Editor’s note: This story was written by a high school student in Northwest Asian Weekly Foundation’s Summer Youth Leadership Program. This story is part of a special back-to-school issue.
Ryan Liu
SYLP STUDENT
Ryan Liu
Is poetry just all about rhyming?
Is it just about words that flow? Is it just how you express yourself?
To me, poetry can have all these aspects, but it is way more than just these three things.
Poetry usually comes from the heart. It can be about an issue or something you feel strongly about because when you read it, you tend to put more feeling into it. It is all about something you think about or something you care about, something you address to the world.
In essence, poetry can rhyme and it can have all that good stuff. But in the end, poetry is about how you are feeling inside and expressing yourself through lyrical wording. Poetry really reached me during my junior year, when we had to write poetry and had a competition with the best poetry.
From every video we had to watch, I learned something about people judging poems. Since it is from the heart and mind, numbers don’t mean anything. It is all about how you feel inside. I have seen and heard so many good poems from the heart.
Poetry can be anything you want it to be. It can be funny or it can be about heartbreak.
It is how you see certain topics or subjects. It is about going out there and showing the world what you have to say and what you want to say, holding nothing back.
It can show how thoughtful you can be. This is poetry, and it is how you mold it to be. ♦