From Notebook to eBook: Ten Years of Raw Teenage Poetry and Emotions

As April approaches, we take a moment to recognize what’s ahead—holidays, birthdays, spring break, fresh air, and bright colors. It’s a beautiful month for many reasons, one of those being National Poetry Month: a time to honor poets and their work, highlight the importance of poetry, encourage literacy, and celebrate words and expression.

Poetry is a unique style of writing that many—myself included—lean on to express emotions and thoughts when verbal communication feels difficult or overwhelming. Many use it to capture beautiful feelings and experiences we want to hold onto and not forget. In short, poetry serves as our outlet, our safe space to say whatever we’re feeling without judgment. Dedicating a month to this creative form shows just how powerful words can be.

Today, looking through my old navy-colored three-ring binder filled with 10 years of poems, I can still feel every emotion, every thought, every event—despite starting this journey over 25 years ago. I was in middle school. The year was 2001.

Let’s journey back.

Writing Poetry to Get Through the Teenage Years

I was in seventh grade. That’s when I started transferring my feelings onto paper—when unexpected changes occurred that hurt me deeply and left me questioning many things. I lost loved ones abruptly, without warning. Someone who was meant to be a constant in my life chose not to be part of it. I also experienced faded friendships and deep heartbreak.

I felt let down. I felt low. I felt unloved. I felt lonely. I felt confused. I felt angry.

Writing helped me acknowledge what happened, process it, and find a way forward. It also made me feel like someone was there—someone was listening to me, someone who understood me.

However, not all the poetry I wrote was to cope with hurt or heartache. Like most teenagers, I had crushes, friend groups, school activities, hobbies, and happy celebrations. I had wonderful experiences that I didn’t want to forget, and I showed appreciation by writing about them. Reading those poems always brings a smile to my face. Those were good days, and remembering them reminds me that dark days don’t last.

Not all of my poetry was kept personal or meant to stay private. I took a creative writing class in high school, and one poem I wrote, “Hold On,” was a sonnet. I wrote it about the grief of losing my grandmother years earlier, while also finding comfort in knowing she is still with me. I later submitted that poem to my college’s literary magazine, Creation Space, and it was published there. Seeing that meant so much to me. It made me feel that not only could I be good at creative writing, but that I had also shared my emotions with others—something I had never done before.

My writing continued into college, but its focus began to change.

Writing Through College and Early Adulthood

I found myself writing more about love and romance, rather than hurt and pain. I had a boyfriend, and most of my poems during that time were about our relationship and being happy and in love. Although that relationship didn’t last, I appreciate the good memories that came from it.

I wrote my “last” poem, “Two,” in 2011—the year I met my now husband. I fell in love quickly. The butterflies, the endless smiles, the laughs, all the fun adventures—I had to write about how happy he made me, how he made me feel special, and how much I loved him.

Around this time, I unintentionally stopped writing and focused on my career and future endeavors. But I knew I would return to writing—it was only a matter of when.

Coming Back After a Hiatus

A quick recap from 2011–2019: my husband and I got engaged in 2014, married in 2016, and bought our first home in 2017. We decided it was time to start a family—and it was through that process that I began writing again. It wasn’t the reason I returned to writing, but I needed writing.

I experienced a natural miscarriage, alone, in 2017, which left me a mess. It took a lot for me to accept what happened instead of questioning why it happened. When I became pregnant again in 2019, I felt a whirlwind of emotions—fear and anxiety, excitement and happiness.

After my healthy baby boy entered the world that year, my concerns began to fade, and my heart felt full. I wrote a deeply personal poem, “My Son, My Hope,” reflecting my journey through miscarriage, then pregnancy, and motherhood. It allowed me to grieve the loss of my first while celebrating the joy and hope my son—my rainbow baby—brought into the world.

Since returning to writing, I’ve written poems here and there—not on a constant basis, but whenever my mind feels cluttered and I need to express what’s going on inside me. I find it very therapeutic and lean on it to release my thoughts and feelings, no matter what they are. After I wrote that poem, I began reflecting on the many times I turned to poetry to get through both difficult and joyful moments. The image of my poems, written over 10 years and tucked away in a box in the storage room, came to mind. There were a few actions I could take—one being publishing them.

Taking a Big Step: Publishing My Poetry

The thought of publishing my poetry lingered in my mind for a long time. I hesitated for a few reasons. For starters, my writing is personal—not just meaningful to me, but I wondered if others would understand where I was coming from. Second, these poems were from my teenage years, 25 years ago. I am not that same person; I have grown and matured since.

But I did it anyway.

Publishing the poetry I wrote as a teen and young adult was a big accomplishment, and one I am very proud of. I look forward to continuing to write poetry. Whether I share it publicly or keep it to myself, it is freeing.

Writing to Heal and Inspire

So that is my story—when and why I started writing, how I came back to it, and how I took a big step in publishing some of my poems.

My eBook, Writing With Life In Mind: Poems of Hope, Heart, and Healing, is a collection of 25 raw poems written during my teenage years. It is available for free on Kindle Unlimited and on Amazon. You may find yourself in some of the poems and relate to the experiences, no matter where you are in life. Hopefully, they can give you a bit of peace.

Before I close this blog, I want to speak to anyone who’s struggling: you may not know how to release your feelings, and you may not feel comfortable talking about them. I didn’t. That is why I turned to writing. I grabbed a pen and paper and put my emotions into words.

If you’re holding things in and unsure how to let them out, start with one word—any word. Write a sentence, whatever is on your mind. Any thought. Write what’s going on in your mind. You can write it, or you can type it. You don’t even need to keep it.

Just let it out.