As part of a new effort to share more youth poetry, we’ll be sharing poems from our three sites—King County Juvenile Detention, the Child Study & Treatment Center, and 1811 Eastlake. Take a look!

FORGIVENESS

by a young man at Child Study and Treatment Center 

My brother and I don’t get along

But someday we’ll have to forgive each other 

For all the hard times & the things we’ve done to each other

It will be hard

Hard like trying to take a pencil and penetrating a titanium wall

It’s equally difficult for us to forgive each other

Difficult like … to forget the things of the past

Like you can’t forget, but you can forgive

I would feel relief

Like the titanic being lifted from my shoulders 

I've written one on one with this youth a couple of times now and forgiveness continues to be an ongoing theme within his poetry. He mainly speaks about forgiveness towards himself and how it relates to his family. Talking about a subject like forgiveness is not an easy task for any of the youth that we work with, especially when asking them to write a poem about it. It takes great strength and honesty for someone like this young man to be open to the Pongo process and to share some of his personal struggles.

— From Ashley, Recreational Therapist and Pongo mentor at CSTC