YWP NEWSLETTER- 8.6.18
THE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
This is the first newletter of August!! This is MY first time making it, and I'm looking forward to selecting all the great pieces you guys create. Hope you all will enjoy viewing some great writing and photography. Remember to upload your poetry, stories, and pictures to get featured!!
You know the drill. . .skip this next part if you regularly check the YWP Newsletter.
This newsletter highlights writing, audio, images and any happenings in the YWP Community. We are a small band of YWP Community Leaders who also help create Challenges, select Daily Reads, Recommended, and work for Publication. As the editors of the newsletter, our role is to bring you authors extra audience and shine and to bring you readers some special pieces of work. Please pass along this newsletter or the links to the stories to bring the authors even more viewers. Enjoy!
This week we feature the writing and images of nean_bean, Love to Write, Abriatis, mythicalquill, Drift, lwood, and Icestorm
View all previous newsletters here.

by nean_bean
I saw your eyes first.
You had a little bit of grey behind them.
Your eyebrows strung together,
And your forehead knit itself into a scarf.
I think it would be orange.
You said
“This is for me?”
As if you were surprised
That someone would take the
Time to make something for you.
...
I said “yes it’s for you (silly)”
Your scarf unraveled quite quickly.
You kinda bit your lip
Before you smiled.
It was a small smile.
It was only a tiny bit of light let
In
Through the blinds.
(Photo credit, above: mythicalquill)
by Love to Write
It was sunny the morning everything left.
The birds in the trees,
ripples on the water,
and you in your shaft of light,
eyes closed,
dust in your short, dark hair.
We were happy,
I would have it forever.
And then, you left.
Quiet steps down the walk
and a train ticket in a worn-out
overall pocket.
And you wrote me
but me but I never did the same.
Because who leaves without saying goodbye
(except the sun, maybe)?
And who forgets to close the door
on the way out
(except when you’re in such a big hurry
you forget who you’re leaving)?
Don't you remember who
we were together?
(Photo credit, left: Drift)
by Abriatis
I am tired of not feeling safe.
Is it because I am a girl?
Is it because I go to high school?
Is it because I've been pressured to drink by my own family?
I do not know.
I am just tired of it.
I am tired of thirty-year-old men staring at me after a bike race once I changed into the well-fitting shirt I received.
I am tired of hearing my classmates speculate on who was most likely to bring a gun to school.
I am tired of getting messages on Facebook from my twenty-three-year-old cousin, asking me if I want to 'get shitfaced'.
I just want to feel safe in my own skin.
I don't want to stand with my arms over my chest.
I don't want to think about what would happen if someone brought a gun to school.
I don't want to block my own family online, when I know I won't see them for months.
Is it bad to want out? Out of this..torment?
My problems are just laughed at. They're not worth the anxiety they cause.
It's because I'm a kid, isn't it?
A dumb, naive, fifteen-year-old girl.
It's just my hormones, isn't it?
It's just my imagination, isn't it?
It always is.
(Photo credit, right: Drift)
There's so many words in us that we just let loose to drift
Floating in the still air, they make up the space between us
Most of them go unnoticed and uncommented on
Maybe we wanted it that way, but most likely we didn't
--lwood
ART GALLERY
YWP Newsletter- 7.30.18
THE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
This is the last newsletter for July... I hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoyed making them! Next month- for August we'll have a new primary editor for some variation and new weekly favorites. Have a great August and end of summer!
If you already know what the YWP Weekly Newsletter is feel free to skip the next paragraph.
This newsletter highlights writing, audio, images and any happenings in the YWP Community. We are a small band of YWP Community Leaders who also help create Challenges, select Daily Reads, Recommended, and work for Publication. As the editors of the newsletter, our role is to bring you authors extra audience and shine and to bring you readers some special pieces of work. Please pass along this newsletter or the links to the stories to bring the authors even more viewers. Enjoy!
This week we feature the writing and images of Nightheart, Aidster21, angelaweasley, Hazel.C., Drift, and Maddi Clair.
View all previous newsletters here.

by Nightheart
“ your aunt has cancer.”
No.
takeafastbreathinclose
youreyes,trynottoletitall
comepouringout.
how
could
this
happen?
thisdoesnthappen,nottous
maybetootherpeoplebut
nottouspleasegodwhere
areyou?
”how bad is it?”
please.
icantlethergo,
howcananyoneletanyone
go,it’sunthinkablethata
fewcellsgrowinginsidehermight
takeheraway.
only
in
the
middle
stages.
thetearscomerippingout
andicantcontrolthemanymore,
thereisnostoptothesadness
anditfeelslikeaholeis
beingtorninsideofme,
fabricteraingapartwithaharshpull.
”are you ok?”
howcouldanyonebeokay,
iamnotokaybutilookaroundand
i’ve
got
to
be
strong.
”yes”
(photo credit, above: Aidster21)
by angelaweasley
because of what I bought.
love is a currancy i hesitate to spend.
i have $483 dollars of non-refundable
deposits of memories.
deflation is inevitable.
my love was only worth
5 calls
and
an email.
they taught me macro-econmics in school
but i think he only learned
micro.
he was expensive.
love was the only payment i knew before
he started asking for another.
dirty money
that's what he threw at me.
resentment,
guilt,
anger,
anything to keep me buying.
my debit cards have a limit
and i think he found mine.
i chose money over my father and i don't regret it
because i spent it on my
mother
my
sister
my
friend
my
self.
i chose money over my father
and i am
all the richer now.
(photo credit, left: Hazel.C.)
by Drift
I.
Transition comes to me.
It seeks me out
and urges me forward.
Buildings blur and warp
as I wander
from street to street.
My feet wear down soles
without hesitation.
II.
It started with a gate.
From a mother’s arms
to the gates of an orphanage
to a standard issue bed
to a foster home.
I am exchanged from embrace to embrace
and loaded onto a plane.
III.
I lingered,
feet planted in loose soil
and reached for the sun
with open palms
and slender fingers.
It was bright and warm,
perfect and comfortable.
IV.
I changed schools.
Willingly of course.
Change had latched on like a leech,
buried in my bones.
I couldn’t stay still even if I wanted to.
V.
I am tearing my hair out,
it comes in clumps
and washes down the drain.
I want to leave,
to stretch out
and feel new air.
VI.
I am gone,
a distant memory.
Maybe in another life
I’ll see that smile.
(photo credit, right: Maddi Clair)
Newsletter- 7.23.18
THE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
More newslettering! I hope you enjoy it! And as always, if you already know what the newsletter is, feel free to skip the next paragraph.
This newsletter highlights writing, audio, images and any happenings in the YWP Community. We are a small band of YWP Community Leaders who also help create Challenges, select Daily Reads, Recommended, and work for Publication. As the editors of the newsletter, our role is to bring you authors extra audience and shine and to bring you readers some special pieces of work. Please pass along this newsletter or the links to the stories to bring the authors even more viewers. Enjoy!
This week we feature the writing and images of GabriellaF, nishah101, serenamae2020, Aidster21, glu.gun, and Abriatis.
YWP HAPPENINGS
YWP has moved to a new office at the Karma Birdhouse in Burlington!
Summer of Stories is happening! Read more here.
View all previous newsletters here.
Make sure you're reading all the great summer work here!
by GabriellaF
The quiet comes
like a cat stalking prey
It sits hanging in the air
reminding of loneliness and pain.
Trapping, suffocating, killing
with its emptiness
(photo credit, above: nishah101)
by serenamae2020
Flickering bulbs
shadows light my prison
The silence is deafening
He's here for me
I'm out again
how?
In a car
wheels rumble
going where?
Thump,
thump,
thump,
goes my heart
Door opens
forced out
Fought
Dumped,
like nothing happened
Seeing stars
Highway traffic
Sirens
They're here
I am free
(photo credit, left: Aidster21)
by glu.gun
Sometimes I forget
That my vases,
Porcelain and decorated with intricate cerulean details,
The result of years of hard work and sweat,
The ones that are now shattered, jagged, and ruined,
Scattered on the marble floor in shards,
Appear merely as wooden blocks to the passersby.
To them, it was once a sturdy tower
And it will be again, as if time had waited.
To them, my problems appear small and ordinary,
Easily fixable.
I wish I had known this earlier.
(photo credit, right: nishah101)
The Art Gallery
YWP Newsletter- 7.16.18
THE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
Welcome to another weekly newsletter. Mid-July is always a lot of fun, ice cream, swimming, outside play, reading, writing (Post it all on YWP!) this week we have some new amazing photos and a lot of incredible writing, keep it up!
If you already know what the newsletter is, feel free to skip the next paragraph.
This newsletter highlights writing, audio, images and any happenings in the YWP Community. We are a small band of YWP Community Leaders who also help create Challenges, select Daily Reads, Recommended, and work for Publication. As the editors of the newsletter, our role is to bring you authors extra audience and shine and to bring you readers some special pieces of work. Please pass along this newsletter or the links to the stories to bring the authors even more viewers. Enjoy!
This week we feature the writing and images of a.harkness02, JuliaR, maxwellz, lila woodard, angelaweasley, and hills1.
YWP HAPPENINGS
Summer of Stories is happening! Read more here.
Join in on the short story workshop here!
Did you miss any of the previous newsletters? Click here.
How to Be Empty
by JuliaR
The branches project a shadow
onto my paper thin skin.
I can see the sun sipping the clouds
sweet water as they float by.
Everything is soft around me
and even my eyes are quiet
against the wind.
Birds fly ahead
whispering secrets
this is what peacefulness
feels like.
The sensation of being fully
willingly
taken.
(photo credit, above: a.harkness02)
by lila woodard
Her face
illuminates
mine
Stunning in
her sin and
disease
pulchritudinous even to a
king
an ineffable
deity
Breathing
my light blue
perfume in
ounce by ounce
and breathing
out pretty
lies
they warned
me about the
ones like
her,
pretty girls
with pretty
lies.
(photo credit, left: maxwellz)
by hills1
they speak in poetry.
their first word was "revolution";
can you believe it?
each sentence they speak—
passionate sonnets,
each word has to be soaked
in intellectual meaning
(they're also very smart too).
they also speak in couplets
two line of a verse that rhyme;
sarcasm, maybe.
haikus are a whole other language,
five
seven
five
every time they open their mouth
they make unintentionally beautiful patterns.
each ballad,
cinquain,
and epitaph they utter,
could make a book,
a novel
of poetry.
(photo credit, right: angelaweasley )
You will always be you;
Forever.
And, Love...
That’s a long time to hate yourself.
--lila woodard
YWP Newsletter- 7.9.18

THE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
Hello again, this is the second newsletter of July! For me, summer is a great time for writing because there is so much free time and open inspiration. I hope you are getting lots of quiet, summer downtime to write and relax!
If you already know what the newsletter is, feel free to skip the next paragraph.
This newsletter highlights writing, audio, images and any happenings in the YWP Community. We are a small band of YWP Community Leaders who also help create Challenges, select Daily Reads, Recommended, and work for Publication. As the editors of the newsletter, our role is to bring you authors extra audience and shine and to bring you readers some special pieces of work. Please pass along this newsletter or the links to the stories to bring the authors even more viewers. Enjoy!
This week we feature the writing and images of a.harkness02, Abriatis, H20.hollym, Sarajaney, Firegirl03, lila woodard, and Kitkat
YWP HAPPENINGS
Summer of Stories is happening! Read more on the homepage (scroll down).
Good Citizen Challenge sounds fun! Read more here.
Did you miss any of the previous newsletters? Click here.
by Sarajaney
There is a certain melancholy
In a bare wall.
One that you can't find
In a bare floor.
A wall stripped naked
Marked by stray push pins
Leaving millions of pinholes
That once held up the world.
Little reminders
Marks that connect sisters
Each one passing through just the same
Leaving traces for the next to discover.
This room will transform
Rooms are magic like that.
But no matter how it changes
I've left my mark too.
(photo credit, left: H20.hollym)
by lila woodard
To her
I was nothing more than a
conquest
a new muse
to paint
and then remove along
with the spring cleaning.
To her
I was nothing but a breathing flaw,
her calloused hands the answer
to fix me
My tears were the footnotes no
one ever
cared to read.
(photo credit, right: Firegirl03)
YWP Newsletter - 7.2.18

THE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
Welcome to the first July newsletter! It's very hot and I hope you all are staying cool and getting lots of swim time! This month a new community leader is editing the newsletters -- and I'm very excited to take my turn at creating them for you all. As a side note-- thank you to June's primary editor for the many great newsletters that were created! I looked foward to reading them each week and the introduction paragraphs were very amusing.
To community leaders: please, if you find work and pictures that you love tag it as "curated" it helps a lot with creating the newsletter and gives others a chance at getting published in it!
To everyone: selecting photos for the week is a lot of fun and hard when there aren't many... if you have photos you love, submit them! It's amazing to see the beautiful images on here and submitting them gives you a chance at be published in the newsletter too.
Anyway, I'm super excited to be newslettering this month! Thanks for reading them.
If you already know what the newsletter is, feel free to skip the next paragraph.
Welcome to the YWP Weekly Newsletter! This newsletter highlights writing, audio and images and any happenings in the YWP Community. We are a small band of YWP Community Leaders who also help create Challenges, select Daily Reads, Recommended, and work for Publication. As the editors of the newsletter, our role is to bring you authors extra audience and shine and to bring you readers some special pieces of work. Please pass along this newsletter or the links to the stories to bring the authors even more viewers. Enjoy!
This week we feature the writing of adalet, jbird18, pbellomo2021, a.harkness02, Drift, Flowerdragon, AboutToSnap, sophie.d, and Icestorm
YWP HAPPENINGS
Summer of Stories has begun! Read more here.
Castleton University is launching an academy for high school seniors! Read more here.
Read GG's "Lights Out" post about his break from YWP's executive director after 12 years here! We'll miss you GG!
Did you miss any of the previous newsletters? Click here.
by adalet
she was surprised to find that
sometimes home can look like
a mother with eyes like
the mediterranean and a smile
soaked in honey
a feeling found in twisted
hair, as soft as moss and bitter
as black coffee, written
in tongues foreign yet familiar, in
dust that tickles your nose and in
laughter that shakes you to the core
sometimes home is a fleeting sense
of recognition, of familiarity
found in the corners of a smile or
the edges of softening eye
contact- that moment of "our
souls have known each other since
the beginning of time and
i would recognize you
anywhere," perhaps you
truly see me
(photo credit, above: jbird18)
by pbellomo2021
You saw her,
Sitting there.
You didn't say a thing.
Teary eyed,
Dust filled lungs.
Her silent cry for help.
"Don't look back,"
Said your mind.
But you hoped someone would.
Words,
How little they seem until it's too late.
(photo credit, left: a.harkness02)
by Drift
I.
I remember swallowing a lump in my throat
you fiddling with your hands in the chair next to me.
We were nervous energy, unrefined
and just waiting to crash and burn.
Caffeine capillaries
and bloodshot eyes,
we knew our late night and early morning
with fingertips tapping at keyboards numbly.
That lump melted away as the sun shone down
from behind us, warm and inviting.
I knew it was fine.
II.
I remember clearing my throat in your car.
I swallowed hard to forget.
You laughed,
spindly fingers turning the knob on the car radio
to full blast
as you whipped down the straight away,
windows down,
and me yelling.
You screamed along,
lyrics visceral and raw.
I could feel your form
breathe in the sunbeams
and you lit up
with the light and fire
of a thousand stars in broad daylight.
III.
I loved you.
IV.
I remember driving in the rain,
my eyelids heavy.
Iced tea bellies
and thrifted wares,
our wallets were lighter
but our memories bigger.
I had my hand in yours
and it was warm and comforting.
I was shivering and you told me
to grab your jacket from the back
and I curled into that worn denim
and cherished it.
We got home too fast.
V.
I loved you.
VI.
It’s hard to swallow
and my head is reeling.
It’s fuzzy and fleeting,
drifting from my field of vision
like your dainty dandelion wishes.
Fleeting.
That’s how I’d describe it.
It was raining again as we drove.
I remember us arguing.
VII.
The end is hard to swallow.
I loved you.
But we gave up.
(photo credit, right: a.harkness02)
The Photo Gallery

YWP Newsletter - 6.25.18

THE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
Every month, the position of primary editor of the newsletter rotates to a different community leader. The goal of that--besides splitting the work--is to give you diversity each month in the kind of writing you see featured here. Each editor has unique tastes in poetry and photographs, and the newsletter can reflect that by being created by a new person each month. Because this is the newsletter's fourth week, this is my final week as editor, for now. Another editor will be taking over for the month of July, and another for August, and so on. TO COMMUNITY LEADERS READING THIS: You can recommend work for the newsletter by putting the tag "curated" on it, and the editor will look through those tagged pieces. Anyways, thanks to everyone who puts their work on YWP. I really enjoy looking through it every week, please keep sharing your writing and photos!
If you already know what the newsletter is, feel free to skip the next paragraph.
Welcome to the YWP Weekly Newsletter! This newsletter highlights writing, audio and images and any happenings in the YWP Community. We are a small band of YWP Community Leaders who also help create Challenges and select Daily Reads, Recommended and work for Publication. As the editors of the newsletter, our role is to bring you authors extra audience and shine and to bring you readers some special pieces of work. Please pass along this newsletter or the links to the stories to bring the authors even more viewers. Enjoy!
This week we feature the writing of fran.cesca, michmich, and sidney b., and photos by Hazel.C., Love to write, SilverGoose, Dancer, and aesythe.
YWP HAPPENINGS
Summer of Stories has begun! Read more here.
Read the Seven Days article about the GG to SR switch here!
Did you miss any of the previous newsletters? Click here.
(Photo, above, credit: nean_bean)
For Summer
by fran.cesca
it’s the heavy air
the parched grass’s thirst
quenched
the dog napping sprawled on a weathered deck
it’s dirt collecting on calloused bare feet
it’s slivers on your palm and pollen in your nose
the whine of insects and the distant chuckle of farm equipment
senses melded together because,
which one is which?
i’m stuck in the lull of it.
and i wouldn’t change a thing
(photo credit:SilverGoose)
by Sidney B.
The heartbeat I hear booms like thunder.
The thunder I hear precedes the brilliant flash of your electric words.
The flash signals to hundreds of bullets of water that it's time to plummet from the eye of the sky, to explode all over me.
You're soaked from head to toe in those raindrops your lightning brought down.
Now I'm alone with these thoughts of blinding lights and frozen teardrops.
And you'll be alone too, y'know.
You'll be as alone as me,
With that thunderous heart,
And your lightning lies,
And the truth they impart.
Since you, pal, you don't know how to quit or stay quiet,
To take a cue and go by it,
To make an oath to die by it.
Instead, you jitterbug and prance and waltz your way through life.
Your lightning lies and thunder heart, just a part of the chorus in your rain dance.
The sky's eyes water with every step and lyric, but you couldn't care if you tried.
"C'est la vie," you laugh.
But that ain't fair, you know it's not,
'Cause I hate what you're doing,
And we share the same feet.
I've let you have the rain.
Now I'll take the lead.
( photo credit:Hazel. C.)
by Michmich
Afraid of the light...
Afraid of the dark...
where else can I go
but the grey?
Where time trips over emotions
and the soul dissipates
into air.
Where fire is nonexistent
and the only warmth
you can find,
is rain...
I can hide in my
newspaper cave.
And chew slowly on
my solidifying hopes.
Watching my dreams fly
and taunt me from the
harsh light, and mysterious dark
I refuse to try.
I sit and regret.
‘Why did I give up?’
(Photo credit: Dancer)
The Photo Gallery


YWP NEWSLETTER - 6.18.18

THE THIRD WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
Summer is finally here! The days have been hot enough that I've needed to retreat into the basement for refuge, and school is over or winding down. That being said, YWP continues to party all summer long, so let's get out those pencils! (Or pens, if that's your jam.) This week I've read some inspiring poetry and seen some beautiful pictures here, and I'm happy to share them with you here. If you already know what the newsletter is, feel free to skip the next paragraph.
Welcome to the YWP Weekly Newsletter! This newsletter highlights writing, audio and images and any happenings in the YWP Community. We are a small band of YWP Community Leaders who also help create Challenges and select Daily Reads, Recommended and work for Publication. As the editors of the newsletter, our role is to bring you authors extra audience and shine and to bring you readers some special pieces of work. Please pass along this newsletter or the links to the stories to bring the authors even more viewers. Enjoy!
This week we feature the writing of hills1, Rovva, and Love to write, and photos by Hazel.C., Love to Write, angelaweasley, ShanRippWriting, Dancer, and aesythe.
YWP HAPPENINGS
Summer of Stories starts June 25th! Write, comment, win prizes and have fun! Learn more here.
GG's announcement! Did you see it? Check it out here...Send him a comment!
Did you miss any of the previous newsletters? Click here.
(Photo, above, credit: nean_bean)
Her: A Three Part Haiku
By hills1
At first glance, you caught
my heart. I don't blame you but
you're the reason for
my smile nowadays.
I don't drink coffee but you're
eyes are mocha brown
and I'm thirsty. Your
confidence alone could bring
a man to his knees.
(photo credit above: Hazel.C.)
By Rovva
A friend of a friend,
he was to me.
I thought nothing of it.
To meet an end,
so tragically,
I wanted to think above it.
I'm not sad,
not really,
because I didn't know him at all,
But this friend of a friend,
was a friend,
of my friend,
who is now backed against a wall.
This friend of a friend,
that I can't forget,
is pulling her into the earth.
I don't want to look,
for I am afraid,
of what a glance could possibly be worth.
I have seen it in mirrors,
dark and unsettling,
and I don't want to see it again,
yet there she sits,
her head low,
crying every now and then.
I can't do anything,
to relieve that pain,
and that is the worst kind of caring,
because no matter what,
severity the storm,
I can always hear her heart tearing.
(photo credit: Love to write)
By Love to write
It’s creative, you think,
the way ocean refuses
to be photographed.
Even more creative
with the stars.
It’s like trying to capture
the sky in a jar.
Like trying to drink sunlight from a cup.
You know now you never can
and long to anyways.
(photo credit:ShanRippWriting)
The time has come.
For what? Who knows?
To take a leap of faith, maybe.
To fly.
--BloodMoon825
The Photo Gallery
YWP Newsletter - 6.11.18

GEMS FROM THE COMMUNITY
This is the second installment of the YWP Weekly Newsletter! This newsletter highlights writing, audio and images and any happenings in the YWP Community. We are a small band of YWP Community Leaders who also help create Challenges and select Daily Reads, Recommended and work for Publication. As the editors of the newsletter, our role is to bring you authors extra audience and shine and to bring you readers some special pieces of work. Please pass along this newsletter or the links to the stories to bring the authors even more viewers. Enjoy!
This week we feature the writing of Drift, SilverGoose, and Icestorm, and photos by a.harkness02, maddi clair, and angelaweasley.
YWP HAPPENINGS
Spring Photo Contest results are out! Congratulations to semacdonald, NGB777, and nean_bean. See the winning photos in the photo gallery below, or here.
We encourage you to post lots of pictures, as we always need more of them for the newsletter! Get out those cameras!
GG's announcement! Did you see it? Check it out here...Send him a comment!
Did you miss last week's newsletter? Click here.
(Photo, above, credit: nean_bean)
Bystander
by Drift
she trembles
as every sob wracks her body,
violently shaking her.
i can hear the death rattling around in her ribs,
the soft whisper of veins collapsing
and the stillness of somber.
i can feel the loss,
cold against my fingertips,
as i interlock mine with hers.
she's shivering,
cold and drenched
from having stood under stormy clouds
and tears for too long.
she's cried rivers,
and i can feel the valleys and twists
in her worn skin,
the stories she could tell
from having been carved with tears
from cold marble,
solid and unnerved.
there is tragedy in her soul,
frustration in her heart,
and contempt in her bones.
it can only fuel
a biological machine
for so long
before the gears rust
and everything cracks.
there is nothing i can do to stop her.
(Photo credit: angelaweasley)
by SilverGoose
I always dreamed of finding
a hidden door in my closet
or under the stairs
that would take me to a new world
with unicorns and dragons
and centaurs and fairies
and fauns and talking animals
and I could be a hero.
I could be strong and brave
and smart and beautiful.
I guess I didn't realize
I could be those in real life.
(Photo credit: Maddi Clair)
by Icestorm
“excuse me, sir,
but what do you think you’re doing?
that girl is 12."
“how twisted is your mind
that you feel justified
to shout obscene things
at women half your age?"
“you have no right
to talk to her that way.
what she does with her body
is her choice
and no matter how much
systematic desensitization
society puts us all through,
it is never ok
to think otherwise."
“no, it’s not a compliment.
a compliment looks like
excuse me, ma’am,
i was casually observing you
and happened to find you
very attractive.
thank you and goodbye.
not this profane BS
you’re trying to pull."
“bet you didn’t think
anyone would contradict you,
huh?
so used to using your words
to leave girls standing speechless
staring after you,
what did he just say?
well here it is.
your brutally honest wakeup call."
“am i making you
uncomfortable?
that’s a shame.
no one
deserves
to feel insecure
in their own skin,
do they?"
“thank you and goodbye.”
(Photo of Muslim Girls Making Change, Voices for Change conference, May 11, Burlington, VT. Photo credit: a.harkness02)
The Photo Gallery


YWP Newsletter - 6.4.18

GEMS FROM THE COMMUNITY
Welcome to the first ever YWP Weekly Newsletter! This newsletter highlights writing, audio and images and any happenings in the YWP Community. We are a small band of YWP Community Leaders who also help create Challenges and select Daily Reads, Recommended and work for Publication. As the editors of the newsletter, our role is to bring you authors extra audience and shine and to bring you readers some special pieces of work. Please pass along this newsletter or the links to the stories to bring the authors even more viewers. We hope you enjoy this.
This week we feature the work of Anna, Wrenegade and Nightheart, and photos by Anna P., H20.hollym, Adelle M. Brunstad, Silver Goose, Alicia Marie 7, a.harkness02, and nean_bean.
YWP HAPPENINGS
FREE online workshop this summer! Much better than surfing or hanging at the beach. WRITE with Young Writers Project!
Our annual Summer of Stories kicks off June 25 -- fun weekly writing challenges, prizes, publication, fame! AND ... special this year ... YWP Mentor Eliza Mager is offering a six-part online course in short story writing. Interested? Spaces are limited! More info and signup here!.
Realizations of Forever
by Anna
soon,
we’ll be on our own.
voices drifting with the wind
a thousand songs
and a thousand more.
the simple sadness
of the final notes
lingering on the breeze long after we’ve gone.
if we were ever meant to fly
our feet would not settle for the ground.
we've always longed for comfort.
we knew forever
only meant 'for a moment'
they told us the city never sleeps at night.
the sturdiness of its hands on ours
assuring our arrival back some day.
we’re only human.
lilacs in the spring didn’t ask
to slip away
so soon.
the way the world works
has always been a mysterious
phenomenon.
memories whisper in our ears.
ghosts.
twiddling thumbs.
mind wandering
fleeting time.
set us free.
don't let me go so soon.
maybe we’re not ready.
you built us to be strong.
eternity never gets the chance to prosper.
our existence is an illusion of longing
and aspirations.
the sun never requested us
to mourn its passing as we do each night.
don’t learn from our broken words.
they reflect nothing
except the wall we’ve built to hide behind.
we’re afraid of honesty
being afraid is too slow for the rushing
of the workings of the world.
we’re more than we imagined.
the clocks never worked.
time isn't how we choose it.
it paces itself.
unlike us,
it understands.
the dandelions
floating on the green sea
bigger than we ever could have been.
the pine trees
and the laughter
and the clouds
and the wonders
and the wishes.
there’s a reason we stopped in to say hello.
if we fall
we’ll all go together.
thank you for teaching us
how to say
goodbye.
by Wrenegade
She clings
helpless
to her rung,
never looking at
those below her,
always gazing up
to where they all want to be;
the rungs that hold
the rich
perfect
thin things.
The popular ones.
Her rung is crowded
with all her "friends" clinging to it
to her.
All they want is to move
up.
They tell themselves they will
be happy there,
at the top.
If they looked, they could see that isn't true.
And she spends
all her energy
trying to climb,
but as soon as she takes a hand off
to reach the next rung,
the whole
ladder
shakes
and she puts it back on.
don't climb, they whisper to her, you won't make it, you could fall.
But you can't stay here, they whisper to her, you'll never be happy, you can only be happy at the top.
you need to be at the top.
And she tries;
she starves herself
and loses who she is
to try to get to the top,
where everyone will look up to
her,
but it doesn't work,
and she stays
clinging
to her rung.
Slowly
she realizes
she can never be happy.
Not on here,
not on the ladder.
And while their screams echo in her ears, she finally decides
to let go
to fall off the ladder
No! they yell at her, you can't! The fall will break you.
You can't give up. You need this.
You need the ladder.
No, she replies, I don't.
And it's not giving up.
She falls.
And realizes that
you don't
have to be at
the top
to
be
happy.
by Nightheart
Another school shooting
has occurred today.
crackles a voice
over the radio.
There is one official death
reported so far-
and then my father clicks
off the radio and silence reigns,
staring out at the countryside
that passes.
Just because it happens
doesn't mean we talk about it.
and the silence reigns.
There has been two other
accusations of sexual assault today,
of prominent men-
The TV is cut off by a hand
on the remote as widened eyes
gape at the blank TV screen,
newsreel still playing on repeat
inside my head.
Just because it happens,
doesn't mean we talk about it.
and the silence reigns.
There was another protest
in the streets,
I hear my parents whisper
The situation is not safe,
not good.
but their mouths go silent as
i walk near, air empty
yet full with all the words they didn't
say.
Just because it happens,
doesn't mean we talk about it.
and the silence reigns.
Another chemical bomb
was dropped,
the headline on the
computer screen reads,
hundreds injured or dead-
the screen clicks off
once they catch my gaze,
burning hot,
on the computer screen that fades away,
the letters and images still
swirling through my brain.
Just because it happens,
doesn't mean we talk about it.
and the silence reigns.
But the silence is tearing me up
with worry inside,
worry that wreaks havoc on my sleep
and then haunts my nightmares,
silence gives me too much place to dream,
to think about what world we live in.
We're killing ourselves with all the
things that happened that we wouldn't
talk about.
and now everything that was compacted
has exploded like a geyser
every ugly thing we didn't talk about
has exploded for all the world to see,
and now,
The silence reigns.
It’s always harder to say good-bye,
When you never said hello in the first place…
That’s why the light hurts
A little more than the dark
--Anna P.
The Photo Gallery



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