**A Creative Writing Class Explores Poetry**

In my creative writing class, we recently embarked on an exercise that was both therapeutic and cathartic. As per our instructor's instructions, we were asked to share some of our poetry with each other, unafraid to showcase our imperfections and vulnerabilities. The task was not an easy one, as it required us to confront our own emotions and experiences, and to be honest about the struggles we've faced in life.

As I prepared to share my poems, I couldn't help but feel a sense of trepidation. What if they were truly awful? What if they revealed too much about myself? But, with the encouragement of my classmates, I decided to take the plunge and share my work. The first poem I chose to read was called "Invitation". It began with the lines: "Open up my mind, see what goes on / I write to anger, sorrow and tears / I always write, my fear can't help what I feel or how I think." This poem captured a moment in time from my past when I was struggling to cope with my emotions. I wrote it during a particularly difficult period in my life, when I felt lost and alone.

As I read on, I realized that this poem was not just about me, but also about the universal struggles we all face as humans. It's a reminder that we're not alone in our pain, and that writing can be a powerful tool for processing and releasing our emotions. The next poem I chose to share was called "Metaphors". These poems were not as polished as my first one, but they still carried a raw, emotional power.

One of the lines from this poem stood out to me: "Laughter is a cure for tears and heartache / Heart is a stone hard as a brick but soft as a feather." This phrase has stuck with me over the years, and I find myself repeating it when I need a reminder that even in the darkest moments, there is always hope. The next poem I chose to share was called "Mirror of Imperfection". It's a more introspective piece, one that explores the complexities of identity and self-perception.

This poem began with the lines: "On this complexion beyond this exterior lies a girl who is frail, suitable to the world but not to herself." This line struck me because it speaks so truthfully about the struggle to reconcile our external personas with our internal selves. We often present ourselves to the world in a way that's designed to impress or appease others, but beneath the surface, we're constantly grappling with our own insecurities and doubts.

**The Giveaway**

As an added treat for my classmates, I announced a giveaway hosted by Disney Hyperion. The prize was a set of books written by Tamara Ireland Stone, including "Every Last Word", which is the novel that inspired us to write our own poetry in the first place. To enter the giveaway, all you had to do was write your own poem and share it with me via YouTube.

I encouraged my classmates to be as creative as they liked, whether it was a haiku or a three-line stanza, I just wanted to see what we were capable of. The idea was that this would be a safe space for us to express ourselves without fear of judgment or criticism. As I watched the comments roll in, I could feel a sense of excitement and anticipation building.

**The Winner**

While I didn't get to read all of the poems that my classmates submitted, I did manage to pick a few that stood out to me. Unfortunately, I couldn't choose a winner from the crowd, as the task was not about picking a "winner" in the classical sense. Rather, it was about sharing our work and supporting one another through this creative process.

As I reflect on our experience, I'm struck by the power of poetry to capture and convey our deepest emotions and experiences. It's a reminder that writing can be both therapeutic and cathartic, allowing us to process and release our feelings in a way that's both healing and transformative.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: eneveryone today I'm here to do a revieww and a giveaway so yay Disney Hyperion is sponsoring this giveaway the giveaway is going to be before every last word by Tamara Ireland Stone I hope I pronounced that right if you want to hear about what you can win other than this awesome book stay tuned till the end I promise it'll be a very very short review so you don't have to be like oh I have to wait 10 minutes no okay just wait to the end of the video all right like I said this is sent to me by Disney Hyperion this is in Ark um it comes out out today that's right it comes out today so be sure to get your copy of it if you don't win the giveaway you know but whatever I'm going to tell you what it's about and then we will talk about the review this is about a girl named Samantha who is popular she's part of this group called like the crazy AES imagine like you know the Mean Girls you know Regina George and all them she's part of them and she also suffers from OCD where she has thoughts and she can't let them go and she has to do things in like three sometimes and nobody knows that she suffers from this she's just you know trying to cope with it every day she meets this girl named Caroline who introduced her to this new group of friends and she slowly starts to become a different person become who she truly is and it's all about her learning how to Pro like cope with her OCD find like kind of almost ways to handle it more and just become herself rather than just become someone that everyone thinks that they want her to be you know so it's kind of like that so it's a book about OCD but I will say it doesn't fully focus on her OCD it focuses more on her like how she copes with and stuff like that this is a very poem heavy book in fact she copes with it because she joins like this poet club and there's they talk they do poems and songs and all that stuff so that's how she copes with it that's how she you know finds herself almost and finds herself in these group of friends it just slowly starts becoming the person that she knows that she wants to be and that who she truly is so it was a very very good book I loved it had a little bit of romance which I adore you know that is refreshing honestly like you know I'm not much of a poem writer but it was really awesome reading the poems and seeing how all of these kidss that are in the poet club like feel how they're all having these struggles you know one has their mom died one has their parents being divorced one had this her heartbroken they just all you know reflect that that feelings into poems and they paste it on the wall it was just very very awesome thing and it's like down underneath like the it's like almost in like in the basement like in the secret room and they like every time one of them is done reading their poems everyone throw glue sticks at them and they catch one and they just paste their poem onto the wall this poems this poet's corner has been going for like over a decade and it was just so awesome I really love Samantha and how she blossomed and how she opened up and just learned more about herself and that she had Caroline by the way no spoilers but n see that c coming I did and they were ring me another book think write the book below if you know I'm talking about but I was like what I was not expecting that but I thought it was an awesome twist and I thought it was really cool how she handled it how that all came to be and that she was helping herself through that way I thought that was just a very very awesome way of writing it honestly very very cool props to you Miss Stone I love that Lov AJ oh my gosh he reminded me so much I think of Owen and just listen where he was just very kind of musicy and quiet and all that kind of stuff oh he reminds me a lot of a lot of guys like in Sid descent's books so I love those type of guys and I loved how Samantha stood up to the crazy a because let's face it there's always that group of girls in high school I know I had them that are just mean and they're just me because they just know they're better than everybody else and and they're just awesome and they frown upon anybody else that's not like them and I'm like get get out of here like G high school you know this is just a really really cool book to read I promise you'll fly through it I flew through it in like a couple days I gave it a four out of five um it's just a really really sweet awesome and just learning about yourself and becoming who you are I love that so in honor of this book and how it has so much poems in it I thought I would reluctantly share some poems with you guys that I wrote n years ago what right n years ago back in the day when I was a young last you know me being as old as I am 26 so I graduated when I was 17 in 2006 yeah that's right kids do the math I'm old I was in creative writing I think I was in creative writing my sophomore year of high school and then I contributed something my senior year every year my high school like released like this book of like poetry you can put pictures in it of like you write or you draw and all that kind of stuff and they pick which ones they want and yeah so I'm going to share with you some of the stuff that was in that like magazine every year and then some poems for my creative writing class and I'm just going to be a front with you they suck they do suck I read them now and I'm like but you know what in honor of it being this book is poets con corner you cannot number one the rules you cannot judge anybody's poem it's their feelings okay so don't judge me I was how old was I WR this one I was oh my God I was like 50 so yeah okay that was like literally oh my God that was like 15 years a no it was 10 years ago that was 11 years ago I wrote this that makes me want a barf anyway so yeah one is called invitation open up my mind see what goes on I write to anger sorrow and tears I always write my fear can't help what I feel or how I think I pour out my soul Page by Page day by day I learn to get better and see more so come in and see capture my thoughts but please do not capture me that's the one that was called invitation this one's metaphors you write some metaphors these aren't as great as well love I you know what I think we all go through that phase where you just really kind of angsty in high school you know you're just like I hate everybody hate love and all that stuff so yeah that's what it is love is a poison seeping its way into everyone's skin fear is a doubt of how truly great you are I do like that one props to me hope is a bird flying away into a storm laughter is a cure for tears and heartache heart is a stone hard as a brick but soft as a feather like abandonment is an empty car full of Echoes life is a fork in a road a secret is a virus waiting to spread those are okay so those are just two from my creative bra CLA let's see what I can conjure up from put in the pen I'm going to read one more okay and then it's going to be it this one is called miror of imperfection on this complexion Beyond this exterior lies a girl who is frail suitable to the world but not to herself this world tells her how to live but sometimes not even she can escape it's awful sin she wants more more than this more than cruelness she wants Bliss so delicate so fragile she'll Bend but she won't break she'll gasp but she'll never cry this girl holds everything inside actually I mean I think that's pretty decent yeah I was kind of angsty in high school I think we all go through that phas like I said I to share with you guys some poems I did not want to do that because they are quite awful and quite sad and quite depressing but you know in honor of this book and just embracing who you are embracing your past accepting the future just you know let's let's do it yeah I hope you guys enjoyed that which you all been waiting for obviously the giveaway oh like I said this giveaway is hosted by Disney Hyperion what you're going to win is you're going to win ple Tamara Tamara Oh Ireland Stone Collection so you're going to win a copy of every last word by her as well as her two previous books that have nothing to do with this book by the way they're just other contemporary books called time between us and time after time for you to win this giveaway like I said you have to be living in the US and number two to enter I want you guys to write a poem down below it could be a ha coup it could be three lines it could be whatever you want it to let's not get really really really crazy okay like I don't want a lot of super super depressing stuff cuz it don't make me sad but yeah just write a PO anything you want just spill your heart out to me you know if you want to write about your favorite pencil go for it if you want to write about your favorite dog go for it if you want to write about how crappy a day you've had go for it just write it out let your feelings out spill them spill them spill them I will pick a winner either randomly or I may pick my favorite poem whatever I'm failing in like a week and I will contact you via YouTube so yeah I think that I think that's an awesome way to enter a giveaway I I like it let's enter this giveaway and even if you don't I hope you pick up this copy of this book because I really really enjoyed it it's honestly an awesome book and it makes me want to write more poetry hopefully that doesn't suck as much as it did 11 years ago anyway that is all for me and start riding your poems even if you don't want to ENT the giveaway just be like I don't want to the giveaway I actually want to write a poem for you do it yeah oh ooh oeveryone today I'm here to do a revieww and a giveaway so yay Disney Hyperion is sponsoring this giveaway the giveaway is going to be before every last word by Tamara Ireland Stone I hope I pronounced that right if you want to hear about what you can win other than this awesome book stay tuned till the end I promise it'll be a very very short review so you don't have to be like oh I have to wait 10 minutes no okay just wait to the end of the video all right like I said this is sent to me by Disney Hyperion this is in Ark um it comes out out today that's right it comes out today so be sure to get your copy of it if you don't win the giveaway you know but whatever I'm going to tell you what it's about and then we will talk about the review this is about a girl named Samantha who is popular she's part of this group called like the crazy AES imagine like you know the Mean Girls you know Regina George and all them she's part of them and she also suffers from OCD where she has thoughts and she can't let them go and she has to do things in like three sometimes and nobody knows that she suffers from this she's just you know trying to cope with it every day she meets this girl named Caroline who introduced her to this new group of friends and she slowly starts to become a different person become who she truly is and it's all about her learning how to Pro like cope with her OCD find like kind of almost ways to handle it more and just become herself rather than just become someone that everyone thinks that they want her to be you know so it's kind of like that so it's a book about OCD but I will say it doesn't fully focus on her OCD it focuses more on her like how she copes with and stuff like that this is a very poem heavy book in fact she copes with it because she joins like this poet club and there's they talk they do poems and songs and all that stuff so that's how she copes with it that's how she you know finds herself almost and finds herself in these group of friends it just slowly starts becoming the person that she knows that she wants to be and that who she truly is so it was a very very good book I loved it had a little bit of romance which I adore you know that is refreshing honestly like you know I'm not much of a poem writer but it was really awesome reading the poems and seeing how all of these kidss that are in the poet club like feel how they're all having these struggles you know one has their mom died one has their parents being divorced one had this her heartbroken they just all you know reflect that that feelings into poems and they paste it on the wall it was just very very awesome thing and it's like down underneath like the it's like almost in like in the basement like in the secret room and they like every time one of them is done reading their poems everyone throw glue sticks at them and they catch one and they just paste their poem onto the wall this poems this poet's corner has been going for like over a decade and it was just so awesome I really love Samantha and how she blossomed and how she opened up and just learned more about herself and that she had Caroline by the way no spoilers but n see that c coming I did and they were ring me another book think write the book below if you know I'm talking about but I was like what I was not expecting that but I thought it was an awesome twist and I thought it was really cool how she handled it how that all came to be and that she was helping herself through that way I thought that was just a very very awesome way of writing it honestly very very cool props to you Miss Stone I love that Lov AJ oh my gosh he reminded me so much I think of Owen and just listen where he was just very kind of musicy and quiet and all that kind of stuff oh he reminds me a lot of a lot of guys like in Sid descent's books so I love those type of guys and I loved how Samantha stood up to the crazy a because let's face it there's always that group of girls in high school I know I had them that are just mean and they're just me because they just know they're better than everybody else and and they're just awesome and they frown upon anybody else that's not like them and I'm like get get out of here like G high school you know this is just a really really cool book to read I promise you'll fly through it I flew through it in like a couple days I gave it a four out of five um it's just a really really sweet awesome and just learning about yourself and becoming who you are I love that so in honor of this book and how it has so much poems in it I thought I would reluctantly share some poems with you guys that I wrote n years ago what right n years ago back in the day when I was a young last you know me being as old as I am 26 so I graduated when I was 17 in 2006 yeah that's right kids do the math I'm old I was in creative writing I think I was in creative writing my sophomore year of high school and then I contributed something my senior year every year my high school like released like this book of like poetry you can put pictures in it of like you write or you draw and all that kind of stuff and they pick which ones they want and yeah so I'm going to share with you some of the stuff that was in that like magazine every year and then some poems for my creative writing class and I'm just going to be a front with you they suck they do suck I read them now and I'm like but you know what in honor of it being this book is poets con corner you cannot number one the rules you cannot judge anybody's poem it's their feelings okay so don't judge me I was how old was I WR this one I was oh my God I was like 50 so yeah okay that was like literally oh my God that was like 15 years a no it was 10 years ago that was 11 years ago I wrote this that makes me want a barf anyway so yeah one is called invitation open up my mind see what goes on I write to anger sorrow and tears I always write my fear can't help what I feel or how I think I pour out my soul Page by Page day by day I learn to get better and see more so come in and see capture my thoughts but please do not capture me that's the one that was called invitation this one's metaphors you write some metaphors these aren't as great as well love I you know what I think we all go through that phase where you just really kind of angsty in high school you know you're just like I hate everybody hate love and all that stuff so yeah that's what it is love is a poison seeping its way into everyone's skin fear is a doubt of how truly great you are I do like that one props to me hope is a bird flying away into a storm laughter is a cure for tears and heartache heart is a stone hard as a brick but soft as a feather like abandonment is an empty car full of Echoes life is a fork in a road a secret is a virus waiting to spread those are okay so those are just two from my creative bra CLA let's see what I can conjure up from put in the pen I'm going to read one more okay and then it's going to be it this one is called miror of imperfection on this complexion Beyond this exterior lies a girl who is frail suitable to the world but not to herself this world tells her how to live but sometimes not even she can escape it's awful sin she wants more more than this more than cruelness she wants Bliss so delicate so fragile she'll Bend but she won't break she'll gasp but she'll never cry this girl holds everything inside actually I mean I think that's pretty decent yeah I was kind of angsty in high school I think we all go through that phas like I said I to share with you guys some poems I did not want to do that because they are quite awful and quite sad and quite depressing but you know in honor of this book and just embracing who you are embracing your past accepting the future just you know let's let's do it yeah I hope you guys enjoyed that which you all been waiting for obviously the giveaway oh like I said this giveaway is hosted by Disney Hyperion what you're going to win is you're going to win ple Tamara Tamara Oh Ireland Stone Collection so you're going to win a copy of every last word by her as well as her two previous books that have nothing to do with this book by the way they're just other contemporary books called time between us and time after time for you to win this giveaway like I said you have to be living in the US and number two to enter I want you guys to write a poem down below it could be a ha coup it could be three lines it could be whatever you want it to let's not get really really really crazy okay like I don't want a lot of super super depressing stuff cuz it don't make me sad but yeah just write a PO anything you want just spill your heart out to me you know if you want to write about your favorite pencil go for it if you want to write about your favorite dog go for it if you want to write about how crappy a day you've had go for it just write it out let your feelings out spill them spill them spill them I will pick a winner either randomly or I may pick my favorite poem whatever I'm failing in like a week and I will contact you via YouTube so yeah I think that I think that's an awesome way to enter a giveaway I I like it let's enter this giveaway and even if you don't I hope you pick up this copy of this book because I really really enjoyed it it's honestly an awesome book and it makes me want to write more poetry hopefully that doesn't suck as much as it did 11 years ago anyway that is all for me and start riding your poems even if you don't want to ENT the giveaway just be like I don't want to the giveaway I actually want to write a poem for you do it yeah oh ooh o\n"