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Amanda Harris
Age: 17
School: Garden School
How long have you been writing poetry?
My literary career actually started by accident when I was ten. A teacher told me that she thought I didn't try hard enough when it came to my school writing, so I wrote a poem in protest saying that her judgment was unfair.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
This poem was unique; I had heard a month before I wrote it that my teacher would be undergoing a cancer operation. Once a sickly child, I sympathized and began to relive my own sickness. It became something that was intangible, but present in everyday life- a monster of sorts, hence the name "blue colossus."
Who is your favorite poet? Why?
I was on a Shakespeare kick when I wrote this, in part because I always found it astonishing how he could summarize human nature to the backdrop of our most natural sound, the heartbeat. The poem was set up as an epic struggle between illness and the will to live; Homer's character Ulysses was especially inspiring as a model.
What advice can you give young writers?
Interesting question; this brings up a story I read when I was nine about a girl who was assigned to make a painting, but didn't know what to paint. She shows one design to her mother, who says, "It's beautiful, but is it true?" Honesty provides the key to good writing; all the rest will come naturally.
Read Amanda's latest poem!