The Student Publishing Program

Read last year's questions that teen writers needed answered the most - and former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s answers to them!

Read the teen poems we’ve already begun publishing alongside poems by Pulitzer Prize-winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser!

The Student Publishing Program has been selected as one of the top 12 creative writing programs in the country. Learn why in our program background section.

Get free access to original writing and publishing support from many of our nation's top educators, experts and writers, including Poet Laureates and six Pulitzer Prize-winners. Free audio, video and Podcasts of poetry slams and interview epiphanies.

See why so many high schools nationwide have already sent written participation interest for the upcoming school year.

The online literary magazine of Massachusetts' Lexington High School, where we've successfully piloted SPP for five years.

Questions or comments? Get in touch with us here.

Ted Kooser

Student

The green shell of his backpack makes him lean
into wave after wave of responsibility,
and he swings his stiff arms and cupped hands,

paddling ahead. He has extended his neck
to its full length, and his chin, hard as a beak,
breaks the cold surf. He’s got his baseball cap on

backward as up he crawls, out of the froth
of a hangover and onto the sand of the future,
and lumbers, heavy with hope, into the library.

Alyson R.

Peace When Skies Cloud Over

i sit.
beneath this tree.
barefoot.
the sun.
casting golden rays.
on the flowers.
and blades of grass.
that are slowly.
rising up.
reaching out.
to the sun.
and i look at the lake.
light dancing on the surface.
of every smooth tiny wave.
and then my eyes rise
to the trees.
bending gently
gracefully
with the wind.
this moment.
whose peace.
is one rarely found.
is mine to selfishly hold.
on days
where the sun is hidden behind
dark menacing clouds.
that are turning
and twisting
but that i am entraced by
when the lightening lights the sky
and when the thunder sounds
and when the rain beats angrily
against the ground
for a wrong it has not committed.
and the trees heave heavily from the
weight of the wind and storm.
and the flowers fall helplessly.

that is when i think.
of sitting beneath this tree.

Alyson is a high school student.

Blake Smith

Blue Eyes

If my little brother was a season,
he would be the spring.

Sometimes he is warm and sweet,
and sometimes he is a thunderstorm.

He can be like a little rain cloud,
one that I wish would go away.

But when he tries to,
he can effortlessly lighten any dark mood.

Behind his big blue eyes hides the knowledge
earned from twelve long years of mischief.

Trying to catch up with him is like
trying to find a patch of warm sunlight on a cloudy day.

He may be unappreciated at times,
but when I think that there is no hope of change,

my brother can be like the sun,
cheering me up after a long winter.

Blake Smith’s poem was first published in Lexington High School’s Online Literary Journal, 2:25 PM, by The Student Publishing Program, a free creative writing program that gives students the confidence and skills to write for a wider audience, and then publishes and promotes student books with 100% of the profits going back to each school.

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