Pongo Poetry Project’s mission is to engage youth in writing poetry to inspire healing and growth. In the spring of 2022, Pongo began mentoring poetry with young people at the Echo Glen Children’s Center, a juvenile institution for youth serving criminal sentences. Studies of incarcerated youth indicate that up to 70% suffer from a mental health disorder and that many have experienced childhood trauma. The isolation, economic upheaval, and turmoil of the last two years have only exacerbated this issue. Youth at Echo Glen have endured significant mental and emotional challenges in the last two years, including increased rates of depression, anxiety, sleep issues, and behavioral challenges.

Pongo believes there is power in creative expression, and articulating one’s pain to an empathetic audience. Through this special monthly column in partnership with the South Seattle Emerald, Pongo invites readers to bear witness to the pain, resilience, and creative capacity of youth whose voices and perspectives are too often relegated to the periphery. To partner with Pongo in inspiring healing and relief in youth coping with mental and emotional turmoil, join its GiveBig campaign today.

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The Wanderer With the Scars

by a young person at the Echo Glen Children’s Center

I am the happy one, who likes to wander
I am the calm one, who might come and go
I am the defiant one, who would never settle down for long
I am the one with the scars and their secrets.

I am the curious one, who thinks of every possible path
I am the stuck one, who can’t change the way I am
I am the hurt one, but much more hurt on the inside.
I am the one with the scars, and their message is
keep it moving, keep it wandering

I am the strong one, who is determined to find my true way
I am the dreamer, who imagines a different life,
imagines a time when Colis was shining big and bright

I am the childlike one, who remembers the start of my wandering
I am the one with the scars, but they are not me,
And one day their meaning will be the long journey they have shown me

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Freedom

by a young person at the Echo Glen Children’s Center

To get out of jail and go to the group home already
It makes me feel happy that I get to leave here and go to
A group home where I can get more freedom
Freedom is something that I can get and I won’t have to
Ask for permission to go to the bathroom
Or go to my room
Being able to do things on the outs
That I can’t do in here.

I’m imagining that if I go to the group home
I can work for the rest of my time instead of being in a jail
Or a facility and then go home
With money in my pocket
Being able to show my little brothers the right way
Instead of following in my tracks

I have two little brothers
I got a brother who’s only a year younger than me
And I want him to go a different route than I did
And just focus on school and work
Instead of getting in trouble and getting locked up
He looks up to me
And I don’t want him to get involved in anything I got involved with
I don’t want people who have problems with me
To go after my little brother
Just because he looks like me and he goes to the same school.

Watch over the people you love
And try to put a good example
If they look up to you
For them

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If I Had Control

by a young person at the Echo Glen Children’s Center

If I had control
My brothers wouldn’t be locked up
My family would have no pain
I wouldn’t be afraid to sleep
From the images in my brain

My mama would be happy
My brothers would stay young
The fiends would be off the corner
And no more stones be slung

I wouldn’t have to watch my back
I wouldn’t have to hear of crack
A happy place all in my mind
And every day would be sunshine

I’d free my brothers from that cage
And take away all of my rage
I’d make it to where I don’t have to pray
For me to live another day

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📸 Featured Image: Illustration by 周杰意 Jieyi Zhou.

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