Due this week

General Writing. Send in your best work – poems, short stories, essays. (Feel free to do it throughout the year, but this gives you a deadline.)
Deadline: Oct. 10.

To submit to Newspaper Series

  • Log in. (Click "Not a YWP member?" to create an account.)

  • Click "create content" and create an ENTRY
  • Fill out "title," "author name, school & grade" and "prompt" boxes.
  • Paste story into "body."
  • Click "Submit." You are done.
    NOTES: Your account email must be accurate; a "blog" entry must be resubmitted as an ENTRY to be considered.

Stark

Submitted by Gazebo on April 1, 2008 - 23:46.

Stark

By W. T. Smith
Hanover High School, Grade 11

Lay faith upon the chopping block,
With thought set close at hand––
I'll bear the blade of ignorance
To seek to understand.

And what survives the chopping block––
The pruning of a soul––
Will last you in your farthest walk
And carried, keep you whole.

So bare yourself in ignorance
And let yourself be shown;
Without your faith to cover you––
With naked love alone.

This is beautiful. The last

Submitted by Katy on April 11, 2008 - 22:40.

This is beautiful. The last stanza is so powerful.

miss_literal's picture

wow, you are amazing. i am

Submitted by miss_literal on April 11, 2008 - 22:43.

wow, you are amazing. i am blown away. seriously.

Aww

Submitted by Gazebo on April 11, 2008 - 23:02.

*shuffles feet*
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it.

this is awesome!

Submitted by vtmusic_lover on April 13, 2008 - 23:49.

oh my gosh! i can't believe you wrote this! Awesome job!!!

Feedback

Submitted by emilyeleni on April 22, 2008 - 22:03.

I'm incredibly impressed with this poem. You say so much in just three short stanzas. For a junior in high school, you seem to truly be ahead of your time.
I think that what I liked most about your poem was the way I felt after I read it. It was as if I felt the meaning in it before I really understood it. In fact, each time I read it over, I picked up on something new.
Aside from the vivid images you create, your form is also beautiful. So few writers know how to properly use dashes, especially in poetry, and you have clearly shown that you understand this use, so bravo! I once read that a publisher rejected Emily Dickinson's poetry when she first sent it in because it contained too many dashes. I for one, respect so much the effective use of the dash in writing.
You deserve to be published--keep writing!
Sincerely,
Emily James

UVM Mentor

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