Things I Have to Tell You Poems and Writing by Teenage Girls

by Franco, Betsy; Nickles, Nina

• ISBN13: 9780763610357
• ISBN10: 0763610356
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-05-01
• Publisher: Candlewick

Summary

Teenage girls tell their own storiesin compelling poetry and prose paired with 42 striking black-and-white photographs. The voices in this collection have so much to question, so much to grieve. They have so much to celebrate, so much to rage against. They're ready to speak up and begin the conversation with you and with the world. More than thirty uncensored poems are accompanied by Nina Nickles's masterful photographs, which sensitively capture the moods and essence of adolescence. Here, painted in the words of teenage girls, is a portrait of their dreams and desires - a record of hope, disillusionment, anger, joy, sadness, and most of all, strength.

Author Biography

Nina Nickles has attended the Maine Photographic Workshops in Rockport, Maine, and the Santa Fe Art Institute in New Mexico. In 1999, she won an American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) Big Picture Award, and her work has been shown in numerous galleries in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. While photographing for THINGS I HAVE TO TELL YOU, she says she responded to "the language, flow, and nuance of gesture - gestures that were at once particular and individual but at the same time expressed so much."


Betsy Franco has published more than forty books for children and adults."My purpose and approach with THINGS I HAVE TO TELL YOU," she says, "was to let young women speak for themselves. These young women have something to say - and can they write!"

Excerpts

SECRETS
Do you know my secret,
Did I tell you it last night,
Were you listening to my dreams,
Were you hiding out of sight?

Do you look to find my secret,
Reading letters, reading notes,
Picking up sometimes on phone calls,
Opening books to see what I wrote?

Do you really want to know my secret,
Will it answer all your questions,
Take away your mass of worries?
Or maybe, you could ask for my suggestions.

Do you ever think to ask me about my secret,
Being honest and forthright,
With no lies or hidden feelings?
Only then will my secret come to light.


Jessica L. McCloskey, age 16


ESCAPE
I look inside me and I don’t see it
I don’t see the power
The confidence you say I have
You say I can do anything
That I’m sure of myself and my intentions
And I wonder
But I don’t know
If it’s all there
Waiting for the opportunity
to jump into you
And try to help you
Fix you
Ask you
Why? Because I don’t know
I wait anxiously
Feeling my stomach
A block of ice
Chipping away, melting,
then freezing up again
Who can I follow?
Cuz I don’t want to lead
I ask myself every question

There are temporary answers
But I know more
Like everybody seems to know more
And I still don’t know how
Cuz it’s nice to ignore confrontation
Avoid conflict
Watch my rainbow
And let you watch yours
But the universe knows more
I must take this test just like everyone
Takes tests
I am closing in on the sky
Hoping it will try to escape
And I know I will let it get away
Like I let a lot of things get away
Cuz then I won’t have to continue the search
For my power

Theresa Hossfeld, age 16


NEW HONESTY
Today I gave up
a promising career of "truth."
Profound state of love
stepped in like a puzzle piece.
Completing, no, not
the Empire State Building,
not Mt. Rushmore or
van Gogh’s Sunflowers.
Completing instead
my departure from "honesty."
Can I find a balance
between me and
the box I call my family?
I want equilibrium.
I want subtle change.
I want to tell the Truth,
not the truth of the woman
who snapped on a collar
and named me alive.


FINDING JOY
I found myself a place
to be, to play
a day went by or maybe two
no thoughts of you to crowd my empty mind
I find my body is to me
as lovely as
a budding tree
a cat with grace
and emerald eyes
so unconcerned with shapely thighs
just me
Invisibly
a girl
inside this shape
a woman’s hips and breasts
so much wider, softer than the rest
I found myself a crystal blue
like nymphs or faeries do

I never thought of you
or what you’d think of me
I found my body was
a mass of ground
the earth inside of me
behind my vinyl walls of
picture perfection
I was the earth, the sky
it made me want to cry
to shout the softness
I have never dared let out
my curves, my hair
a part of who I was
a blonde in a clear glass pond
myself a flow of nature
alone
finding joy

Marissa Korbel, age 16

WORDS
Words fly across the paper like blackbirds across the sky
and I think to myself why oh
why oh why
why why,
Why would anyone use words like
I hate and
I can’t and
I quit therefore I won’t and
Goodbye.
Good bye?
Why not take that beautiful skill and use words like
I love and
I can and
I will or
at least I’ll try and
Hello . . . hello,
because I believe in word conservation
and if you’re going to use a word at all
it should be one that glides off of your tongue


I know I am strong
both in my convictions and in myself.
I know I am beautiful
both inside and out.
I know I am powerful
and growing more so.
I know I will do just fine.

Laura Veuve, age 15


Things I Have to Tell You. Copyright (c) 2001 Betsy Franco. Candlewick Press, Inc., Cambridge, MA

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Excerpted from Things I Have to Tell You: Poems and Writing by Teenage Girls
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.