel is never the same.
Be it from six years ago
or six days ago,
bent steel is never the same.
The fear from the robber’s machete…
You were always there
To imagine life without you was impossible
Because it was all I ever knew
So now that things are different
I have learned how to appreciate
The sky-water leapt away
The palm trees shone, the streets grew balmy
Heavy with the the long stretch to June
Everything seemed laden with futility--
What happened in this year
Was absolutely a box of lost and found
So much good things came
And so did the bad ones
So many people I befriended
And some I may never see again
She'll never get anywhere the way she acts, they all say.What's her problemShe thinks she's to good, they all whisper.It's all about her
From Dark To Bright
By Wynonna L.
I used to be the wrong person,
Longing to be set free.
I had never enjoyed my precious life,
Never seen what was in front of me.
The new year opened a blank book,
with pages waiting to be filled.
After 365 pages,
the author is different.
As a new book begins to be written,
the author is now wiser.
He has learned pain,
I wish I could pick and choose,
sift the golden moments from the silt,
and disgard the less valuable.
I wish I could blot them out,
scratch ink across heartache,
The more I ponder what happened this year...
Remembering everyone's fear
and all the lovers I held dear.
Nothing compares to my lovely affairs
as a traveler who cares.
Califorina won my heart,
In January the chance came to try the wide world out,
I hovered on the threshold, my thoughts awash with doubt.
It was too late to turn back now, I knew,
So I leaped beyond my comfort zone, across the ocean flew.
Change is inevitable
It can haunt us
Like a demon in the night
You can try and take flight
But somethings you must grow with
From years of being a witness
To the abuse, it was all a mess
Growing up in a small town
shows you life simply.
Everyone knows everyone
and support is always there.
Moving to college in a big city
was quite the change.
Socrates was known as the wisest man,
Simply by knowing that he knew nothing.
If that is the case,
Let me express my own ignorance:
For I do not know why
A year can do a lot to someone,
As it did to me.
It’s impossible to go through an entire year,
365 days,
8,760 hours,
525,600 minutes,
Without changing.
This time last year, I was small
This year has been full of real whirlwinds
With happy and fun adventures to sad and heartbreaking ends
I traveled and presented to parents and teachers in Panama
On the importance of home reading programs and I saw
Letter to Younger22016, December
You’ll learn.
You are entitled to everything you contribute to this world -- and nothing that you don't.
Do something.
Last year of high school,
Wanting to leave,
Sick of the drama,
Sick the pain.
Everyone knew me,
I knew them,
We all shared history,
For over twelve years.
It seems a million years ago I could roam the earth with such confidence and glory. But since the year has gone by, the world I see is spiraling down a dark path.Who knew my world could change so fast, just like the asteroid came and passed- Excep
look down
up
not good enough
your thighs too flabby
stomach always overstuffed
an apple for lunch
see it's not so tough
good
don’t you feel better now?
look down
I am a superhero.
Well, sort of.
My super power doesn't really allow me to see through things
Or fly
Or give me invisibility
Life is short,
Worrying, Stressing over things that we have no control is the epitome of insanity.
Never lose sight of what's important in life,
Family
Friends
Health
What we see is what we think.
We believe whatever is put on the screen.
We believe whatever someone tells us or shows us.
We don't look deeper.
We don't yearn to learn more.
That is not a bad thing.
I scream
not only because
I am angry
not only because
I am afraid
I scream
because of my shame
my dying hope
for a world at peace.
It takes only one day
to destroy hope
Wow, what a year
Trump was elected
Notable people died
In the marching arts world the Bluecoats won their first World Championship
Hamilton, Grease Live!, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child became popular
You always found writing as a form of comfort,
and that is something that we still share in common.
Nothing is more cathartic than intertwining ink and paper into a beautiful ballad
When people grow old
They can easily identify a period of their lives
Where growth came easy, where smiles were abundant
a breath: in, out
again, faster
faster still, until they stop coming
release
a noise in my head
it rushes
like a tide, pulled by the moon
like blood, pumping through my veins
A little girl died this year.
But this is not a story of sadness,
Of rage,
Or despair.
Do not mourn her,
For she yelled and
Last year started like any other
But I was different like none of the others
I had graduated training and was one of the few
that was spending the New Year with their family
like it was nothing new
I saw a Cardinal that day,
the day you described how the sky twists and turns,
as though you were blessed by the muses themselves.
I was drawn in by every word, holding on to them
This great big world has gotten bigger
With newchallenges, risks, and leaps of courage
At times it seems like I lose my place
I struggle and fail and cant seem to find the best path
Bur I am not lost
lost & found
this year, my dear,
i lost my heart,
i lost my keys,
i lost the chart
that i used to keep my life in lines,
dreams confined,
world crystalline.
2015-2016
Surprises would scream hello every so often.
First the move
Something that had been a bitter pill for me to swallow.
Remember those talks we had
while the moon sat high in the sky of our
impossible plans
for our future together.
We were determined to be in the
Remember those talks we had
while the moon sat high in the sky of our
impossible plans
for our future together.
We were determined to be in the
I am moving
Yet, I am stagnant
Things, people, places all change
Yet everything is the same
I hear, I comprehend
But I cannot understand
It seems to me as though time moves too fast.
Indeed, it seems to go too slow.
Odd, it seems, that the good times never seem to last.
Away they go into the infinite time flow.
A year ago, a break up.
the month of may, malignant to fight, provoked my suicidal tendencies with all its might
my mouth felt arid and
When I think of how far i’ve come
i remember numb
How vividly i recall the feeling of nothing
It pierces, always stings
Intoxicates and disables
Scars everywhere, never fading
2016 begins
Grades, Grades, Grades
I’m on the cusp of college
I need to maintain my grades
Junior year is too important to mess up
There is no time for distractions
But grandma was ill
It started with darkness
And whisper of love on her lips
I was so deep in my head that when I got lost in her mood ring eyes
Cant you see Im nothing like, I used to be.
I've given all My all to those, That didnt deserve It, but I let myself Feel against My better judgment.
I thought I knew who I was just about a year ago
Looking back now, I see how foolish that was to think
I allowed a boy to have sovereignty over me
How I thought I was in love and finally complete
Ojos de tapatio - Maura Velez
I am from the throat scratching stomach burning brandi in my father’s bar
and the smell of carne asada cooking on a gray grill on a summer afternoon
Use to feel like I was on top of the world
But due to foolishness and absurdity from the company
There I was looking for my next opportunity
One phone call in May saved my year, giving me the best news I can hear
This time last year, I felt a little sad.
At first my hope fufilled me fully
I could breathe and think and speak clearly.
This time last year, I worried for dad.
I knew the fall from grace would be hard.
It was so simple in the beginning.
I knew who I was.
What I was doing.
Start of school.
Start of change.
I don't know me anymore.
How does my religion define me?
It’s common sense to understand that no one can be the same person they were a year ago, I mean, it is possible, but highly unlikely. But myself, I am basic.
Reading has always been something I love
An activity my mind is very fond of,
I wondered how I could share this passion
My Gold Award Project was the thing that I fashioned.
My Vanity,
Is turning to extremity.
I'd say its a necessity.
The best damn part of me,
it's like I won the lottery.
Of all the insecurities,
mine is an impurity.
Have you got the cure for me?
This year has been a difficult one
Filled with sneers and words deadly as a gun
And who’da thought it’s all because of our election
It's amazing, isn't it?
How the years can fly by in the blink of an eye,
But minutes seem to crawl at a snail's pace.
It's amazing how much can happen in a year.
The most precious kids are here,
Everyone can tell,
By the sparkle in their eyes,
That their only prize,
Is the beauty of life.
They will go through life,
Ignoring all kinds of strife,
If these were the last words I ever wrote
I’d just like to say I’m proud
I was twisted, mangled dirty
Now I know a bit more, about pointing toward the sun
I’m not nearly grown yet; I look down at dirt
Of love learned and lost,
Of nothing more than a broken Hallelujah,
Of pure agony.
They say when you have someone like you,
Trying to find who I am
Has never been more difficult;
With depression and anxiety,
Sexuality and gender
How will I ever figure it out?
My life was a whirlwind of suffering, but only within my mind.
My day to day hardships don't always happen in real time.
My life was dark, dead, and dreary.
Twenty one, both young and dumb
full of love counted by the stars above,
endless hope lead to the wedding day
but the cost of dope lead her astray.
the change came quick from a boy to a man
Who was I a year ago?
Am I the same person now?
A year ago I was a mess,
I wasn't happy, I was confused.
I had good times and bad times.
But I wasn't confident, brave, or open.
From up so high, the colours blur; from here,
a poet should have more to say, but I
am not concern'd with how the atmosphere
blends all to grey. Then sudden! as we fly
beneath the clouds that hover over home,
