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Young Writers Society


my hopes are as strong as bubbles



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Points: 31320
Reviews: 413
Tue Mar 20, 2018 12:28 am
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keystrings says...



I keep changing what this says, but oh well. Let's see. This will probably be about the stress in my life since I'll be 18 by the end of March. (oh boy)

Theme: The stress and self-esteem and happiness of an eighteen-year-old.
name: key/string/perks
pronouns: she/her/hers and they/them/theirs


novel: the clocktower (camp nano apr 24)
poetry: the beauty of the untold (napo 2024)
  





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413 Reviews



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Points: 31320
Reviews: 413




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413 Reviews



Gender: None specified
Points: 31320
Reviews: 413
Sun Apr 01, 2018 7:40 am
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keystrings says...



{1/30}


4.01.18


her strength


fragility
is
her strong suit
people bask in her weakness:
whispers across the room


she walks
with her worn tires
the missing tread slows her down

her tubes shift with
every step
weariness settles
into her bones

deafness waits on the outskirts
but she barely
sees the walls

she carries on
to her own beat
her head tilts
upwards

her face slowly
freezes
then
her silence is broken:
laughter leaks out


her happiness enters the room
and doesn’t leave her
who can say the same?
name: key/string/perks
pronouns: she/her/hers and they/them/theirs


novel: the clocktower (camp nano apr 24)
poetry: the beauty of the untold (napo 2024)
  





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413 Reviews



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Points: 31320
Reviews: 413
Sun Apr 01, 2018 5:53 pm
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keystrings says...



{2/30}


4.01.18


stormy mountains


i've never seen lightning strike before
{lies have never tasted so good}
i can't help picturing a flash of light
like a brand across my skin

i'm feeling the push and pull
of thunder sounding in the forest
i want to run and hide
but you're more alluring than
the safety a bathroom provides

i don't need to see you to feel you
warmth comes in waves
heat signatures off the roof
of my old house, in shambles now
you blew everything in my life away
{but you never gave apologies}

i saw your letter one night
burned into the field
if i didn't know better i'd have called
and left a message for the UFOs
good thing you're predictable
name: key/string/perks
pronouns: she/her/hers and they/them/theirs


novel: the clocktower (camp nano apr 24)
poetry: the beauty of the untold (napo 2024)
  





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Points: 31320
Reviews: 413
Mon Apr 02, 2018 10:26 pm
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keystrings says...



{3/30}


4.02.18


slipping into the white slate of silence


solitude welcomes me
from life’s entrapment

silence beckons its silky tendrils
to blanket my senses

{my tv flickers off and on
the monotonous news ceases}

the quiet guides me
to eventual rest

I can finally slow
my flaring neurons

white and black flood my vision
like dilated eyes growing bigger
not shutting down a laptop

sounds teeter off eventually
the balance straightening
as my eyes slide shut
name: key/string/perks
pronouns: she/her/hers and they/them/theirs


novel: the clocktower (camp nano apr 24)
poetry: the beauty of the untold (napo 2024)
  





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413 Reviews



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Points: 31320
Reviews: 413
Mon Apr 02, 2018 10:36 pm
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keystrings says...



{4/30}


4.02.18


i envy clocks


analog clocks
simply tick away
by minute, or hour,
depends on their setting

they’re the epitome
of a puppet
compliant without a fault
reliant on a foreign presence,
mountains firm against
the questioning wind we all hear

they’re helpless to
the demonstration of movement,
by the sun melting ice
into a muddy puddle on
unforgiving concrete

metronomes
delve into a single action
until stopped,
frozen in speech, quick as
hitting the pause button

they’re free of
glancing at their reflection
in a pool of doubt
no thoughts or manifestations
of expectations crawling
from the depths of my
subconscious
name: key/string/perks
pronouns: she/her/hers and they/them/theirs


novel: the clocktower (camp nano apr 24)
poetry: the beauty of the untold (napo 2024)
  





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413 Reviews



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Points: 31320
Reviews: 413
Tue Apr 03, 2018 4:24 pm
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keystrings says...



{5/30}


4.03.18


countdown to falling apart


cutting a string down
pale, scarred ribbon
pieces drift
on that spiral of pain

thoughts floating around,
iridescent swirls covering up
negligent memories, mocking

{it’s coming to
an end}

carpal bones don’t
move the same way
there’s too much damage

drenched deep drowning

{coming up to
meet her mouth}

snippets of panic
air passing though
delicate strokes

{just breathe
just breathe}

before relief
at last
tranquility coming
over her

{keep it together}

moment passes
eventually
name: key/string/perks
pronouns: she/her/hers and they/them/theirs


novel: the clocktower (camp nano apr 24)
poetry: the beauty of the untold (napo 2024)
  





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413 Reviews



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Tue Apr 03, 2018 5:53 pm
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keystrings says...



{6/30}


4.03.18


traditions and memories


do you want to go back to
those nights, filled with
fantasies coming alive in
black-and-white photographs,
films, illuminating those
classical traditions

whirling desperation, touching,
grasping each other’s face
triumphant feelings once the
formed buildings shatter into
bricks, faint smudges of
scattered happiness

{smiles in the sunlight
traded breaths during dinner}

smear your lives together,
waterfalls pouring in
forgotten scenes
gazes stoke initially,
unknowingly
in the face of hazy
aberrations

monsters with the faces
of past loved ones
apparition-like
silhouettes

{thousand days of
solitude had never
felt so good}

have fond tributes
dedicated to those
ancestors
feel their influence
in your midst

{you’ll be them one day}
name: key/string/perks
pronouns: she/her/hers and they/them/theirs


novel: the clocktower (camp nano apr 24)
poetry: the beauty of the untold (napo 2024)
  





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Points: 147270
Reviews: 1227
Tue Apr 03, 2018 6:16 pm
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alliyah says...



Kille! You've already got 6 poems done? Well done, I hope you can keep the momentum going. :)

Your poems engage with such unique themes killeham! I'm a fan of the parenthetical commentary within the pieces too that you've put in the last few poems too - it's like there's this inner voice that speaks a deeper truth threaded throughout the poem.

Some specific poem comments:
I found the tone of "stormy mountains" to be quite unsettling, I wasn't quite sure what was happening, but the tone really came through I think.

With the last poem too, it has this interesting blend of nostalgia and chaos that I find really interesting. You know how to take a common turn-of phrase or description and twist it just enough to be totally unique. This couplet I especially liked: "{smiles in the sunlight
traded breaths during dinner}"


I'm looking forward to continue to follow along with your writing and seeing where it goes!
you should know i am a time traveler &
there is no season as achingly temporary as now
but i have promised to return
  





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Tue Apr 03, 2018 6:56 pm
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keystrings says...



{7/30}


4.03.18


colorful notes


does music encompass your soul,
your vision before you?
can you see the world
accompanied by sounds and notes?

the yellow stars twinkling back
from the joyful trills of a flute

heavy bass erupts into the expanse
of purple darkness,
storm clouds hovering above

lights flickering
in the uproar of trumpets,
stoplights of
red and green

violins bring forth the
fragile vision of pink horizons

and the orchestra ends on
a triumphant note
magnanimous in white flashes
and the final stroke of a cello
name: key/string/perks
pronouns: she/her/hers and they/them/theirs


novel: the clocktower (camp nano apr 24)
poetry: the beauty of the untold (napo 2024)
  





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Points: 50
Reviews: 425
Tue Apr 03, 2018 10:58 pm
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Vervain says...



UGH. Your imagery. It's GORGEOUS.

Seriously, I'm envious of these words. You really get across a great sense of tone and action through imagery alone, and then the rest of it -- it's wonderful.

So looking forward to the rest of your poems. <3
stay off the faerie paths
  





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Points: 67
Reviews: 51
Wed Apr 04, 2018 2:08 am
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ellasnotebook says...



killeham wrote:violins bring forth the
fragile vision of pink horizons


WOW

I don't have any helpful poet-y things to say (you know, like a responsible person would), I just wanted to stop by and say that this was absolutely stunning! Your imagery is absolutely incredible!

I'm going to have to stop by your napo thread more often, because I am loving everything you write!
  





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413 Reviews



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Wed Apr 04, 2018 5:53 pm
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keystrings says...



Spoiler! :
@alliyah @Lareine @ellasnotebook Thank you all so much for your comments! I loved your feedback so much. Warning though: this one makes no sense.


{8/30}


4.04.18


reflecting ideas


i gaze down into the pool,
sucked into
the depths of
deep, dark, dreariness
grimace past the
saturated taste
chug carbonated soda to
overcome the sensation
of choking

{i keep losing my breath
to my reflection
they’re breathing for me}

i can’t tell if
the waves are crashing
or sending audio messages
i’m still focused on
an ethereal glimpse
of life past my own
envision the murky waters
revealing pearl-ingrained
shells and full throat laughter

{need it i need it}

i’m choking at this
inconvenient time,
on my dying graces,
disintegration
underneath my tongue
ashes are an acquired
taste, i’m afraid,
but as enjoyable as
a cup of sorrow in the
afternoon

{you pull me out,
desperation driving me
forward}

i’m sorry you can’t
see the beauty
of the underworld
creatures emerging from
the surface, towering frames
yet gentle to those begging
for a plush, soft touch
and sends me back to
mystical dreams and calamity
name: key/string/perks
pronouns: she/her/hers and they/them/theirs


novel: the clocktower (camp nano apr 24)
poetry: the beauty of the untold (napo 2024)
  





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Points: 31320
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Wed Apr 04, 2018 10:19 pm
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keystrings says...



{9/30}


4.04.18


dried joy


forces sparred in my mind
flashes of forward fists
illuminate the ricochets of
sharpened spears, muttered
words wrecking the once
lively landscape

strips of happiness scattered
lost to the echoing wind
of connected ideas blind
to longing and love and
questioning the justice
of distorting a life to
save another

{the loss is still there,
internally held,
eternally felt}

my thoughts are poor
unbloomed flowers
that wither and shrivel,
alike to a ball not a bud,
degraded by plains
mocking of their apparent
and now extinct youth

i take a breath of hope
to finally plunder my
lifeless plants with water
praise fertilizes the land,
stimulating blushing shades
of pink and red in spring time

{but they're frail, barely tied
to the earth below them,
rooted by a shrill link to the
everlasting rejection of dry dirt}
name: key/string/perks
pronouns: she/her/hers and they/them/theirs


novel: the clocktower (camp nano apr 24)
poetry: the beauty of the untold (napo 2024)
  





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413 Reviews



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Points: 31320
Reviews: 413
Thu Apr 05, 2018 4:24 pm
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keystrings says...



{10/30}


4.05.18


travelers stop here


for those who crept along the pathways, spinning curtsies and poses in the moonlight, the world encompasses you, deep in her grasp, and never lets go. the adventurers, high from fifty feet jumps and barefoot in the woods, the rough dirt passing through their toes, seeping and packing on.

{don’t be afraid}

she’ll chide you if you cry,
and might even let her own tears fall,
which would be a fair warning to you all.

you’ll learn how to obey as a puppet,
nothing more than a blank slate,
not have a mind to date.

{don’t fret, it’s not that bad}

life, once a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts and urges that awoke wildness and the want to run free. once a myriad of colors clouding every action and desire your restless mind would brew about and seek completion.

now all that floats around are monochromatic scenes: darker, lighter, cover the plane of your mind. your water is at rest, far from the ever-reaching tendrils of hope and fear and feelings. you’re at peace, breathing steadily, much like the rocks you liked to throw and hear the cracking as they met the road.

{except, this time, you’ll be thrown.}
name: key/string/perks
pronouns: she/her/hers and they/them/theirs


novel: the clocktower (camp nano apr 24)
poetry: the beauty of the untold (napo 2024)
  








"And the rest is rust and stardust."
— Vladimir Nabokov