This summer like every summer I was in Colorado to visit my grandparents. One day I decided to explore the forested area cradled between the rocky mountains. and absolutely wondered at the beauty of it all. I wanted to capture the variety of hues in the landscape and the feeling of the Colorado sky which truly cannot compare to anywhere else in the world. I also wanted to capture scale of it all and the feeling that you are on top of the world but just a tiny speck compared to the trees, mountains and the endless cerulean sky.

It is about my grandfather who is from Soviet Ukraine. My mom's side of the family is Ukrainian and they have a lot of trauma from the soviet years. Recently I was goofing off and I managed to make my grandpa laugh, it was so special to me that I used it as a prompt for my poem. For context, sunflowers are the Ukrainian flower, and the Russian word I included (not Ukrainian because of the soviet union) means "friend". My grandpa and I used to call each other that and it's always been a very special word to me, even though it's just a basic way to call someone your friend. My grandparents found the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 especially hard to deal with, and that is what I was alluding to in the line talking about the news. I hope you enjoy my writing, thank you for your time!

Loosely based on the stories which my dad has told me about his journey throughout life. As a first generation child of a Haitian immigrant family, I often feel like a lot is riding on my back. This piece is an expression of my feelings about the pressure of success.

My poem addresses the unspoken message spread by our culture that in order to be truly successful and worthy, you must commit yourself to nonstop work. This is something I've seen around me and experienced first hand for some time now, especially in highschool. This poem was initially written as a blackout poem using the original words of a deep sea dive article, and I’ve made a few touch up details but the poem itself is the same. But over the years, I’ve seen my peers loose themselfs in their work and missing life beliving they don't work hard enough or that they could have done better, and its sickening to see thems torture themself’s when they commit so much time and effort, and don't get the satisfaction. That's when I asked the question, "When does that end?". If nothing you ever do is enough, then what goal will you ever reach? It truly is scary, and I can feel from them that the pressure feels like an ocean, but in their mind this was the only way. This topic is incredibly relevant in my life right now. This piece reflects both my thoughts on the subject in an attempt to view it from an outside perspective, and to give my feelings around it. The title “The Waning Sea” is a play on the word, originally meant to imply that the sea is waning, but it’s introduced over the story, the sea is waning us, who we are as people.

Honestly It was just a memory I thought of that was the time I could say I was the most happy I'd ever been since everything been so different since my cousin passed away, so I just thought of the time where we all came together including him and it was all laughs and he just knew how to make everything better so I was pretty much just thinking about him while writing it.

I took the time to look around me and push the “norms” that society gives kids my age. I think people of all ages should read it and take it with an open mind.

To spend your childhood looking up to the women in your life, only hoping you'll blink and be grown like them, only to find the truth about femininity in this world is a very harsh reality to come to terms with. Growing up is something I've come to fear, less of the wrinkles or the bills but more of the bitterness this world has within it and losing the shield of your youth is a frighting process one must overcome. Writing out these fears combat that bitterness and turn it into something controllable, in my reach. I look at the woman in my life and not only see beautiful brave people, but also people who have overcome those obstacles and found their way in something that to me currently, seems like a mountain unclimbable. However, working through these thoughts helps me to make sense of them and come to terms with the fact that it is okay to feel out of control, you will find your path.

"Lasting, Ephemeral Radiance" is a mini collection of poems exploring the juxtaposition of the permanence and transience of life. Each poem shares the common thread of depicting resonant feelings or subject matter (like death, for example), coupled with an air of otherworldliness through the infusion of supernatural, celestial, and surreal concepts.

This piece of work represents an important memory that I shared with my friends and family. It was an unforgettable experience where many core memories were made. The trip was is a beautiful place and it was spent doing some of my favorite things.

I wanted to capture the feeling of summer and growing up. As a teenager nothing is ever certain and its important to remember and romanticize the moment we will never get back. In this peace I go back and forth between the moment I'm describing an my thoughts now. You have to read between the lines to truly understand how I reflect my thoughts onto the moment.

This is a short selection from a bigger piece I have been writing. I wanted to combine something mundane, like electrician work, with things that invoke the fantastical, like magic or a tavern. The combination of old and new is something I wanted to play with, as well as ideas of cultural confusion and identity. This story and by extension this excerpt have been reworked multiple times. Starting as a political drama, then a family conflict, then a story about revolution, and finally I settled on this. A story about someone trying to make it in the world, with cultural baggage that affects almost every part of their life. I drew from my experiences of being a child of an immigrant to make characters imperfect in the practice of their culture. Like so many of us raised in between cultures, we forget or are scared to truly be what we are. I want to show a glimpse of that in my work.

When I first began my eating disorder, I broke down every month, knowing it was wrong and I should launch out of the cycle. I knew that the social media I was consuming was harming me and eating me up from the inside. But, it called to me at every turn and I could not let it go. Surprisingly, social media helped me make my recovery. One of my best friends is from an eating disorder support group founded on a social media platform. The poem represents my experiences and the raw feelings I had while both going through the disorder and coming out of it. It was not hard and relapses occurred, more often than I would have liked them to. Pressure from my parents came as stress from my school began increasing but this poem is my way of claiming and owning my recovery and proving that it happened and that I know that I can do it.

I am passionate about this issue.

Struggling with body dysmorphia and finding my identity, I found myself in a conflicted position where I could no longer differentiate between what I loved and what I hated – I felt like I hated everything. Whether it was the negative way I viewed myself, or my failing test score, or even just a lack of understanding my culture, I felt the only time I was able to express my feelings was through writing. I came up with “self inflicting” as a way to purge my insecurities onto paper. I identified my weakness, which wasn’t about how I looked or what I accomplished but about my inability to appreciate. Writing my feelings and creating “self inflicting” made me understand that I am someone to laugh with, make memories with, hang out with; the only negativity that exists about me is the negativity I put on myself (self inflicting). Through my writing, I have released my negative emotions and have come out a stronger person who now chooses to love herself.

I wrote these poems to process the complex emotions I’ve felt while nearing the end of my childhood. In the first poem, “Bon Appetite,” I touch on the double-edged sword that is creating art for public consumption. While creation is often cathartic, it has also made me feel naked and vulnerable—like a pig set for slaughter. As I’ve grown up and infused my work with more heart and truth, I’ve sometimes felt more like an object of others’ opinions than my own person. In the second poem, “Ivory,” I explore how humans justify and romanticize our often-selfish behavior. Everything we create and every decision we make comes with hidden costs, and all too often, we ignore these costs to appease our conscience. As I mature, I’m trying to confront and correct the ways in which I do this. The final poem, “Older,” is inspired by my changing relationship with an adult figure in my life, who I once idolized. As I get older, my eyes become more attuned to their flaws and their painful humanness. It’s almost like I’ve taken off the rose-colored glasses of youth, and while this is empowering to an extent, it also leaves me feeling… disillusioned about everyone and everything I once thought I knew.

This story takes place in an absurd world that parallels our own. Watch as speculation and obsession goes too far. Discover the truth behind the whimsy of this place.