Young Writers Project is a creative, online community of teen writers and visual artists that started in Burlington in 2006. Each week, VTDigger publishes the writing and art of young Vermonters who post their work on youngwritersproject.org, a free, interactive website for youth, ages 13-19. To find out more, please go to youngwritersproject.org or contact Executive Director Susan Reid at sreid@youngwritersproject.org; (802) 324-9538.
Happiness is composed of as many internal factors as external: While we need food and shelter and community to survive, we are also compelled to seek comfort in ourselves to thrive. As poet June Jordan said, “I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect.” This week’s featured poet, Branwen Wilbur of North Hartland, endeavors to find that sense of beaming self-worth —‚and in the process, to just be okay.
I want to be okay
Branwen Wilbur, North Hartland
I want to be okay,
I’ve been through so much pain.
I’ve been brought up and broken,
silenced and outspoken.
I want to be okay,
my life was flipped over.
But now it’s getting better,
I float up and feel light as a feather.
I have no more love songs,
no more heartfelt words.
But I’m falling in love again,
and it’s better than before.
I see her every day,
with her long hair and slender frame.
I wonder how she sees herself as ugly,
I ponder how she thinks she’s worthless.
Every minute I spend with her I fall more and more.
But this isn’t a stranger to you,
as this isn’t someone new.
This small, smart, and passionate girl
is me,
and I want to be okay so she can be okay.
I learned that I can’t put all my love into someone, I have to put it into me.
I have to love me,
and it’s easier than I ever imagined.
They were all wrong, I’m easy to love —
and I want to be okay with me.
