PONGO POETRY | My Life
Pongo Poetry Project's mission is to engage youth in writing poetry to inspire healing and growth. In the spring of 2022, Pongo began mentoring poetry with young people at the Echo Glen Children's Center, a juvenile institution for youth serving criminal sentences. Studies of incarcerated youth indicate that up to 70% suffer from a mental health disorder and that many have experienced childhood trauma. The isolation, economic upheaval, and turmoil of the last two years have only exacerbated this issue. Youth at Echo Glen have endured significant mental and emotional challenges in the last two years, including increased rates of depression, anxiety, sleep issues, and behavioral challenges.
Pongo believes there is power in creative expression, and articulating one's pain to an empathetic audience. Through this special monthly column in partnership with the South Seattle Emerald, Pongo invites readers to bear witness to the pain, resilience, and creative capacity of youth whose voices and perspectives are too often relegated to the periphery. To partner with Pongo in inspiring healing and relief in youth coping with mental and emotional turmoil,join the Pongo Poetry Circle today.
Hope
by a young person at the Echo Glen Children's Center
I hope that eventually I'll change
Become a model citizen
Be a better father for my kid
I hope that I don't get so wrapped up
That eventually I'm going to die
I hope that eventually I'll stop using
I hope eventually I'll stop having sticky fingers
I hope eventually I'll stop doing all the gang life, repping, banging
I hope eventually I'll be able to get out of everything
And have a normal life
Cause the gang says they got your back
But they ain't got your back when you're down
They say they'll protect your family but they won't
My Life
by a young person at the Echo Glen Children's Center
My life is like a diving board
It don't matter how many times you hit rock bottom
You gotta swim back to the surface
People are going to keep trying to push you down,
and say you can't
But you gotta try harder to prove them wrong
My life is like a chess board
There's a thousand ways to look at it
One minute you're in check, the next you're not
It's all about your point of view
My life is like an ocean
Here lies a lot of knowledge underneath it
Doesn't matter how many times they beat you down
You gotta get back up and stand tall
Smile and wave in their face
My life is like a rose
It looks great from the outside
But it's got a lot of points and prickles throughout it
Completing Goals
by a young person at the Echo Glen Children's Center
This is an opportunity to graduate
To change my life around
Get out and be a real estate agent
I want to make people's day and tell them
"They got the house"
I'm going to succeed
I will not let no one stop me
Having a house means completing your goal
Having somewhere to stay
To cook and clean and sleep every day
Whenever I want to
Which I couldn't do,
when I was fifteen
Why did I make the mistakes?
That's not my way I'm doing things
I should've been at school figuring out how to pursue things
But I can't take it back,
just have to fight through it
Now I have kids,
they try to make my mistakes
I tell them don't do it.
📸 Featured Image: Illustration by 周杰意 Jieyi Zhou.
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