By Elisabetta Smith, TIWP Student its a surreal type of painwhen you have to convince yourselfto ignore it you can run into a windowthinking it was just airwhen you don’t know if it’s really a fightor just something else you made up in your headbecause if nobody else noticedthen it must not be therei wish […]

By Elisabetta Smith, TIWP Student in just a minutewatch my empire fall to the groundpick up the pieces turn back around and i don’t know what to sayi guess nothing’s really gainedif you forgot all of the pain again and i guess that i was wrongand all that i have is goneand maybe we can […]

By Giséle Anagnost, TIWP Student I wish that the crumbling ground we walk upon will stay steady no matter how we tread upon it. I wish that we could have strengthened each other in times of darkness instead of tearing each other down. I wish for trust and hope between us. I wish for what we […]

By Laily Berjis, TIWP Student Purple is the ache of
being understood only by yourself,
when the world looks at you
and sees nothing but light,
but inside,you’re lost in a shadow.Purple is the pulse in your chest
when something beautiful ends,
and you know you can’t go back
to the way it was.It’s the ghost of a feeling.Purple is the smell of rain
before […]

By Laily Berjis, TIWP Student If I let my light shine,without dimming it to fit the room, If I stopped folding myselfinto smaller versions of what’s considered safe, questioning my self-worth, what would growin the space I reclaimed? If I stop shrinking my voiceto fit the ease of silence,stop apologizing for wanting more, I would stop arguing with […]

By Laily Berjis, TIWP Student I don’t know what to call it,the space between a sigh and a smile,when someone says “you’re too sensitive,”and you don’t know if it’s a curse or a compliment. It’s like the smell you remember,that brings back a memorybut can’t name,and suddenly you’re there. It’s the color grayA fog that […]

By Laily Berjis, TIWP Student How to keep flowers fresh longer:honey in the water, sprinkle of sugar, ice cubes, crushed aspirin, a copper penny,advice whispered like kitchen secretsas if time could listen. We focus too much to slow them,but they’re already wiltingeven as we admire them. They bloom anyway,not because of us,but because that’s what they […]

By Laily Berjis, TIWP Student “Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be?”― Charles Bukowski Who was I, before the world told me who I should be?I was colors of freedom in the morning light.Before the mirrors reflected a version that wasn’t truly me,I was the moon with no […]

By Caroline Yelverton, TIWP Student The moon casts its gentle glow over the serene landscape,  A light wind rustling the branches of the trees nestled between the rolling hills.  Leg crossed over the other, she looks up to the starry sky and Orion’s belt stretched across it. As she slides the screen door shut a fleeting […]