(applause).

>> hi, my name is katie the my first poem is "chipped blue nail polish." heads of the ground focus on her hands, altern ating expressions, multicolored moods, unpredictable. [applause] my second poem is about pro

craffletination. that day i had a panic attack. i spent $20 for my class. running late, half-assepd and i still spent $20 for that class. red lights almost every black -- block. the traffic nearly made my heart stop. i ran through my class presentation straight out of the cab. i paid 20 freaking dollars for that cab. thank you. >> hi, my name is daniel and the first poem i'm going to read is shadows. ♪ i'm a shadow that moves away from night falls. i'm a shadow that makes other shadows rise. i'm a shadow that sprints, walks, and plays. some shadows are huge and mountains and others are tiny

snails. some are old and others young. the sun generates our society. shadow gives a shade of dark to everything. shadows are your reflection on the ground. we are all in one society of shadows. we are all different sizes but aim for the same goal -- to be someone in this year the shadow is you. >> my michael -- mother say mountain holding up sky for me. she is the sun who gives strength to those who need it. my mother is the hand that helps me keep going in this world of chaos. she is a light that will always shine in my heart." my second one is called it's -- "dear president obama." dear president obama i hope you can change all the problems our

world faces, the war in iraq, the war in afghanistan, pal istine and global warming. i am from california and in the valley here, people, especially from latin america, are getting sick in -- working in the fields for hours every day for little pay and no health care. please help them because without them no one could even be vegetarian the sincerely, natalie. >> sometimes desperate for attention but not rebellious. i don't have bad influences and i try hard not to give in to peer pressure but somewhere along the road someone calms

long with temptation close to their side and offers me whatever they got, but do i get the power to say no? always sitting blankly at the sky hoping for a miracle to happen, hoping someone will come around to understand. i don't want toys anymore and i don't want it show my baby pictures and if i'm crazy and loud then you're insane and rude and if today is not our day, so be it, there is always tomorrow. thank you. >> ok. the average american dream and dreamer built dreams on shatorde hopes and left off on their own spaceships of life. but the average american laws are in a state of corruption. man is allowed to work -- to go

to war and kill other. at age 18 but a man can't buy a drink until age 21. i mean the government has money to pay for wars but not to feed the poor. politicians say more taxes will solve everything -- everything the politicians say vote for me and i'll set you free. but then, dear politician, why are innocent men and women being arrested for helping a dying man on the street? men and women create but we got our name from our women and then we take from our women. when did we get to the point where we're buying everything but can't pay for anything? we have credit cards or checks and check books but not a dime in our pocket? we had dreams in the beginning but let them fizzle in the end so when the ship goes down we

better get ready. thank you. [applause] >> ok the so it's called this guy. so there's this guy, right, and he has a smile that can turn my day brighter than bright and the scent he wears i can no longer bear because it gives me that sensational floating on cloud nine feeling. i try to restrain myself from pulling and grasping every bit of my attention toward it. notice how i said base hit not home run because in the end when the play is done there still wasn't an end run. you see, this guy i'm talking about, he makes me want to take a different route, a different sky, sing and dands -- dance and run and shout all at the same time. he makes me feel nothing but

pure ecstasy whether he -- i think about him kissing melt he makes me want to find a cure for cancer and every question an answer. i will always be with him to the very end but him and me we're a different kind of friends, you see, him and me, there's this magnetic pool tonight -- attraction between us. if i knew he was here tonight i'd turn on my red light and probably have stage fright. but he's something new. maybe he's scared of change but if he would just let me, perhaps i could help him real estate range his thought process. so how about we put this game on pause instead of sneaking around like mice because we can

focus on making an amazing display of something 35eusing, earth taking, something unfailing, smag maysing the but -- something amazing. but i can see it's impossible, unimaginable, and very unexplainable. i may not like it. i may hate it, hate it with every inch of movie body, with every atom that makes up my existence, every molecule, every cell in my system but life isn't like one big, bird and you can't always have things your way. before i say goodbye, there's this guy and when he smiles, everything just seems all right. [cheers and applause] >> up next is my girl lajenae.

>> ok, well, my name -- the majority of people call me la. i wrote this poem this morning and it's dedicated to a couple of people in the audience right now. so -- never had someone like you. i understand you can only be you but does you include us? does you include the ones you are supposed to cherish? i remember those days we used to go to the zoo. nowadays you're mostly with boofment don't get me wrong but missing you and the way things used missing you and the way things used to be -- wow -- sorry, missing you and the way things used to be, now it's like we're paying the fees while you go where you please. now i'm asking for one thing and that one thing is please

don't take my sister away from me. >> up next we've got talia baby. >> all right. all right. what's up? what's happening? >> i'm -- doesn't really need a time. if you should love a trip, i'll give you a clip but babe this, buttercup that, i've heard it all before. i'm in love with prada and christian dior. you see, i'm way ahead of your plan. not trying to have you as my man. my cell, please quit calling it. you see i ignore the calls. you can't play me. i'm done with games. stop with the kid games. got you heated because i'm done with you and you know i'm on to the next dude.

love nobody, trust nobody, and most definitely near fear nobody. it's a cold game. play your part the you ain't even on topic. let's not speak about it. i do what i do and i does it with. i saw your mommas. i got me one and i call them daddy instead of papas. you ain't with it, you in the past. since i guess you have nice things well you whack and because of that aspect i never ever slacked. not the female you used to date. i got a unique type situation. i'm so glad these birds they just bloop me. i speak fluently. she busy with all that blah, blah, blah. hear me out though. i'm going to leave you stern. [applause]

>> in an urban high school in the science laboratory lab, two girls are discussing their project. >> you don't even know what you are doing the -- doing. you're dumb. >> you test too much. >> the day has come. the projects are to be returned. >> see, i told you? mine was the best. i told you, dummy. besides, let me see what you guys have. >> you know, i'm leaving. after school, alice and delores park thinking about human behavior. >> i don't know what people want to -- from me, for real. i have to say i think people just want me to be perfect.

but you know what? i am capable of doing anything. it doesn't matter who i am or the way i look. what matters is the effort. i will study more. >> alice studied hard. she gets automatic a's. she's on the honor roll! -- she gets all a's. she's on the honor roll. >> oh, my god. i can't believe it? you see? i am capeable. don't call me dummy. now who do you think schnur i am a girl with just good grades. >> the morale of this story is that no matter what people think about you, all you have to do is show who you really are. even if the situation isn't good for you, you must make the best effort you can and you will succeed in this life. jenny chuasiriporn did -- life.

[cheers and applause] >> all right. yell about the shooting, about the killings. mothers don't remember reality. phone call. angers, her client. who the media pictures fighting and screaming. wife drops the bottle. neighbors. let mep put some ink in your mind. blue, red, purple, green, black, so many colors of ink i'm going to start an art gearly. google me. violence is my silence. >> all right. i see a room with darkness. i see the color white. poems are made in darkness. poems are p white.

poems are shadows. all poems are what you want them to be 79 all poems ar another -- another way to express yourself. i stay active. if i see something i like i'm snatching the if you put up a fight, i'm basting. you're going to be on the floor sleeping and i'm going to be standing over you blasting the poems are funny. i hear people screaming, i hear cops coming, so i start running the i get tired of running so a get a bought fble water and start dranking -- drinking the i see the cops again so i break to fleefment poems are made to flee. poems are diaries. poems are made to go hard or go home. poems are made to influence. poems are made to touch lives. poems catch lives. poems are alive.

>> all right. my poem is called let me tell you where i've been. let me tell you where i've been. i've been places you couldn't imagine. places you think i couldn't been -- have been the places you thought you saw me but that's not where i was. places here and there, places you hear about on the news or on the air. i've been there. even if it was yesterday's tomorrow i've been there. all i go to -- do is go to school and straight home. guess i haven't been anywhere. everything changes one day. soon i can say i've been somewhere the soon i can go somewhere by air the somewhere you wouldn't dare. going to school will get me

somewhere. then you will look back at me with a fake grin because i just told you where i'm going and where i've been. >> because this is a writing community for writers who have been with writers corps for a while and the program is no longer available, i am going to truce them all at once and then they're going to just do their poems. so first i'd like to bring up sandra. sandra? >> hi, how are you, everybody. i home you're enjoying the show and that -- i'm nervous. so -- i think i will cry. i'm just acting. don't worry. and two years ago i came here at the same place and i was

reading poetry, but the difference from then to now is that i couldn't speak english. so i read my poem in spanish and i think i missed a lot of the audience because not everybody can understand or speak stash -- spanish. in restless night that i was thinking how good my professor has been to me. she has given -- given me support without even using hard words. when i'm struggling she holds my hand, letting me know that i can count on her. whenever i feel sad or share a broken tear, she asked me for a hug and it is there in her arms that i feel protected like nothing that dares to touch me could hurt me.

there is a power that grows inside me. when i find myself under her wings. under her wings i am calm. and she calls me mija, as if she were saying don't give unon account of stupid things. don't you see how strong you are? and my pain turns into a sincere smile and my soul doesn't feel hurt any hor. -- more. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> yay. and next up we have annie. annie yu, i'm sorry. annie yu. >> it's ok. so the poem i'm going to read is book of lives. my name is a b