bravery does not
scream, it does not shout, yet
it's louder than all

bravery doesn't
happen overnight
bravery
has been living in your
bones, dormant,
but alive,
waiting for you
to see that it has
always been yours
waiting for you
to marvel when you
see that you can do
what you've always
wanted to do
and be who
you've wanted to be

let's be wildflowers,
let our souls be scattered by the wind.
let us grow, wild and free,
tall and brave,
in the places that we dream,
in the places where our longings
are filled.
let us grow between the cracks
of brokenness,
and we will make everything beautiful.

your wild hair
is just a little
glimpse of who
you are,
it tells me
that your heart
and your dreams
and soul
are just as wild
as those locks
of yours
you are lovely
and free
and brave
and
your heart finds
life in color
and boldness
and who you are,
wildflower,
makes you beautiful.

i was born
with a heart too big to fit
inside my chest
and a soul bigger than my body
so i have chosen
to leave pieces of my heart
in the places my feet have known
in the people i have loved
in the words i have read
in the beauty my eyes have seen
and my soul-
i have scattered it like seeds
and i have left parts of it
in songs,
in poetry,
in the laughter of children,
in the arms that have held me
and the hearts that have loved me

you aren't
less worthy
less important
less powerful
because you're
b r o k e n.
your brokenness is
no obstacle for light
to shine through you.
the light shines
through the cracks.

the magic of poetry.
is that it makes everything
beautiful.
it fills your lungs
like air.
it turns your soul
into a sky full of stars.
your heart
a field of wildflowers.
you.
into a poem.

may i grow
so tall and bright,
so free and wild,
so brave and vibrant
that when you see me
standing
you think i am
a sunflower.

me quiero así.
me quiero así, con mis ojos color noche
y mi nariz redonda
y la luna de canela que vive sobre ella.
me quiero así,
con mi pelo rizado e indomable
que solo se deja llevar por el viento.
me quiero así,
con mi piel del mismo color
del café con leche
que me gusta tanto.
me quiero así,
con mi poesía y sin ella,
con las palabras que siento,
con las palabras que callo.
me quiero así,
mágica y única;
porque así soy,
porque así me hicieron,
porque sí.

there are stars you
haven't seen
and loves you haven't loved
there's light you haven't felt
and sunrises yet to dawn
there are dreams
you haven't dreamt
and days you haven't lived
and nights you won't forget
and flowers yet to grow
and there is more to you
that you have yet to
know.

vulnerability is a risk.
it might break you.
but through the cracks is where the light shines.
vulnerability is a game
and no matter how much you lose
you will always win.
vulnerability might wound you,
but it will heal you, too.
don't run away from this,
don't walk away from it.
come closer, dip your toes in this water.
know that this is how you grow,
how you love,
how you become into what you will be.

i love your heart,
i love it because
it dwells on beauty
and bravery and gold.
i love your heart,
because your heart
has learned to love
its brokenness.
i love your heart,
because your heart
looks beyond and
finds light in the dark places.
i love your heart,
because your heart
hasn't stopped loving,
because your heart
refuses to be disappointed
by what it finds in this world,
because your heart
hasn't given up,
because your heart
still believes in grace
in love, in kindness,
in wonder and light.
i love your heart because
it keeps beating.

there is a country in the world
put on the same trajectory as the sun
and i am in it
trying to swim in its waters of *** and morirsoñando
trying to stay afloat,
trying to swim back to where i came from.
in the shores of the sea
of this country in the world
the sand tells the stories of those who came before me
the ships,
the ships,
the ships that gave and took away,
the ships that gave me my curls and my nose,
my spanish and my last name.
there is a country in the world
put on the same trajectory as the sun
and i am in it,
with love for its coffee rains and warm people,
for its streets and rivers,
beaches and songs.
there is a country in the world
put on the same trajectory as the sun
and i am in it,
afraid for its women and their beauty,
afraid for its girls,
afraid of, and for, its men without love.
there is a country in the world
put on the same trajectory as the sun
and i am in it,
and this land holds more poems than it can read,
more songs than it can sing,
more hope than what it has lost.
there is hope
for a country in the world
put on the same trajectory as the sun
and i am in it.

i love me like this,
with the night in my eyes
and the cinnamon moon
that sits atop my nose.
i love me like this,
with my wild and untamable curls,
who only listen to the wind.
i love me like this,
with my skin that matches
the café con leche i love to drink.
i love me like this,
with my poetry and without her;
with the words i feel
and the words i’ve kept to myself.
i love me like this,
light and free;
because this is who i am,
this is who i was made to be.

kiss me under the bougainvillea tree
let the leaves fall on our heads
as our lips hesitantly touch
and one pink leaf will land on your nose,
and our lips will curve into a rhyming smile

do not let me
give you
anything less than
milk and honey.
do not let me feed your soul
with emptiness.
empty words.
empty beauty.
empty love.
let every space
that i fill
be occupied by a love
that was worth all we did
to find it.
let me fill in the blanks you keep
with words that come from truth
let the beauty that i give you
mean something to you.

there is wonder and grace
tangled in your curls,
and the night stars have
made your eyes their dwelling place.
and your heart is a garden
with blooming flowers of
joy and beauty, bringing
life and light to the darkness.
hope and heaven live
in your bones,
and in your soul a
songbird sings a melody
of love.

if i ever told you
i loved you
i meant to say
‘thank you’
for not running away
for looking at me and choosing to stay
what i meant to say
was that
my heart has found a home inside yours
when i tell you i love you
what i mean is that
you are an ocean i am not afraid of drowning in
what i mean is that
i have never been afraid of being alone
but when i'm without you
loneliness tastes like bitter coffee
when i say i love you
i mean it.

i want everything ahead of me
one day to be behind me
am i asking for too much?
if so, then—
i don’t want to leave
having not seen every beautiful thing
let me see
the jacaranda
the Maine sky one more time
the bougainvillea my mother planted for me bloom violet
i want my feet to know their home
i want fear to become a stranger
am i still asking for too much?
if so, then—
i do not want to wonder whether i was loved
i want the poems i leave behind
(my life)
to mean something
every day i have left
let me soak it in gratitude
give me more words than what i can say
more stars than what i can see
if i cannot ask for more time
more heartbeats
more life
give me then
more sun
more rain
more laughter
more poetry
more possibilities
is this still too much?
give me then
just more
let me say these words
i am full (of life) i cannot have anymore

iloveyou,
you say, tangling up the three words in one breath.
i love you more, i tell you.
no, iloveyoumore, you say.
i love you more than bees love flowers, i say,
and you tell me that bees love pollen
and that youlovememore.
but i love you,
more than bees love flowers and yes, pollen
and i love you more than birds love to sing
more than wishes love stars
more than dreams love sleep
i love you more
than grass loves rain
and rain loves the earth
and the earth loves trees
and the trees love the wind.
i love you more
than sunflowers love sun,
more than the sun loves the sky,
more than the sky loves blue,
more than blue loves the sea.
i love you
ilove you
iloveyou like youloveme.

may you learn to be brave
and may you always run carefree,
certain of your worth and the power inside you.
may your song be your own,
and when your song is different from the rest,
sing louder.
may you never forget that you’ve always had wings,
and may they carry you far.

come closer,
look inside,
and don’t be afraid
of what you might find.
travel down
the roads of your soul,
until you know by heart
every corner and place
of your being.
learn your fears so
you may know how
to fight them,
and gaze at your skies
and try to number
the millions of stars
in your heart,
and trace with your hands
every bit of who you are,
and know yourself
so you may not
forget yourself,
and your worth,
and the constellations
of grace and light
inside you.
do not forget yourself,
do not ignore the
melody of your heart,
do not doubt your
beauty, your worth,
and the bits of glory
and stardust sprinkled
on your skin.
come closer.

people won't remember
your pretty face
nor your pretty clothes
and the money you had.
they will remember
the melody in your laugh
and the way you loved
and the beauty of your heart
and the bravery of your spirit
and the kindness of your soul.
they won't remember what
you looked like
they won't remember what
you had.
they will remember you
and the words you told them
and the life you spoke to them
and the water you used
to bring to life the dead garden
in their souls
and they will remember the
sunshine in your smile
and the stars that
hid in your eyes.

m a y b e
may be
may (i) be
i (may) be
may i (be) May
(May): spr(i)ng and flowers and bees
(be)es
be (sweet)
be (here)

may i just be
may there always be room for me
between may and be.

feeling alive feels like
yellow flowers growing in my bones
and blooming on my skin
it feels like the sun rises
not in the east
but from within me

am i not brave?
am i not still here?
isn't that the sound of my heart,
beating?
don't my eyes still wonder at the
stars above them?
has my soul stopped singing?
its voice is weak and
its light has dimmed,
but i can still hear my song,
i can still see my light.
i haven't left.
i am still here.
i am brave.

i want to be
the stars in your sky
and the sun rays
that shine on
your face
and maybe even be
the air
in your lungs
and i want to
be one of the reasons
why you smile
why you wake up
and want to be more
than who you are
and i want
to be the soundtrack
to your happy days
and i want to
make you feel
things you've never
felt before
and i want to
maybe even
own a little
piece of your
heart.

when the morning comes,
may you smile at the sun,
and may its light touch your heart.
when the morning comes,
may the birds sing to you songs of hope.
when the morning comes,
may you find the grace your heart needs.
when the morning comes,
may joy light the way before you.

i wanted to write a poem
about your curls
and how they made my heart
beat like a drum played by a five-year old
who had chocolate cake for lunch
how my fingers were fighting each other
and fighting the urge
to tangle with yours and
make their way to that
chocolate colored head of yours
and get tangled in it too
and i wanted to write a poem
of how much i wanted to be like Cinderella
and leave something behind
with the hopes that you’d call me back
something like a notebook or my
polka-dotted waterbottle
but i guess the only thing i left
was a tiny little part of my heart
on the backseat of your car

in the event of an emergency,
return my eyes to the sky.
my hair to africa.
my skin to the rain.
give my smile to my mother,
she always loved it best.
give my mouth to my father,
my voice as well. make sure it is loud.

return my poetry to my English teachers,
give my words to my brother.
tell him there was so much i wanted to tell him,
give him both my ears, tell him i will always listen.

give my hands to my heart.
my heart will be tucked in my journals,
give them to the boy who loves me.
mail my songs to Maine,
with the letters you will find inside the shoeboxes.
give my feet to New York City,
my laughter to my students.

return my coffee mugs to my grandmother,
my tongue to her cooking.
give my books to my friends,
and both of my shoulders.

if there is anything left,
give it to the earth.
let the birds make of my bones a home,
let the spring find room to bloom.
give my lungs the air they were waiting for.

i will always be her,
this girl with the wild curls
and the gentle eyes
that look for poetry in the sunset sky,
and i will always be her,
this girl with bravery
seeping into her bones,
with freedom tattooed on her skin.
i will always be her,
this girl with a heart
full of dreams and hope,
and words to write.
i will always be her,
this girl with a soul too big,
a light too bright.
i will always be her,
and no one can't take that from me.

touch my heart
the way the sun touches the clouds
at sunset, filling them with color,
with light.
touch my heart
like rain touches the earth,
softly,
breathing life in it,
making it bloom.
touch my heart,
touch my life,
touch my soul.

you say that when i’m skinny
i’ll be pretty,
but don’t you see that now
i smile easily,
and my eyes look like the stars?
don't you see that my laughter
sounds like a song,
and my feet are lighter
and nothing weighs me down?
you say i will be pretty,
but don’t you see that i already am,
that i always have been?
don’t you see i am much more than
pretty,
that i am someone with dreams,
with hope and light?

if you ever read a poem
i hope you read me.
i hope you find the poetry
that hides in my body,
my rhyming eyes, my dancing feet,
the curve in my lips,
the cinnamon of my skin.
if you ever read a poem
i hope you read me,
i hope you read the words
written on my skin,
how my eyes spell out the word
'light'
and how my hands speak of art
and my heart sings words like
bravery and hope
and if you ever read a poem
i hope it's me.

write poetry to your soul
and use verbs like
love
and adjectives like
wonderful and precious
and enough.

show me your heart,
show me the beauty you keep inside.
open your soul,
don’t hide it;
let me see the light that shines within.
tell me your story,
tell me what makes your heart beat,
what sets your soul on fire.
tell me about your pain,
and know that it matters,
that every thing about you matters.
know that your life is a gift,
that your life is grace.

as i walk through this desert,
through this valley of shadow of death,
i'm keeping my head up,
i'm smiling through the bitterness
because i know this won't last forever
because one day i'll look back
from the mountaintop.

lean into this,
the hard work
the heart work
the art work of growing.
know that this isn't forever.
your body, your home will catch up
to the blossoming of your soul.
days and months and years will pass.
but then, like a child, like a flower in spring,
you will bloom, you will rise.
here.
unrushed.
in your time.

let’s be love letters
written to broken hearts
with words of kindness, of grace,
of hope.
let’s be love songs
that play over and over,
that echo in every soul.
let’s be shoulders to lean on,
open wide arms,
open wide hearts.
let’s be lights
that lead each other home.

maybe love is in new york city.
maybe love is in paris.
maybe love is here.
maybe love has seen me
and secretly thinks i'm beautiful.
maybe love isn't as far from reach as i think it is.
maybe love plays the guitar or the piano
and has written songs about me
and the way my hair dances in the wind.
but maybe love is in new york city
waiting for me to visit.
waiting for me to take the train
waiting for me to make eye contact
while he sits on the opposite side of me.
maybe love is in new york city
or rome
or spain.
maybe love writes poetry.
maybe love loves someone else right now.
maybe love will find me in five years
or in two months.
but love is out there.
maybe in new york city.

a list of the things my soul forgot:

i am still brave
i am free
i am beautiful
i have hope
i am redeemed
i am alive
and my story is still being written
i am worth more than the words i write
and i have worth even when i cannot write
and i am also worth more than the sun
and the moon
and the stars
i can dream
i am not perfect and it is okay to struggle
because even though i don’t deserve grace
it is mine
i am lovely
and i am loved
and even if i forget the truth
that doesn’t change that
it is still true.

i crave you
but not wildly
and i don't crave a kind of love
in which i am madly lost in
(although i hope i am)
but i crave you normal
like waking up late on a saturday morning
i crave you steady
like your hand holding mine
when you're driving in the car
and i crave you simple
like ice cream and a movie
and i crave you
like you
like a kiss where my neck and collarbone meet
like my skin getting used to
the touch of yours
(although i hope it never does)
like my lips molding
to the shape of your own
and i crave you
i crave you
i crave you.

‘this is my heart,’ i tell you.
you hold it between your hands.
‘be gentle, be kind, be soft,’ i want to tell you.
i smile,
i let you believe it is strong and unbreakable.
but this heart,
my heart,
is made of paper,
light, fragile and easily breakable.
it is bendable,
and often tries to fold itself and look smaller than what it is.
an origami heart.
when you unfold it,
you can see the creases love left,
you can trace with your hand the exact place where pain left its mark,
you can read the stories left in the lines.
and still,
despite it all,
my origami heart, my paper heart
is a work of art.

it sounds cliché
and i wish it weren't true
but my heart can't give you
what you never gave me
and yet i don't blame you
because maybe
the same thing happened to you

i have swam for so long, and i am so far away.
so far away of who i was, by grace.
but far away of who i want to be.
but i won’t drown.
i will fight the waves.
i will look for joy and for loveliness.
i will make my days count.
i will let grace rain over me
and let it cover every fault.
i will fight the waves,
fight my fears,
the pain,
the sadness,
the words that escape me
and hide.
i won’t hide, i won’t drown.
i will fight the waves
and swim home.

maybe i keep
running away from You
because i am afraid
to let You love me,
maybe i keep running
because i don't want to
believe that grace and
mercy are waiting for me
maybe i keep running
because i know i don't
deserve what You
want to give me and maybe
i keep running
because it's not fair
that You keep chasing me
but i don't want to run;
i want to stay trapped
in your heart
and know by heart
the rhythm of your breathing
i want to never escape
the stronghold of your embrace
i want to stay and never leave
and never wander and never run.

your worth is something no
one can't take from you. You are
unique and special and only Christ defines you

and he says you are
redeemed and
enough and

whole and
out of the ordinary and
royalty and
truly loved and
his child and
y**ou are worthy.

don't ignore the spark in your heart,
don't let the fire die.
let it burn,
let it dance,
let it be wild.
let it be light,
let it be truth.
let it be hope,
let it be love.
let it be.

this heart, my heart,
beats in poetry
because it doesn’t know
how else to beat,
because it doesn’t know
how else to feel,
because it doesn’t know
how to let out everything i keep inside.
this heart beats in poetry
for you,
for me.

don't keep quiet.
go, and tell your story.
sing it from the rooftops
and shout it from the mountaintops.
write it in the sky,
tattoo it on your skin
and braid it in your hair;
tell your story.
don't let it go unheard,
because there is wonder
in your story,
there is grace in your
redemption,
because your words
are stepping stones
to freedom.
tell your story.