POEM OF THE WEEK
"What Every Guy Tells Me" was written by a young woman, age 15, in juvenile detention. She writes: "He said he'd never leave me or hurt me, and he turned around and did it." This wonderful poem is in Pongo's new collection.
FEATURED ACTIVITIES
Where I Come From
In this poem you can write about the people, feelings, and history that are so much a part of who you are. [ WRITE ]
My Eating Disorder
In this poem you can have a conversation with an eating disorder that seems to control your thoughts and life. [ WRITE ]
COMING EVENTS
Pongo Is Ready to Help Teachers and Counselors!
Pongo would love to support people who want to bring poetry into their classrooms and agencies. Please check out our Writing Activities, Teaching Resources, Training, and Start Your Project pages. Contact us!
PONGO MAKES NEWS
Video about Pongo in Juvie:
This video was filmed inside King County Juvenile Detention, where Richard explains Pongo's mission.
HI, TEENS! Hello, counselors and teachers! The Pongo Teen Writing Project is a volunteer, nonprofit program for teens who are on the streets, in jail, or in other ways leading difficult lives. We love to help young people express themselves through poetry, especially teens who have never written before. (And we want to share our teaching techniques with caring adults.) This site is dedicated to our authors!
PROJECT JOURNAL
Read Pongo's blog
Sharing stories of our work with teens
Pongo's blog is about the significance of expressing deeply felt pain in poetry - the often unappreciated resilience, the often unappreciated joy. We talk about our own experience of doing the work. We talk about healing. One recent entry is called Maggie, about a young woman who is healing herself after homelessness and addiction. Another recent entry is As Strong as the Waves that Swallow Me, which contains teen poetry about finding strength after being hurt. [READ]
TEEN WRITING
Welcome, Teens!
Pongo is place to express yourself
Here you can WRITE FROM THE HEART about who you are as a person. You don’t have to be an experienced writer to create Pongo poetry. We appreciate the important things you have to say about your lives. Honesty is the quality of good writing we value most. Check out the Pongo writing activities, choose a topic, and give it a try. And you can go to our poetry collections to see poems that other teens have written. Also, Pongo now has a quarterly $50 prize for a teen poem submitted on our site! Check out the prize poetry!
TEACHING RESOURCES
For Counselors and Teachers
How to use the Pongo website
We want this web site to be a resource for you as well as the teens. The many writing activities can be downloaded to use in your classrooms. The teen poems can be shared in classrooms, too, as encouragement to other writers and as topics for meaningful discussion. Also, we have explanations of Pongo’s approach and techniques for teaching writing to teens who have led difficult lives. There are natural ways to inspire young people to write in a heartfelt and healing way. We’d like to hear from you, and support you, too!
