Every week, the AWM is excited to bring you stories written by our visitors in our Story of the Day exhibit. Check back weekly for new stories, and visit the Museum to try out our typewriters and possibly be featured here!
We loved this poem, and hope to see you back when you publish your first book of poetry Chandrima!
When I look at the sea
I sea a chance of a lifetime
When I look at the world
I see a world just for me
When I look at the canyons
I see a place that I can be
When I look at this earth
I see a life that is meant to see
When I look at the time
I see an open world
When I look outside
I can see only the world
When you can find a time.
I’ll be there
When you can find the world at me
Then I shall see it here.
-Chandrima
11-year-old, girl
This anonymous writer may have a different idea of what a good poem is, because we thought this was quite powerful.
This poem is not a good poem
But if I were a man
You would hang it up in a museum
and call me a god
and beautiful girls with Barbie legs
and wounded eyes
would write me letters and
knock on my door and say
Your poem is a good poem.
Chicago May 9th
It’s fitting that Bob Dylan helped this writer, as today is his birthday. As the writer after this story wrote on the same page: “you will always have support among other writers”
Today is the day I accomplished the most amazing feat of my entire life. I separated myself from the claws of domestic reliance on my husband of 35 years. He dropped me off at the Writer’s Museum and I began to wander the exhibits. I read about Bob Dylan and listened to him sing. He was the voice of my youth but I was too poor and practical to appreciate his rebellion. He spoke out against the status quo but I was just learning about what that was. I wanted a career so I was in college, hoping to put more bread on the table. Now at 66 I seemed to be hearing his voice in a new way. He was remarkable. And now I will keep looking through the museum until it closes. Then where will I go? I have 100 dollars in my pocket.
A hundred bucks ain’t nothing, but it’s still not enough to change your life.