Your Verse, Your Voice

- Menu
Overview
Hey poets of today and tomorrow — this is your time to be heard.
Your voice matters, and the world is ready to listen.
Through your creativity, you have the power to tell stories that others need to hear — stories that can open minds, lift spirits, and spark real change.
Your poetry can raise awareness, bring communities together, and light the way toward something better.
So for this month’s Call to Action, step up, speak out, and let your words leave a mark that lasts far beyond the page.
Here’s the challenge:
- Find Your Fire: Think about something you care about deeply. What makes you feel angry, sad, inspired, or hopeful in your school, neighborhood, or the world? It could be anything – protecting animals, making your community cleaner, spreading kindness, whatever dream you have for a better future.
- Ink Your Impact: Write a poem about that issue. Let your feelings flow onto the page (or screen!). Use your imagination, your unique voice, and all the cool poetry tricks you know.
- Drop the Mic… and Take a Step! Here’s the exciting part: weave a call to action into your poem. What can you or others do to make things better?
- Maybe your poem ends with a question: “Will you join the fight to keep our parks green?”
- Perhaps it includes a direct suggestion: “Let’s start a recycling club at school!”
- Or it could inspire a small, personal action: “From now on, I will greet all my classmates with a smile.”
- Make it Visual: Consider adding a visual element to bring the issue to even more life for your readers. This is not mandatory. Sometimes, words are enough.
- Submit: Send your completed poem to [email protected].

Gallery
Get inspired! Check out these submissions from real youth who documented what welcoming means to them.
Full of life
Artist
Tiffany T.
Arts activity type
Visual Arts
Reflection
Full of life is something you experience not just by money or characteristics, it is family, friends and a comfort that you only experience by love and living life to the fullest. Wondering what is out there and never stoping until you reach that goal, yes it is scary, yes u don’t know what it going to happened, But never stop moving because it only ends until you give up, so be like the ocean move until; you can’t and make mistakes, erase them and keep on riding. People always tell me that you need people in your life that will bring you up, will never stop loving you and cheers you on when you makes mistakes. Some people don’t have any, they focus on popularity until of making real friends so be that person that people look up to and be someone who will be proud to know YOU. So l am not saying that it is easy but remember who you are, not someone you will regret knowing. Blanket, hot chocolate and sitting by a fire is comfort, living life is not a post be thinking what college you are getting it into or worrying about the future general, it is laughing until your stomach hurts, playing games with your family and enjoying your life until you can’t. Think about what makes you have comfort it is different for every one it can be eating or doing your job what ever it is make sure you find comfort in it and that you wake up and live your life to the fullest. So l hoped you enjoyed Full Of Life because to me it is not just an essay it is that someone related to what l wrote and enjoying your life, remembering your youth or just remembering that you have a life to live not just to live behind a job, it is to laugh and make memories you will remember.
Proud Vice President
Artist
Isabella C.
Arts activity type
Visual Arts
Reflection
Here is a photo of me on the day I was voted in as Vice President at my middle school. I feel like I belong here because I am now part of ASB. I feel the most proud to help represent my school as the Vice President for the school year.
Library = Community
Artist
Arts activity type
Visual Arts
Reflection
Mabelle A.
A Public Library shows community. The library is a place where many people feel safe. The library brings people together in all kinds of ways it is an environment in which you can connect with people from all over Brentwood.Warning, contents may cause happiness
Artist
Arts activity type
Visual Arts
Reflection
Mirabelle A. Seeing the truck made me remember that not every second needs to be serious. Small things like this remind me to be happy and smile because reading that made me smile and I laughed with my family in the car and that made me feel connected and not alone.
Soccer is
Artist
Arts activity type
Visual Arts
Reflection
Mauricio G. This image shows a ball and its meaning is that I like sports a lot and is connected to me because I have played the sport since I was 5 and have fun playing it with my friends and I never get bored of it and this image was taken in the day. This assignment reminded me to capture something that makes me feel like I belong and that makes me happy.
Through my Eyes
Artist
Bedin C.
Arts activity type
Visual Arts
Reflection
I chose this picture because I love being around nature and having moments where I can just be alone and enjoy peace. I really like being near the water, feeling the breeze, and not having to worry about everything going around me. This picture also remembers me of when I was 6 on Honduras in my old village, where I used to live and we use to have a river near us that we I use to swim on with my older brothers.
Hand Star
Artist
Danielle G.
Arts activity type
Visual Arts
Reflection
Hand star: This picture is a memory of one out of many times that my friends and I got together. I feel safe around them and like I can be my true self! They are truly amazing and I am so grateful for them. I like to think that the space between our fingers means that we are not perfect friends, but we do our best to figure things out together through mistakes as all people do. We had a lot of fun taking this picture and I love my friend group.
My happy place
Artist
Alex Y.
Arts activity type
Visual Arts
Reflection
This is one of my favorite parks that I’ve been visiting with family since I was 5 years old. I chose this park because to me, I’ve always seen it as a community gathering spot, bringing in new people and giving them lasting memories to remind them of the community that surrounds them, even if they don’t notice it. Though this park is not as filled as usual, seeing it this way reminds me of the people who fill the void and make it feel special.
Hut
Artist
Joseph C.
Arts activity type
Visual Arts
Reflection
Joseph, Memorial Park, 9/21/26
I really like the atmosphere and the area (Such as the hut in this picture, the playground, and trees) this park has. It’s the place I sometimes go to whenever I have extra time and have nothing to worry about, especially at night.
Cross Country
Artist
Sacha T.
Arts activity type
Visual Arts
Reflection
This first photo was taken at a Cross Country race where the La Canada Tent is, and the people are my Cross Country teamates. This picture makes me feel welcomed as it reminds me of the team and how they make me feeled welcome whenever I am around them.
mom holding baby garter snake
Artist
Miles M.
Arts activity type
Visual Arts
Reflection
Picture I took of my mom holding a non venomous baby garter snake. Taken at the stream of the Arroyo Seco near the NASA parking lot on September 23, 2026, at 4:18PM. Who doesn’t feel welcomed around their own mom? It is fun to go off and do things with her because we share some of the same interests – like looking for snakes.
Silhouetted Pine
Artist
Fint F.
Arts activity type
Visual Arts
Reflection
An enormous Pine, in Sierra Madre, CA, is silhouetted against the sky for a brief moment on September 23, 2026 Soaring over the evening sky, this massive pine reaches ever deeper into the ground and sky, growing ever taller. When I arrive home, I always see it, welcoming me home, silhouetted, before it melts away into the night sky.
Belonging does grow on trees
Artist
Matthew C.
Arts activity type
Visual Arts
Reflection
This is a lego mandarin set gifted to me in Hong Kong when I was 5, during Chinese new year. It is on a cabinet in my living room, and it reminds me of my home city, and makes me feel welcome and at-home.
Loving Pets
Artist
Hayk S.
Arts activity type
Visual Arts
Reflection
My dogs Livy and Cooper. I caught this moment because I love being around my dogs. Everyday, after I come home from school, they always greet me with lots of licks and by jumping on me. They have brought so much joy and happiness into my life even with all the troubles in my family.
Join us! Show us what welcoming looks like where you live.
Submit
your creative expression
Deadline: {acf_huxx_project_end_datetime: F j, Y g:i a T}











































