How To Write High School Poetry

By Anita Pan

How to Write High School Poetry

By Anita Pan

begin with a lack of capitalizing

and avoid using periods—

if everything feels rushed or breathless

it means you’re doing great

and don’t forget to make

strange stylistic choices

about

where the words go,

Fearlessly defying

both common sense and

the poor reader’s eyeballs

(Cause if their heads don’t rotate by 360º,

it’s not real poetry).

Now in the main bits—you’ll want to cry

‘bout tried-and-true topics, like

being the second choice

or your parents not loving you

or the “inevitable passage of time”

Before ending the damn thing.

cathartically. emotionally. unapologetically.

by asking bad rhetorical questions

and adding random “...”s while you’re at it,

for instance:

“what the hell am I doing here...?”

Or, “i don’t belong here...”.

Thus, in conclusion,

Radiohead references aside,

here’s a foolproof template

for writing some epic

high school poetry

hell, you don’t even have to end with a period