We’re reading Impulse by Ellen Hopkins, a novel written in free verse about 3 teenagers at a psychiatric hospital for trying to commit suicide.

I asked my students to write some of their own poetry, as if they were there with them. Here is one that Kait recently sent me. She has agreed to let me post it here.

center
centered in feeling so unbelievable
unbelievably small.
so here i am
here we all are
wanting, hurting
feeling..
absolutely nothing
here i am wanting to feel pain
any, any, any sort of pain
to make me feel here, alive
here
in the center
getting centered in
confined
closing
screaming
just desperately wanting so much more.
so much more then this, then ever
confined in the center
of a world that is filled with colors, emotions, feelings
pain and hurts
i see grey, i feel nothing, i am nothing
and here you are
here i am
screaming loud and clear in this sound proof room
here we are in the center
centered in
feeling all sorts of different kinds
of nothing.