Some of these poems by YA authors will be full texts, while others will be excerpts or from social media. Likewise, note that some of these poems deal with heavy topics like mental health, suicide, and loss.
Want even more poetry? Dig into these poetry books for teens, YA verse novels, and powerful depression poems.
On an island of musicin a city of drumbeatsthe drum dream girldreamed
of pounding tall conga drumstapping small bongó drumsand boom boom boomingwith long, loud stickson big, round, silverymoon-bright timbales.
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I come home,feet about to bleedfrom angry stomping.“Boy!” says Mom.“Quit making all that racket.”But what does she expectwhen, day after day,haters sling words at melike jagged stonesdesigned to split my skin?
from Poetry, March 2021
There is no room on this planet for anything less than a miracleWe gather here today to revel in the rebellion of a silent tongueEvery day, we lean forward into the light of our brightest designs & cherish the sunPraise our hands & throats each incantation, a jubilee of a people dreaming wildlyDespite the dirtbeneath our feetor the windpushing againstour greatest efforts
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For Burn Construction Company
When you were building the i-10 bypass, one of your dozers, moving earth at the center of a great pit, slipped its thick blade beneath the water table, slicing into the earth’s wet palm, and the silt moistened beneath the huge thing’s tires, and the crew was sent home for the day.
from Poetry Foundation
Admit it—you wanted the end
with a serpentinegreed. How to negotiate
that stranglingmist, the fibrous
whisper?
from Poetry, December 2015
A boy told me
if he roller-skated fast enough
his loneliness couldn’t catch up to him,
the best reason I ever heard for trying to be a champion.
What I wonder tonight
pedaling hard down King William Street
is if it translates to bicycles.
via The Library of Congress
