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I Come Here To:

I come here to write
I come here to express how I feel
I come here to have fun
I come here to be heard
I come here to be free
I come here to learn more about myself
I come here to be myself
I come here to learn and get better at writing
I come here to learn more about my friends   

When I come here, I feel safe
When I come here, I feel free to just be me
When I come here, I see who I am and who I can be
When I write, I can be myself 

To me, writing is a way of life
To me, writing can be whatever I want it to be
I speak through my writing
To me, writing is a way to show who I am
I am who I am and only I can change it. 

~ A

Check out this new poetry, written by students at RiverEast Day Treatment!

Sometimes When I Think About Myself

Sometimes when I think about myself
I see what I did in the past.

20% basketball
10% math
15% football
5% writing
20% caring
20% video games
15% loving
100% me

A

Read more

I come here to put the pen to the paper
Cause my words abstract
Attack with a confused look on its face.
I come here to find meaning to
What I think about
Catch my words
They jumping off the page Read more

Who Am I?

I am a living human being with a great future ahead of me
My name is R and I’m from here
And I’m 14 years old and what…

What am I?
I’m a kid and a person that cares about
My health and my education and I am a very
Helping person…
I’m a person that is trying to get
Along with everybody…

How Am I?

I’m a kid that needs to have a good life
And I’m a somewhat fun and caring kid
And I try to help as much as I can
And learn as much as I can.

Me and Only Me

I come here to show people what I can do and what I have to say.
I come here to be me and only me.

I come here to be myself
I come here to be someone

I come here to express myself
I come here to be all I can be

I come here to make something out of my thoughts
and write them down on paper

I come here to be my best and
to say that I have no fear of what comes near.

What Matters, by Josh
What matters to me is to be successful
Less stressful, To be determined, to unleash the emotion without fear
Because if I do, rage is the next stage and I’m not trying to let that out of the cage
So I think uncertain thoughts, Pondering around in my mind
Trying to examine what’s the next line
How controlling it will be
My thoughts, and the inner me.

The Lab’s Poetry Anthology, Volume 7

Here’s a sneak peak at Volume 7 of The Lab’s bi-annual poetry anthology, set to drop this May! Local graphic designer, Kim Arps, volunteered with Donny, a student in The Lab, to design the book’s cover and chapter pages. The following are three of the over 90 poems you will find in this book.

What is True?

How do thou know what ‘tis to be true?
For if they asked me who I was, I couldn’t really tell you
They say we’re made, but I beg to differ
People are often slow,
But I’m a little swifter

D.
(Murray Junior High Student)

I Come Here To

I come here to write
I come here to learn
I come here to follow my dreams
I come here to meet my goals
I come here for me, myself and I
I come here to do the things I
Know that are best for me
I come here for me
I come here for you
I come here to…

D.
(St. Andrews PAS Student)

Judgment

I see you looking at me
Like I’m disgusting
Who are you to judge?
We might not have the same color skin
But I’m not what you think.
Yes I am black and proud
That doesn’t give you the right to think I am lazy.
You’re white and I don’t judge you
Tell you I hate you for what your people have done to us
I treat you like an equal
Like you were one of my people.
Please don’t judge what you don’t know
Because I do get good grades.

L.
(Como Senior High Student)

What is Respect?
by S.

What is respect?
Where does it come from and
does it have more than
one meaning, like
roasting on someone you care about
running with a friend
being emotion, equal or having envy for
a person you care about or
being special for knowing you are or
being thankful for your skills you were born with
or being polite to someone no matter what race,
style, and home they choose or are,
and that is what respect means

A Dream Can Be Anything You Want
by S.

A dream can be anything you want
all you have to do is take actions
to make that dream become real.

But you must not judge or use violence,
but use words to express your feelings.

And if we all join together
this dream will become truth.

This is an Ode to my Skateboard
By L.

We are skaters
We are pushers
We are jumpers
We are strong
We are skateboarding
We are the future
Now go skateboard day and night
until the sun gets bright like light

Part One

Black History
Mystery

I sit and see
All the stuff people do and fee
Of what she do and me
I sit in peace.

Black people say “why us?”
And all I can say is “Because—
Why not, look what we do
We do stupid stuff, we use
Pots,
Pills,
Glocks,
Kill
We need meals
Why kill
And use glocks;
And we don’t need pills
And why pots?”

Black people say “why us?”
Because most protect in the time of lust
There’s a time for soft and a time for hard
When we are down,
I’ll help and guard.

Part Two

I’ll help and protect
I’ll help you
Because I’m here for you
They bust I’ll shoot
That’s what riders do
If you don’t like it shoo
Be real, I’m better than you
I’m smarter than you
I’m too sick for you.

“I need help
Victor can you help me?”
I say with what?
She say I want to be like you
I say for what?
Just try

I can’t
Yes you can.
You’re a girl, I’m a man
But you have all these fans
That’s why I said you can.

You still want to be with me,
But we both been through slavery.

Part Three

This is just my life
The sun is dark
I’m in New York
My boy got a kite
But I’m not a dork
I see it on my flight
Leaving New York
I just saw a fight
I see the man with the torch
I’m off the plain with a bike
He pushed him off with some force
I spit this off the mic
Of course
I am the spotlight
I leave no remorse
When you see on the field
It’s all highlights
I am the joy
Of my life
Of your life
Of the life of me

V.

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