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Teen Poetry Collections

• Overview
• The Most Real I Feel
  • Where are the Stars
  • An Unwanted Friend
  • Tick, Tick, Tick
  • On My YouTube Channel
  • Emotional Rollercoaster
  • When Someone Deeply Listens to Me
  • Keep Fighting for What's Right for You
  • A Thanksgiving Carol
  • The Power of Family
  • My Motivation
  • I Promise, I'm Sorry
• My Backpack of Pain
  • Ten Reasons to Love Me #2
  • My Pride / Mi Orgullo
  • Pain All My Life
  • Writing Rhymes
  • This is Who You Are to Me
  • Take Me Home
• Nobody Knows My Name
  • The Fear of Love
  • Killing Me Inside
  • Mamá
  • My Roots
  • Black is Beauty
• Until Life is Beautiful Once More...
  • Chicago on the South Side
  • Home Vs. Juvenile
  • Mi Familia
  • Dear Dad
  • A Sea of Red
  • Heart
  • Hurt
• The Natural To My Beauty
  • Strengths
  • I Am Made From
  • PTSD
  • Fallen Angel
  • Wake Up
• No Air At All
  • The Abusive Father
  • Being Mixed
  • Black Hole
  • The Story of a Cell
  • Cops
  • People Fall
  • Dear Dad
  • How It Feels To Be Trapped
  • Calm
  • Am I Me?
  • Memories of Danny Fresh
  • I'm Locked Up
  • Fighting With IF
  • Clarity, Happiness and Love
  • I'm a Diamond
  • For You
  • How I'm Feeling
  • The Missing Puzzle Piece
• I Feel Like That Bird That's Fallen
  • Independent
  • My Sister
  • Abandoned
  • Me and My Board
  • Lost Girl
  • Longing For Another Life
  • Princess Adia'Zalika
  • Capitol Hill
  • Handcuffs
  • Peace and Love From a Natural Born Thug
  • The Pain
  • Me A Hermit
  • Finally Opening Doors
  • A Gaining Loss
  • Anger
  • Do You Really Know Me?
  • Not My Real Sandals
  • Para Mi Mama y Para Mi Papa
  • My Brother
  • The Undefined
  • Something Missing
  • Pre-Summary of My Life
  • Really Buttery Popcorn
  • I'm Getting Out
  • Physical Love
• Made Me Feel Like There's No World
  • Wounded Healer
  • Memories #3
  • The Nightmare That Never Ended
  • Dear Ex-Boyfriend
  • My Whole World Stopped
  • Dear Mom #2
  • My Spaceship
  • Just Lay It Out
  • White Walls & Collect Calls
  • Amazing Amanda
  • Immigration
  • Unwanted
  • Worry
  • My Life Story
  • If God Were Looking at My Life #2
  • Lying in My Bed at Night, I Think
  • 144 Ways
  • Freedom
  • Missing My Family
  • If Meth Wasn't in My Life
  • Lonely
  • My Stupid Boyfriend
  • Oblivion
  • The White Walls
• Life Is a Dream with No Bed
  • Happy Birthday
  • My Best Friend Was Murdered
  • Why Are You Blue?
  • We Came from Saudi Arabia
  • The Days I Miss
  • Dear Mom
  • Brother and Sister
  • A Good Day / A Bad Day
  • My Dad #3
  • Dear Family
  • When My Brother Got Shot
  • Nothing Will Bring Me Down
  • Coyote Ridge
  • Family #2
  • Metal on Metal
  • I'm Making a Moving Poem
  • The Thunder Is in the Past
• There Had to Have Been Someone
  • There Had to Have Been
  • Memories
  • I Like the Rain More than The Sun
  • Finding Summer Again
  • Every Guy
  • When I Look in the Mirror
  • Different Levels
  • Worries for You
  • The First and Last Day I Saw My Dad
  • Changing My Life Around
  • You Can't Be Mad Forever
  • I Wonder
  • Doors of Emotion
  • Ice Cream Man
  • Liquor Makes the World Violent
  • The Coolest Dad
  • Letter to Mom
  • Virginity
  • Black
  • The Three Faces of My Monster
  • Drowning
  • Sides of Me
  • The Love of My Life
  • Monkey
  • My Life
  • What It's Like to Have a Headache
  • [Preface]
• The Currents of My Emotion
  • My Life #2
  • You Don't Know Me #2
  • You Didn't Believe Me
  • My Life of Colors
  • Son of Poseidon
  • starless;;;
  • Things I Would Say to My 14-Year-Old Mom
  • Leaving Ketron Cottage
• I Am As Angry As a Boomerang
  • Rolling Down on Me
  • Memories #2
  • Cows
  • My Favorite Bird
  • Deep Inside Me
  • Under the Bridge
  • Seizure
  • Kittens and Me
  • Fight to the Death
  • Prosthetics
  • Death Letter
  • Why Am I Angry?
  • My City
  • They Won't Stop
  • What Is Green?
  • I Lost My Way
  • If My Fist Could Speak
  • Teacher
• They Look Like a Heart, They Beat
  • I Hate Them
  • The New Park
  • Inside Me #2
  • Mom Did It with an Alien
  • Upstate New York Boy
  • Dime
  • My Dad #2
  • Feelings of the Rainbow
  • Why I Hate Basketball
  • Coke
  • Feelings
  • Poem to a Girl
  • Perfectionism
• Love is Like All the Colors of the Doors in Juvie
  • Lost
  • The Guy with the Green Eyes
  • Freeze-Framing My Life
  • Without a Family
  • Addicted
  • If I Were an Alien
  • Scrubbing Helplessly
  • Dreams
  • [Preface]
• I Looked at the Butterflies on the Ceiling
  • Family
  • My Memory Poem
  • My Life Is Like a PS2
  • If Only You Knew
  • What I Think About My Favorite Staff
  • Life on Ketron Cottage
  • My Sumo Cat
  • Cancer Is
  • Baby Blues
  • Not Titled Because
  • Why Me?
  • Mom, The Story
  • Living on the Streets
  • My Mom
  • Going to the Dentist
  • Why I'm Short and Not Tall
  • Conversations with My Eating Disorder
  • Life Like a Cat
• I Miss the Way We Occasionally Got Along
  • You Hurt Me
  • Next Wednesday, 7:30 in the Morning
  • Dear Grandma
  • My Emotions
  • What If Mothers and Fathers
  • Master Duelist
  • Images of My Life
  • Love Me
  • What If?
  • What Makes Me Happy
  • Can You Imagine
• My Passion Leaps Out Toward the World
  • Not Feeling Cared For
  • Numb
  • Maria
  • What I want
  • Through the Window
  • [Richard's Preface]
  • [Ann's Preface]
• I Am a Monster, But a Fairy, Too
  • Love
  • Compact Disc Player
  • My Mother and Drugs
  • To the Labyrinth in My Head
  • My Granny
  • Rotting Corpse
  • Over and Over Again
  • My Ways
• How Tucked in the Corner Was Sadness
  • How Tucked in the Corner
  • Who You Are What You Did
  • The Thoughts in My Head
  • What I want to say
  • I Got Raped
  • The Girl Inside
  • [Richard's Preface]
  • [Martha's Preface]
• A Salty Longing
  • What+Happened+to+Jimmy
  • Where I Come From #2
  • About Life
  • Confusions
  • Anger Poem #3
  • If
  • Pilondial Cyst
  • I Like to Read
  • Salty Longing
  • The Mom With No Fear
  • Deceased
• See What Goes On Behind My Masks
  • Untitled
  • Masks
  • Walk One Mile... In My Shoes
  • Kaz
  • This Is Too Much
  • Ecstasy
  • Watercolor Stain
  • She Seems To Shine
  • Come Home, Sista, Come Home
  • My Girlfriend Plays the Guitar
  • [Preface]
• No More Me
  • My Anger
  • Abusive Dad
  • No More Me
  • Pink Flower
  • Crazy World
  • Flying Pig World
  • About My Sister
  • Take One
  • People Who Die In My Life
  • My Closet
  • [Dr. Storck's Foreword]
  • [Richard's Preface]
• I Lost My Sense of Protection
  • I Feel Like A Lion
  • A Perfect Man With A Bitch For A Wife
  • Sense Of Protection
  • When Death Comes Suddenly
  • Letter After A Time
  • I'd Like to Understand
  • [Preface]
• Because I Didnt Know the True Meaning of Love
  • Lost Memories
  • Things That Are Broken
  • Ocean, Wall, And Pond
  • I Didn't Like It, But I Did It
  • Loveless
  • Life's Complications
  • Running Away
  • If God Were Looking at My Life
  • [Preface]
• What Every Guy Tells Me
  • What Every Guy Tells Me
  • Mommy's Angel & Daddy's Lil' Girl
  • Who Am I?
  • You Wish I Was The Girl I Was
  • The Man Who Couldn’t Cry
  • Parents
• Trapped in the Ghetto & The Other Piece of Me
  • It's What You Dream For
  • Earliest Memories
  • The Other Piece Of Me, My Father
  • Looking For Love
  • Why You Leave Me?
  • Just Another Girl
• I Can't Imagine Myself Any Other Place
  • Childhood Dreams
  • A Dream Of Father, A Broken Heart
  • After My Sisters Were Kidnapped
  • The Battle Between Good And Evil
  • Stepdad
  • Why Is It Hard to Leave a Violent Situation?
• The House on the Corner 2
  • No One Gives
  • Jumbled Pictures
  • Confused in My Words
  • This Time
  • To Whom It May Concern
  • Nuttcase
  • Queer Boy
  • Wish Poem
  • The Priceless Gift... Taken
  • Teens
• The House on the Corner
  • The House On The Corner
  • Me In The Sea
  • Canyon Rage
  • No Love
  • Parents
  • Untitled
  • Why?
  • No More Commitments
  • Why Do People Fall In Love?
  • Early Memories
• Poems by Parents
  • Confinement
  • Lost Path
  • Moments

I Feel Like That Bird That's Fallen 

These sample poems were written by teenagers in King County Juvenile Detention in Seattle during the 2013-14 school year. The young people express themselves on a variety of themes, including abuse at home, the importance of family, confusion in life, witnessing violence, love, addiction, loneliness, and hope. The teens in detention are awaiting trial or serving sentences for a variety of offenses, from running away and truancy, to prostitution, shoplifting, drug-dealing, and violent crimes.

Pongo has worked inside detention since 1998. The team of Pongo adult mentors who worked with these youth included Vanessa Hooper (project leader), Emily Holt (assistant project leader), Liz Koontz, Carol Thompson, and Mark Johnson.

These teen poems are great. And they are just a few of the great poems created during this Pongo writing project! Please enjoy the honesty, depth, and complexity of this work. (And please note that details within the poems have been changed to protect the teens’ confidentiality and their families' privacy.)

Selected Poems from This Collection 

Independent
My Sister 
Abandoned 
Me and My Board 
Lost Girl 
Longing For Another Life 
Princess Adia'Zalika 
Capitol Hill 
Handcuffs 
Peace and Love From a Natural Born Thug 
The Pain 
Me As a Hermit 
Finally Opening Doors 
A Gaining Loss 
Anger 
Do You Really Know Me 
Not My Real Sandals 
Para Mi Papa y Para Mi Mama 
My Brother 
The Undefined 
Something Missing 
Pre-Summary of my Life 
Really Buttery Popcorn 
I'm Getting Out 
Physical Love