Ali Isaac and Sarah Brentyn challenged each other (and then everyone else) to post a teenage angst poem. I have a bunch of those!
I was about 17 when I wrote this. It’s the most cringe-worthy I could find. Feel free to groan.
Surrender
Surrender I would
and let the waves of you
wash over me
gaping wounds filled
with pools of serenity
I dream your hands on my face
in tenderness unbearable
despair
I weep for all the lost
and left behind
I have not finished
with the anguish
with you a tormentor for a lover
my struggle is not won
would you be my new battleground
The answer lies through the loneliness
I can not surrender
the suffering
Note: Oh boy, I was a miserable kid. Just goes to show, there’s hope.
If you take up the challenge, tag your poem #teenangstpoem
I love it! If only we knew then what we know now.
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Wouldn’t it be nice if had all the old-age wisdom when we were young? It would save lots of angst! Thanks for reading my teenage suffering poem. 😀 Happy Sunday.
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17 is rough…however I would go back for one day, knowing what I know now.
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I’d go back too if I could keep everything I learned through the years. Wouldn’t that be great? Thanks for reading, Liz. Have a great weekend 🙂
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Ha ha, love it Diana!
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So much suffering when I was 17, Antonia. At the time, it was the end of the world, but I can look back now and laugh. Thanks for the visit!
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It comes from the heart. What a lovely poem. Thats why poetry is beautiful. You express yourself well in your words. Wishing you success and happiness. Please feel free to check out my poem if you ever have time.
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Thanks for reading. I was young, but it was from the heart… a miserable heart. 😀 I’ll definitely stop by! Happy Writing.
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“but it was from the heart” as you said. That is what matters. Sometimes it is best not to sugarcoat emotion. That is why poetry allows us just to express. Thanks for your reply.
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I’ve got marble notebooks filled with angsty poetry I wrote as a teenager somewhere in my mother’s closet back in New York! If I ever unearth them, I’ll publish some of it so we can all have a good laugh!
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I think we all have a notebook or box, Sean, or at least the memories of that difficult time. It would be fun to at least go back and look. Yes, probably some laughs in there. 🙂
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I didn’t write poetry but remember sitting with tears streaming down my face and the family dachshund resting his little head on my knee and looking up at me with total sympathy. 🙂 — Suzanne
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Awww. Dogs are good friends at those times. It’s hard being a teenager. I’m glad you have someone to share your tears with. Have a great week, my friend, with plenty of smiles. ❤
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You have a great week also. ❤ — Suzanne
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Ooh, that’s a new one! 🙂
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Do you have any of those? I’m guessing that most people do, especially those of us who grew up to be writers 🙂
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Ooh yes! My teen years were chocker with those moments! 😀
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I like it!
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Thanks for the visit, Lynn. For a miserably 17 yr old, I guess it’s not bad and I sure did feel that way. Ha. Have a great week, my friend. ❤
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You too!
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LOL. I know the exact poem I would publish, alas (or maybe that’s thankfully) it’s buried in the loft. Loved reading this 😋💖💖💖
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Thanks, Sacha. Someday dig it out and entertain us. Of course, it felt totally devastating at the time, but fortunately most of us grow out of the melodrama and can look back on it and smile. 🙂
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Lol yep – mine was born of devastation too! 🙄😂😂 I will. Next time I’m in the loft x
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Oh dear sweet girl, well done for such a young poetess.
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It’s interesting to reflect on all the misery of the time. If only she knew then what she knows now. 🙂 Seems we have to live it sometimes to learn it. ❤
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❤
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You’re a better woman than I. Actually you’re about 5 better women than I. I’d need to be on a rack with 10 decibels of Euro-pop blaring in my ears before I’ll publish my teenage angst. Probably because it’s not even as good as yours. On another note, how’s the suffering going?
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Ha ha. Would you believe, not a soul had read that poem until I posted it? Lots of melodrama, though at the time, the doom and gloom felt very real. I’m happy to report that the suffering is all in the past. 🙂
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Which is exactly where every good suffering should be 😆
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I’m pretty sure I have a few of those tucked away somewhere that are NEVER going to see the light of day. 😀
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Ha ha ha. No one saw this one until I posted it. I get braver the older I get. One of the other people who commented said that we probably all have a few of these, and I think that might be right. 🙂
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LOL, Diana, your description… Personally, I thought this was lovely. I have no talent whatever for poetry. Have a wonderful weekend. Hugs.
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I’ve been admonished a few times about laughing at my teenage angst. *Sigh* I can’t help it, though. 😀 It was fun to share.
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I wrote a few of these but I probably was even more “cringe worthy” in my approach, Diana!! This actually wasn’t as bad as many I used to read from my peers. We had a high school literary magazine which I was on the editing team. My other responsibility was as the yearbook index editor of all those high school photographs taken throughout the year of four grade levels. My Mom donated our entire dining room to this yearling project! I had the privilege to write the captions and turn them in, while adding to the index. This would be so much easier now on a computer!
Anyway, almost accidentally purchased your quartet on Amazon Kindle and had to delete to come back here to see it you have independent source in paperback series (?!) hugs xo
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Thanks for visiting, Robin. You were busy in high school! I forget that all that work had to be done by hand. I sell everything through Amazon, so no other sources. Thanks so much for asking!! ❤ Have a great weekend, my friend. 😀
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I love it! See… you were always destined for greatness! 💜
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I survived my teenage years, Michelle. 😀 Thanks for reading my angsty poem. I have a box of old writing and it was fun going through it to find this. Have a great weekend 😀
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It’s great that you kept it. Hope you have a wonderful weekend too! 😉
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See, you had talent back then. I think it’s probably mandatory for teens to write in such a style… the angst, the yearning to be understood. Lord, I have volumes of the stuff tucked away in the attic. But I think it’s the earnestness of intent that matters. 🙂
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Yes, at the time it was completely earnest and summed up my existence. I too have volumes of this stuff, Steven. Someday I’m going to have to crack open those boxes and sort through it! 😀
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I think you’ll be surprised and thrilled by how much your writing has developed. I’ve always been fascinated by the evolution of talent. It’s inevitable, but the process never fails to amaze me.
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When I look at my old stuff, there are little bits of “wow, I wrote that” in between the groans and laughs. You’re right about the process; it’s fascinating. 🙂
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Groans are the birthright of all writers when they start out and then keep at it. I’ve been thinking of posting an excerpt of what eventually became “Handsome”… there’s almost a 30 year span between the original concept and the final version.It’s unrecognizable. I’m already cringing. 🙂
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🙂 ❤
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It’s only cringe-worthy to you, Diana! I like this and I can definitely see your style here! My younger self can relate totally with this – oh, I think I loved to suffer! I have lots of teenage angst prose which I couldn’t bear to read – think I’d end up in a ball of embarrassment, groaning away.
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Thanks, Annika. Yes, that unwillingness to give up my suffering was what made it so angsty. 🙂 I have far worse poems, but this one captured the time well. Hang on to all that angst-prose, you never know when it will come in handy for a post! Have a great Saturday 😀
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I don’t think it is so bad! I could actually see it being written by an older, perhaps abused person.
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Ha ha ha. I was definitely a teenager who felt abused by life, Christine. It isn’t the worst in my dusty box, but it captured my misery of the time. Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend. 🙂
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You too!
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Wow Diana, your writing style was beautiful even way back when. But I understand what you mean about cringing when we look back to the long ago and what we were thinking. 🙂
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Well, thank you, Debby. There are far worse poems in my collection, but this was the most miserable. 🙂 I do cringe at all the dramatic doom and gloom of the time. I sure wouldn’t want to go back! Have a great weekend 🙂
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I’m with you. I’ll chance the future, no going back! 🙂 Happy weekend to you too. 🙂
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I don’t recall having any teenage angst poetry, although I wrote a bunch of silly stuff as a child that I kept in a notebook, which I still have. I think I still have my journal from my teen years (I didn’t ever call it a diary, lol) but I don’t dare go look for it. I remember writing more rants and rambling anguish over “boyfriends” but not any poetry. Who knows what I would find? Yours sounds quite typical for that age, but it’s really not all that bad. 🙂
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Oh, you should at least read that old “journal,” if only for the laughs. I have a box of old wrtings, but nothing boyfriend specific. This was the most angsty I could find and it does make the cringe a bit. 😀 Have a great weekend.
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This is fairly decent Diana…mine must be replete with strong words, if at all I could have got the opportunity to express myself. Most of the times I kept my emotions to myself…didn’t dare to write or probably didn’t have the potential at that time.
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Thanks so much for stopping by, Balroop. It was fun going through my old poems. And I’m pretty sure this is the only time I’ve shared it! Have a great weekend, my friend. ❤
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Aww, Diana, I think this is beautifully written!
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You are too kind, Lenora. I think it may be that I remember the time and it was overly dramatic. Love starved and everything felt like “doomed forever.” 😀 Thanks for reading and keep smiling.
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I honestly see it as – you truly felt these things that that time, and poetry is from the heart, and even though you might think of it as something irrelevant now, to your young mind it must have been magnanimous and it was all genuine, and I really got that feeling from the poem. A mark of a true gifted writer, my friend! I hope you have a great weekend. 🙂
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Like I said, you’re too kind. But what you said about the feelings being genuine at the time is completely true ❤
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Great poem, D! I’ve got a whole journal of poems I haven’t looked at for decades. Not sure they would classify as angst, though. Mostly reverence for the natural world. Not saying I wasn’t an angsty teen who never fit in, but I found solace in Nature. 🙂
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I honestly only found 3 that were super angsty, Julie. The rest are gone or in another box somewhere. It was fun to go through the pile – most of them horrible, but a journey nonetheless. Happy Writing. 🙂
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Good poem. 🙂 I think I burned all the ones I wrote. 😉
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Probably a wise choice, Roseylinn, in that it got you out of doing this challenge. Ha ha. Thanks for reading 🙂
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I’d love to join in this challenge, but sadly some poetry has simply gone ahead to an open mic reading in the sky.
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I love your wording here, Allie. Clever mind, you.
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Why, thank you!
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I have a big box of it, Allie, that eventually will go the same way. Sorry to miss your teenage angst. ❤ I've had a good laugh going through mine. 🙂
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Diana!!!! You did it! Brave woman! Dare I say its actually quite good…. very dark, a little melodramatic, but then what teen isnt? Not only is it angst laden, but its bursting with passion and emotion! A perfect example of the genre, and already shining the talent yet to come.
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Ha ha. Melodramatic is the perfect word, Ali. The world was about to end. It was a great challenge and I got a kick out of rummaging through my old poetry. Thanks for the prompt!
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Its so much fun! I hope a few more people join in. Ill do a round up on my blog next week if there are a few!
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They really are fun, especially for those of us who have advanced beyond those melodramatic years. 🙂
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I have a lot of teenage poems as well. Mine sucked but this one is actually good
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Thanks for the kind comment. When I read this I just remember my gloomy teens when every day was full of drama! If you are up to it, take the challenge, Shane. It’s good for a laugh, at least. 🙂
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I hope you read this out to the rest of the class 🙂
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… or that the teacher pulled it away from you, because you were writing during Geometry class, and she read it aloud to the class.
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I would have quit school if that happened, Erik. I’m sure I wrote this one up in my room in the dark. That would have suited my mood back then. 🙂
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I don’t think this one made it out of rough draft, Phil. I have plenty of other examples of terrible poetry that I submitted. My poor teachers. Ha ha.
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Well. 😉
I cannot tell you how happy I am you took on the #teenangstpoem challenge. I have to find mine. I remember some of the shorter ones but you have a whole box? That’s awesome! 😀 This is the perfect doom-and-gloom of teen angst. But mine were all (ALL OF THEM) rhymed and metered. Yours has much better form and some decent lines and, really, isn’t too bad. And so super angsty. I love it!
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Thanks for the fun idea, Sarah. I was a miserable teenager and have lots of depressing lovelorn poetry. Ha ha. Thank goodness the teenage years are finite!!!! 🙂
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Right? I wouldn’t go back there if you paid me.
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That is powerful. Such angst. It was hard to read.
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When I was a teenager, the feelings were intense, of course. Those were not good times. With about 40 years of perspective, I can laugh about them. 😀
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Diana, you nailed it! I have to say that while I can remember some angst, I’m not sure I can put it into poetry. It was such a loooooong time ago!
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I have a box of old writings, Noelle, and this was the gloomiest. Lol. I’m so glad it was a loooong time ago.
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You are braver than I. NOBODY needs to see the angst-ridden musings from my formative years. I can barely read them myself without cringing. The one you shared, however, is much more maturely introspective that most of mine – and the poetry is certainly better!
xx,
mgh
(Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMORE dot com)
ADD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder
“It takes a village to educate a world!”
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Oh, come on, Madelyn. Nothing like a little baring of the teenage soul, especially when it no longer applies. I almost backed out, to be honest, but it did give me a laugh. 🙂 Thanks for reading!
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NO way! I left that girl in the dust decades ago – so embarrassed that I no longer attempt poetry at all. 🙂
xx,
mgh
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I was Emo before Emo was a thing. You’re not alone.
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Emo? I had to look that up, Erik. My advice to miserable teenagers is usually to hang in there. That cliche about those being the best years of our lives (for many of us) is pure nonsense.
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EMO in a nutshell
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Actually, I love it, Diana. There’s a very mature feeling to it. 🙂
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I don’t know, Sebnem. To me, it’s over the top, but maybe because it reminds me of the drama of the time. 🙂 Thanks for reading and have a great day.
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Maybe, but to me it sounded like words from a passionate, but wise person. Have a lovely day, too, Dina. 🙂
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Have you listened to Top-40 Pop in the last … lifetime?
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A little, Erik. You’re right, but it just isn’t me anymore (for the most part). Not that I don’t have gloomy moments, but they aren’t so “end of the world” dramatic. 😀
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I can’t remember that far back so I’ll just bask in how good you was even back then. THAT DIDN’T SOUND RIGHT!!!!!!
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Ha ha. Oh, Richard. You were probably a wonderful poet when you were eight. This poem makes me cringe, but maybe because I remember the intense drama of the time – ugh. So glad I’m not a teenager anymore!
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I skipped it, moved straight to my twenties.
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You were lucky!
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Some poetry simply need to be torn to shreds, locked into a safe, weighed down with concrete and tossed into the deepest trench in the deepest ocean found on a planet that inhabits the furthest corner of the universe….
Gosh, how’s that for angst?
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Ha ha ha. I agree. I almost backed out of this challenge, but it was worth the laugh. Thanks for sharing your angst. 😀
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Love
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❤
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Ah, the drama of young live.
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So true! I was very dramatic, Bernadette. Now, I’m the opposite – thankfully. 😀
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Whoa, teen angst indeed ! The closest I ever came to it at this age…a multi-page Dear John letter, wordy, but not poetry. You had an early gift, D. We’re not groaning. 💜
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I found a few better ones, Van, but this one did make me cringe. It’s so “woe is me.” I’m so glad I’m not a teenager!
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Seems you’ve always had the gift Diane! This is a tempting challenge. 🙂
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I think it’s dreadful, Holly. It just reminds me of when I was a gloomy teenager wallowing in my suffering. 🙂 It is a fun challenge if you have some old angsty poetry lying around.
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I don’t have any but I can make some up, lol! This is pretty good stuff for a 17 year old, Diane.
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We always view our past selves through the lens of our current self. We are a harsh taskmaster, expecting the then-us to know and have experienced all that the whenever-now-us has. We even tend to interpret the thoughts and perceptions of our past selves as if the now-self had thought or seen or done those things; and so we judge.
The fact is, we could only be where we were whenever we were. And so I don’t in any way see the poem as dreadful — just honest, and from the pen of the only person “that Diana” could be.
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I know. And it was nothing that four years of therapy couldn’t fix. Lol. Wouldn’t it be nice to know at the start what only years of experience teaches us?
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I think most teens (including the past-me version) would be OK with even a consistent and trusted voice that says, “I know this part is hard, but you make it. You won’t always feel this way. You get through to a wonderful future. Hang on.”
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I agree, Erik, though I’m not sure I would have heard it. As much as I struggled, I also thought I already knew everything! Ha ha.
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Your comment reminded me of this J.M. Barrie (author of Peter Pan) quote:
“I am not young enough to know everything.”
Fortunately (with the exception of a certain U.S. President) most of us come to know better as we age!
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Ha ha ha. Great Barrie quote. I’ll have to remember that. And I agree with you that (most) of us benefit from the experience that comes with age. 🙂 Thanks for visiting!
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Haha! And here’s my contribution. It’s not angsty as such but more on the pretentious side of the spectrum. Very nearly the first thing on my blog and possibly the oldest thing I’ve dug out. :-p
https://babbitman.wordpress.com/2014/10/02/embarrassing-teenage-poetry/
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Oh good. I’m heading over. It’s a fun challenge. 😀
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