Poetry

Hi! My name is Emma Hartwig, and I am a junior at CLC. I have always been passionate about writing and plan on becoming an author and novelist after graduation. This is my third year on the newspaper club, and I am so excited to begin my leadership role as co-president of the club this year! I write mostly informational pieces about everything happening at CLC and also occasionally write poetry. I can't wait to continue writing for CLC this year! Go Tigers!

Hi! I'm Kaitlyn Kaiser, a 16 year old Junior. I love writing poetry and use it to help me through difficult times whether that be medical struggles or just difficult emotions. This is my first year in newspaper club which was recommended to me while trying to start a poetry club.  

I leave spelling errors in my poetry because I believe it is a reminder that the poet is human. Many people think they can't write poetry because they have bad spelling or struggle with Grammer so by leaving in my spelling errors it proves that poetry doesn't have to be perfect.

Ephemeral 

The mundane becomes magical, extraordinary, 

The stars in my eyes stretch across the sky like 

The stitches in a great patchwork quilt, 

Everything held together, broken and remade into a glittering mosaic, 

Unattainable and unreachable, 

A masterpiece of coincidence that can never come again,

And for the first time I understand what it is to be alive, 

To hold a single moment in the palm of my hand and smile. 

If a star is made just to burn away, 

Pages are made to crack and yellow with age, 

Flowers are made to die and decompose, 

Then is all beauty always meant to fade? 

Ephemeral, 

A fleeting teetering on the edge of a knife, 

Until the clouds pass over the heavens, 

And I am alone on the earth once more. 

Although a candle can be extinguished with a single breath, 

And the sun will dip beneath the cliff of the horizon, 

And the birds will never sing this song again, 

There is this one second of perfection between now and the end. 

Emma Hartwig

What A Privilege To Be 

Oh, what a privilege it is to wake up

The privilege to have a body that continues to work to keep you alive even when you don’t want to stay alive

The ability to overcome the unfathomable and prove our resilience simply by waking up everyday 

It is inspiring that our bodies still wake up every morning nomatter how badly the mind does not want to stay 

What a privilege it is to wake up

Kaitlyn Kaiser

Look Kid

The world is a great place

if you know where to look

Stray away from smoke filled allys

that fill your lungs with hate

Avoid swimming in pools full of privlage

that make life so prestigous you forget  your past

The world is a great place

if you know where to look

Be nice to the homeless man

for he is somebody's child 

Listen to the retired vets that speak warstories on rewind

show compassion to the naborhood drunk

His advice may save your life

The world is a great place

if you know where to look

but whatever you do

I beg of you please

Don't go down the path I did

Don't make the same mistakes as me

I hesitate to speak this

but it's too true to keep silent

but in the road of life

there are no streetlamps 

so you never truly know 

if you're on the right path

so you never truly know

if you're on the wrong path

But nomatter what happens

Kaitlyn Kaiser

Unnamed poem 

Tears well up behind my eyes

I want to tell the world to “JUST SHUT UP”

It’s all too much

The stress

The worry

The fear

But I cannot cry

I cannot fall

I have to look strong

Because if I’m not the strong one…

Who am I?

Growing-Loosing

To grow is to loose

and to loose is to grow

For as you grow

You must loose

Your innocent

Your dreams

Your natural couriosity

But in order to loose 

you must grow

You become more wise

You learn how to make S.M.A.R.T goals

you answer the questions you once used to ask

And through this loss you grow

And through this growth you loose

Kaitlyn Kaiser

Miscommunication 

I don’t mean to smile

I don’t purposely laugh

My physical response does nto align with my feelings

I am not crazy

I am not trying to llook disingenuenous

There’s a miscommunication between my brain and my face]

I don’t mean to smile

I  don’t purposely laugh

My brain is just miscommunicating

With my face

Kaitlyn Kaiser

Ode to sleep 

As a kid you despise it

You always tried to stay up past your bedtime

But indebitbly your eyes would get heavy

And you’d start to drift off

As a teenager you felt bittersweet about it

Some days you’d say up till 2 or 3AM

(even though it was a school night)

Other days you’d sleep all day and in class but you still felt tired

And sometimes you used it to escape bad thoughts

As an adult you yearn for it

You have to wake up at 6 and don’t get home till 8

You still need to do chores, eat dinner and pretend you’re great

As soon as you close your eyes your alarm goes off 

And it’s back to another day of work

As an elder you can’t get enough of it

You sleep from 9 AM to 9PM

And you take naps at random times

You love it so much

You’re just waiting for it to last forever 

Kaitlyn Kaiser

Unfocused Aching

Author's Insight: This poem is inspired from when I was in class and I was struggling to pay attention because I was having a flair day. 

Pain shoots down my legs

My hips struggle to keep me standing

It's hard to focus when your body is betraying you

When I stand too long, my blood starts to pool

When I sit too long, my legs start to ache

When I lay down too long, my joints start to shift out of place

How do you expect me to pay attention

When my body is fighting to stay alive

Energy drinks 

I know you’re unhealthy

But I want you so bad

You eat away at my heart

You corrode my brain

And even though you kill me slowy

I still miss you

And the “love” that we had 

Kaitlyn Kaiser

What Happens When the Trust Starts to Rust?

Author's Insight: The inspiration for this is the current state of the world. It is becoming harder to trust news outlets so it 

inspired me to write this.

What happens when the trust starts to rust?

When the truth starts to get holes in it

And fact and fiction start to collide?

What happens when the trust starts to rust?

Will we remain patriotic?

What happens when the trust starts to rust?

Will we stay hopeful?

What happens when the trust starts to rust?

When the trust starts to rust we all become infected

Kaitlyn Kaiser

The Golden Rule Has Rusted

Author's Insight: As a kid youre tought to treat others the way you want to be treated but as you get older the rule gets 

forgotten 

The golden rule became rusted as we got older

Remember when you were in elementary school and you would always be told

“Treat others the way you want to be treated”

It was common knowledge and when someone was being mean they would be told

“Treat others the way you want to be treated”

As we got older the golden rule started to lose its shine

It became “Treat others the way you want to be treated (unless you hold power)

By the time our age was in the double digits we learned that life isn't fair

The golden rule was slowly forgotten 

Kaitlyn Kaiser

When You Don’t “Get Better”

Author's Insight: I have mixed connective tissue disease and the symptoms started when I was 9 when my 

knees started dislocating but every test came back normal which inspired me to write this poem.

It started as a simple injury

Just wear a brace and stay out of gym 

It should heal quickly

2 weeks pass, then 3, then 4

It still doesn’t feel better 

The doctors say, “Everything looks normal.”

So you start thinking you're crazy

That’s how chronic illness begins

 ‘You never “get better”

The injury never heals

You keep wearing the brace, and you stay out of gym

It keeps getting worse

You will never “get better"

Kaitlyn Kaiser

Do You Remember Elementary School?

Author's Insight: This poem came to me when I was trying to write an ode for english class. I wrote an ode to elementary 

school gym class and I had the idea to write this poem.

Do you remember elementary school?

When our biggest problems were silly things like sally took your red crayon 

When friendships were simple

You could get in an argument with your best friend on monday and by tuesday you were back to best friends

Remember how magical recess felt?

When you wernt allowed to even look at the snow if you didnt have gloves, a winter coat, snow pants, snow boots, a scarf and a hat on

When we had no room for hate in our heart

Remember what life looked like before we learned about discrimnation?

When girls had cooties; not because they were girls but simply because they were the opposite gender

When we didn’t see the special needs kids as any diffrent or less important than our other classmates

When we didn’t treat student who were a different race, religion, size, or culture than us

Remember when we didn’t care about what others thought of us 

When we would wear mismatched socks and we would wear a neon orange shirt with grass stained jeans because we felt like it

Remember how we didn’t feel the need to hide

When we didn’t feel the need to hide our true selves and we lived freely

When we felt free to cry, laugh, and express our feelings

When warm clothes were enough to keep us from becoming cold

Do you remember elementary school?

Kaitlyn Kaiser

“Realistic” Jobs

Author's Insight: My inspiration for this poem came from when we tell children that they can be anything they want and we 

encourage them to be creative and to dream but when they grow up they are quickly told that it won’t pay           the bills or that they need to be “more realistic”

The students are told to “never stop dreaming” but

The poets are working 9-5 because they need to eat

The authors are forced to become businessmen because they need to pay off medical debt

The artists are put on pills and called “delusional” becasue they see the beauty in pain

The children are told to “act their age” so they would be adults at 7

The teenagers are pressured into figuring out their whole future or they will stay in poverty

The actors are told they will never make it in the theater so they have to act ok 24/7

The musions are called “psychotic” and end up in the ground with the help of a rope

The doctors are overworked and want to be like the musicians

The children are loosing hope

Because in this country you have to buy dreams

Kaitlyn Kaiser

Overwhelmed

Author's Insight: I wrote this poem during a rehearsal for the fall play. I had a lot of things going on and I was very stressed out which inspired me to write this poem. This poem helped me express what I was feeling and cope with everything going on.

I’m so overwhelmed

It’s loud in my mind

It’s loud in this room

They collide and combine

And i can’t focus on a thing

Stress thunders through my hands

Anxiety crashes in my breaths

Im worried about everything

The deadlines

The “to do” list

The emails unread

The responsibilities too much

I am so damn tired

But its the kind sleep cannot fix

Kaitlyn Kaiser

What Did You Learn In School Today?

Author's Insight: This poem is inspired by the things we learn in school that are normalized like lockdown drills and evacuation drills.

Today at school we learned how to sit quietly and stay hidden in the corner of the classroom with the lights off

A kindergartner says blissfully unaware of the reason

Today we learned how to evacuate the school when there’s a bomb threat

A first grader recalls unaware this shouldn’t be normal

Today we learned to tell a trusted adult if someone touches us inappropriately

A second grader remarks not knowing how high the stats are of being assaulted as a woman

Todat we learned to stand up for ourselves (Unless it’s an adult)

A third grader exclaims not knowing it’s wrong for an adult to bully them

Today we learned that not everyone is treated equally

A fourth grader explains confused by the injustice of the world

Today we learned that kids can be cruel

A fifth grader cries not yet knowing that kids are not the only ones who are cruel

Kaitlyn Kaiser

Denial

Author's Insight: This poem is about the denial after getting diagnosed with a chronic illness.

I stare down at the paper

The diagnosis in bold 

But it’s not true

It can’t be

Denile creeps in

What do you mean “It’s progressive”?

I am still normal, right?

The must be a medication, a treatment or a cure

Why me?

Is it my fault?

The diagnosis in bold

It’s not real though

It can’t be

Kaitlyn Kaiser

What Do You Mean?

Author's Insight: This poem is also about the grief of having a chronic illness.

What do you mean "I'll never get better"?

I'm 15, it's supposed to be in the prime of my youth

I am supposed to be healthy

What do you mean "There's no cure"?

There has to be something

A pill, a surgery, a shot, something

What do you mean "It's a progressive condition"?

I don't want to continue to decline

How much more will I loose?

What do you mean "there's nothing you can do"?

you're a doctor you're supposed to be able to help

Please, it can't end like this

Kaitlyn Kaiser

College 

I need a bridge on the lake to look through the time, 

By the time I was two, I had every state memorized, 

And now I would rather cross oceans than sit here and wait, 

For the day I’ll feel comfortable in a red and blue skin, 

If I’m not right here, then what am I? 

Am I the strawberry scent of my too-old perfume? 

Am I the oil beneath engines I worked on in my youth? 

Am I cinnamon and chives sprinkled over chocolate, 

Or am I something I’ll never know and haven’t discovered yet? 

I’ve tripped on the cobbles in front of those gates, 

And I’ve crossed over thresholds they never thought I would make, 

I’m still not that accomplished but I’m accustomed to loss, 

And I’m sitting here, waiting, for my dreams to be gone. 

Am I the long walk in winter that Robert Frost described? 

Am I the sun in the trees in Shakespeare’s great mind? 

Am I something I’ve written, maybe stuck in the past, 

Or am I a poem lost centuries before I came along? 

I don’t think I want to be written by somebody else, 

But I’m not original enough to belong completely, 

To myself, 

How can I be homesick for a place I’ve never lived in? 

Emma Hartwig