By Mira Hubly, TIWP Student I am made of crisp, gentle sunlightthat warms and softens,seeds splittingand young branches twisting and stretching,waves rising and falling,smooth water, fierce sea sprayand salt baking in the sun. I am made of western wind,pushing and pulling,swaying, bopping,spinning,skipping,cracking. I am made of toffeewith sweet caramel,boiled, pulled and stretched,hardened over rich chocolate,breakable yet firm. […]

By Ava Moga, TIWP Student It’s hard to know who I truly am with everyone else’s lives swarming around me,constantly comparing myself to my friends, family, even the random people who I pass in the hallway. It’s hard not to compare,even knowing that at the end of the day we want different things. It’s hard […]

By Audrey Lambert, TIWP Alumni bite me down to the bonei’m starvedcanine’s shark-sharptear into raw fleshi need my mouth to feel fulli need my stomach to feel fulli need to feel full. fill me upextinguish this empty furymake it stop fill me upi need to feel full. there’s a bear in my stomachshe paces in her […]

By Stella Pollock, TIWP Student “You are so beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don’t think you’re good enough.*”She hears a rendition of this line every time she expresses distaste.Distaste for her bloated body.Distaste for her tired brain.Distaste for her textured skin.Never does she hear sympathy.Never does she hear, ‘I understand.’But […]

By Mia Ford, TIWP Student Wishing, craving, all leading back to wanting,wanting to understand the nature of human actions,the action of hiding behind a smile,but the feeling of seeking something more,wanting a life full of beautiful magnolias,a magnolia where each petal makes the nature’s blossom whole. Each step taken, each breath exhaled makes want overpower […]

By Natalie Ware, TIWP Student Look at the starsLook how they shine for you You were so quiet todayThat’s usually meI’m not usually quietBut in this circumstance I almost always amBut you were this timeAnd then she cameAnd reminded me that I have nothingMy therapist would’ve said I should’ve talked to youWhen you were quietBut […]

By Natalie Ware, TIWP Student I know I’ve said it 100 times in 100 different ways to nobody but myself but everything is differentAnd it’s so strangeI hate when people act like nothing happenedYou are evidence that something didI hate when people act like this is the age when everything startsIt feels like everything’s already […]

By Natalie Ware, TIWP Student When I was younger I would wish I could curl up in a ball Whenever I got overwhelmed Some days I would wrap myself in a blanket and crawl on the floor Because I liked how it felt To pretend no one else was there And if they were judging me I wouldn’t have to […]

By Dalia McManis, TIWP Student Inside she is full of butterfliesA caterpillar is what they seeThey don’t accept her for who she isOr who she wants to beIn a cocoon she will hideFloat away with the rising tideUntil she can fly awayAs a butterfly

By Emma Wong, TIWP Student grief flewacross the Atlantic on an isolated journeyto plummet down like a dysfunctioninto the heart of a nation of stripes andstars of promise.beautiful land, 美國，that’s what we call the soaring landscapes, tumbling hills tapped like monsoon water flowing into green-grass pastures. just a mile away are effervescent desires,a high-rise, hedonistic […]