VOX Investigates mental health this spring. Teens’ coverage kicks off with reflections and self-expression, including this poem.
This will not be the last time you feel like this.
There will be days your body feels more crumpled mistake than masterpiece.
You will still want to wring the heartbeat out of your skin.
I cannot promise self-love.
I cannot craft into existence a will to exist.
But I can promise you deserve it.
I can promise you are more masterpiece than mistake.
I can promise there is gold running through your veins,
And I know it is heavy.
I know there are days it holds you in bed,
Or dangles you from cliffs.
So hold on.
Even if you are grasping at frayed thread.
Even if it makes you bleed.
Hold on when falling seems easier.
Live because you will love;
Live because you will hurt.
Live because no matter how empty you feel right now —
You deserve to be so full of life that it overflows from every pore.
Haley is in ninth grade at Grady High School.
Interested in poetry?
On Saturday, Feb. 18, VOX is partnering with Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) to celebrate Maya Angelou’s legacy with And Still I Rise Teen Spoken Word Workshop (1-2:45 p.m.) and Poetry Slam (3-5 p.m.).
Bring friends, bring poems, bring yourselves for an afternoon of art not ego and inspiration! IT’S FREE!
VOX welcomes Atlanta-area teens’ original poetry for publication. Just email your work, along a headshot or piece or accompanying piece of art, with your name, age and school (if in school) to Sarah@voxatl.org.
