Explore Poems: Being Oneself

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Poetry is My Underwear
By April Halprin Wayland
My sister found them.

Read them out loud.
She’s so proud,

she’s running to our parents
waving my poems in the air.

Doesn’t she know
she’s waving my underwear?
Living
Youth
Relationships
Family & Ancestors
Arts & Sciences
Poetry & Poets
Disappointment
Arts & Culture
Being Oneself
+ 2 more
New Math
By Nikki Grimes
Up till now,
the math of my life
has been pretty simple:
friends
plus family
plus sports.
What more
could I ask for, right?
But lately,
my outside has been changing
and my inside keeps telling me
more is on the way.
Trouble is,
I'm not sure
I'm ready.
Living
Coming of Age
Youth
Being Oneself
“I am here because somebody survived”
By Cornelius Eady
—Mahogany L. Browne, “On Meditation”

Which means, sometimes, you disarm
The goon by acting the fool—what they want
Is your throat cut, or your heart broken
By a dum-dum bullet, or your eyes filling
With the void. So they leave with their cartoon
Of you in...
Social Commentaries
Living
Coming of Age
Life Choices
Anxiety & Insecurity
Disappointment
Optimism
Being Oneself
A smile always heals
By Suma Subramaniam
You cannot pronounce my name.
“Soor-ya.” Not “soar.”
Surya—the sun god.
Mom always tells me that a smile heals everything.
So I try.
I sit beside you in the cafeteria
and smile.

You look down at your food
and eat your cheeseburger,
I eat the lemon rice in my...
Social Commentaries
Race & Ethnicity
Living
Youth
Relationships
Friends & Enemies
Activities
School & Learning
Joy & Contentment
Optimism
Being Oneself
Culture
School
+ 6 more
Filter
By Suma Subramaniam
I come from a country so far away
that you may have visited only in your dreams.
My face does not bear the pale color of my palms.
I don’t speak your language at home.
I don’t even sound like you.
If you come to...
Social Commentaries
Race & Ethnicity
Living
Youth
Relationships
Friends & Enemies
Home Life
Joy & Contentment
Optimism
Being Oneself
Culture
Friends
+ 5 more
The Ache
By Mahogany L. Browne
A fatherless child will do almost
anything to receive approval
from the world.

A nod
or really
any sign of recognition
would cause me to put my own life in danger.

Once
I let my sister lift me
on top of both of her extended feet
in the middle of...
Living
Coming of Age
Youth
Relationships
Family & Ancestors
Home Life
Anxiety & Insecurity
Being Oneself
The Storyteller Gets Her Name
By Ari Tison
My dad used to call me Eagle Eyes. I was the one to find eagles, owls, blue jays
on a dark day. He called me so until my brother was born infant and grew to boy.

Having heard my name, as younger siblings...
Social Commentaries
Race & Ethnicity
Living
Youth
Relationships
Family & Ancestors
Home Life
Gratitude
Optimism
Being Oneself
Culture
+ 4 more
At the Student Poetry Reading
By Kim Stafford
I guess you could call me broken,
says one. I’m still lonely, says another,
but now I can name it with a song.

In my poem, says another,
I can forget I am forgotten. Now
I understand being misunderstood,

says another. And another says,
in a bold,...
Living
Youth
Activities
School & Learning
Arts & Sciences
Poetry & Poets
Joy & Contentment
Optimism
Being Oneself
School
+ 3 more
Others Are Us
By Nathalie Handal
He said I was different because I was dark. She said I was different because  I wore a scarf. He said I was different because I had an accent. She said I was different because I couldn’t read. He said...
Social Commentaries
Gender & Sexuality
Race & Ethnicity
Living
Youth
Optimism
Being Oneself
Truth is I would like to escape myself
By Nour Al Ghraowi
Truth is I would like to escape myself.
Detach my body from my skin,
peel it layer by layer to uncover
...
Living
Life Choices
The Body
The Mind
Joy & Contentment
Optimism
Being Oneself
The Only Me
By Pat Mora
Spinning through space for eons,
our earth—oceans, rivers, mountains,
glaciers, tigers, parrots, redwoods—
evolving wonders.

And our vast array, generations
of humans—all shapes, colors, languages.

Can I be the only me?

Our earth: so much beauty, hate,
...
Nature
Living
Life Choices
The Mind
Doubt & Contemplation
Being Oneself
Clarinet
By Chera Hammons
Apart, we are two quiet things:
a person and an instrument.
I in my body,
the clarinet in its case.

We are like good friends.
The clarinet takes nothing away from me.
It lets me borrow its notes.

If I loan it my breath,
I can speak with...
Living
The Body
The Mind
Arts & Sciences
Music
Joy & Contentment
Arts & Culture
Being Oneself
Summer
By Chen Chen
You are the ice cream sandwich connoisseur of your generation.

Blessed are your floral shorteralls, your deeply pink fanny pack with travel-size lint roller just in case.

Level of splendiferous in your outfit: 200.

Types of invisible pain stemming from adolescent disasters in...
Social Commentaries
Gender & Sexuality
Popular Culture
Living
Youth
Relationships
Family & Ancestors
Disappointment
Optimism
Being Oneself
Culture
+ 4 more
The School of the Unschoolable
By Chen Chen
See the stars nightly
disobeying the night.

Watch the pattering rain
sketch an anarchist’s

map to the future, then
unpattern it away—

...
Living
Life Choices
The Mind
Doubt & Contemplation
Being Oneself
Culture
anthem for my belly after eating too much
By Kara Jackson
i look in the mirror, and all the chips i’ve eaten
this month have accumulated
like schoolwork at the bottom of my tummy,
my belly—a country i’m trying to love.
my mouth is a lover devoted to you, my belly, my belly
the birds will...
Love
Living
The Body
Optimism
Being Oneself
Poems
By Nikki Grimes
I am hardly ever able
to sort through my memories
and come away whole
or untroubled.
It is difficult
to sift through the stones,
the weighty moments and know
which is rare gem,
which raw coal,
which worthless shale or slate.
So, one by one,
I drag them across the page
and...
Living
Life Choices
The Mind
Arts & Sciences
Poetry & Poets
Joy & Contentment
Arts & Culture
Being Oneself
Stomp
By Nikki Grimes
I come home,
feet about to bleed
from angry stomping.
“Boy!” says Mom.
“Quit making all that racket.”
But what does she expect
when, day after day,
haters sling words at me
like jagged stones
designed to split my skin?
I retreat to my room,
collapse on the bed,
count, “One. Two....
Living
Life Choices
Youth
Relationships
Friends & Enemies
Activities
Indoor Activities
Anger
Being Oneself
+ 2 more
Ode to Langston
By Dawn Quigley
Langston, we too, sing Turtle Island.

We are the 574 Nations.
They want to hide us
In the past tense,
Yet we love,
And dream,
And are still here.

Today, now,
We are at the oval table
As our women lead.
Nobody can ever
Say to us,
“Natives lived, Natives ate, drank,...
Social Commentaries
Race & Ethnicity
History & Politics
Anger
Being Oneself
Culture
This Body II
By Renée Watson
My body is
perfect and
imperfect and
black and
girl and
big and
thick hair and
short legs and
scraped knee and
healed scar and
heart beating and
hands that hold and
voice that bellows and
feet that dance and
arms that embrace and
my momma’s eyes and
my daddy’s smile and
my grandma’s hope and

my body...
Living
The Body
Joy & Contentment
Being Oneself
Nowhere Else to Go
By Linda Sue Park
Turn off the lights.
Wear another layer.
(Sounds like a dad.)
(Sounds like a mom.)

You say hand-me-down.
I say retro.

Walk.
Bike.
Walk some more.
Recycle.

(See what I did there,
bike—recycle?)

Your name in Sharpie
on a good water bottle.
Backpack. New habits.
No thanks, don’t need a bag.

What else.
Oh yeah.

Tell ten friends
who...
Living
Youth
Activities
School & Learning
Anxiety & Insecurity
Being Oneself
School

Poetry is My Underwear

New Math

p1“I am here because somebody survived”

p1A smile always heals

p1Filter

p1The Ache

p1The Storyteller Gets Her Name

p1At the Student Poetry Reading

p1Others Are Us

p1Truth is I would like to escape myself

p1The Only Me

p1Clarinet

p1Summer

p1The School of the Unschoolable

p1anthem for my belly after eating too much

p1Poems

p1Stomp

p1Ode to Langston

p1This Body II

p1Nowhere Else to Go

“I am here because somebody survived”

A smile always heals

Filter

The Ache

The Storyteller Gets Her Name

At the Student Poetry Reading

Others Are Us

Truth is I would like to escape myself

The Only Me

Clarinet

Summer

The School of the Unschoolable

anthem for my belly after eating too much

Poems

Stomp

Ode to Langston

This Body II

Nowhere Else to Go