Student Publishing Program ::

Michael Adhanom

Expressing Yourself in the Wrong Way

I hate writing poems

They are meaningless to me

Anyone can write a poem about anything

They are confusing and over analyzed

Words mean little to me

Who decides what makes a poem great

I see no difference

If I put enough unnecessary lines and spaces

I will have art

Any nonsensical comparison is amazing to some

Nothing has to make sense

And in this world

Where my life is dictated by rules and processes

And where there is a standard of writing

Bout how I have to write in a certain tense in a certain way

With no fragments no run ons

No individuality nothing that one can honestly say is their own

How can someone write this junk

And publish it

And hand it out to children

And be praised by the people who wrote the book of rules against it

Why can’t I make a poem

With 10 words

But 3 pages long

Cause my teacher will tell me I’m wrong

Because I will be graded down

In a system where being unique is going to give you a bad mark

And I know

That tomorrow I’m going to have to read these atrocities

And when I’m told to write one of my own

And find my own voice

I will be given guidelines and a set of rules

For if I was to be truly myself

I guess I wouldn’t care what the teacher said

I could write about anything

I’ll probably be told I wrote this wrong too

And basically be told I’m writing my own poem wrong

From the same person who hands out these

“imaginative” and “unique” and “amazing” poems

I’ll be told, to make another one

Something less individual

That appeals to everyone and can make the world happy