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.

Week 22: I Found A Key -- Maggie Kinzel

Submitted by aanderson on August 22, 2007 - 13:08.

By Maggie Kinzel
Main Street Middle School, Grade 8

I found a key,
Just yesterday
And all my troubles
Went away

For what the key opened
I wouldn’t have found
If that old key wasn’t
Lying right on the ground!

My steps were steady
Hands at my side
My eyes wandered to my feet
And what did I find?

Its handle was chipped
Two notches carved in
And oh, its aged beauty
Where do I begin?

Unique and old-fashioned
I admire both sides
For every bit tells a story
If your discovery is undefined

What does it unlock?
I hadn’t a clue
Then come early evening
I suddenly knew

I’ve been told we all have a Pandora’s box,
But wasn’t sure if that was true
Then I found mine, in fact
Right out of the blue

With this key you close things in
Rather than open them up
Let the bad things leave you
Put them away inside the box
You’ll find life is much easier
When your troubles are locked

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