Sonoma County’s Youth Poet Laureate Ella Wen

California Poets in the Schools, a nonprofit that amplifies young creative voices in California, has named Ella Wen as Sonoma County’s new 2021 youth poet laureate. Ella, 16, a sophomore at Maria Carrillo High School, developed a passion in poetry growing up with her Grandpa reading and writing Chinese poems with him. One of three poems she submitted was “Written in Words” which explores racism, prejudice, and bias.

Written in Words

By Ella Wen

And the more I feel this array of alphabetical assault seeping deep within my skin, aimed at me like antagonistic arrows

telling me to say less

and then to say more

to dress less

and then to dress more

to be less

and then to be more

it’s then I begin to realize that words are powerful

and they hurt

but they can heal too

and I, we

I know words too

I too have a pen

my pen is infinite

the ink seeping within pages

I know how to write, I just didn’t know until now

My body, my mind, my soul is so much more than what you wrote your narrative

so clothed with ignorance and facades of apologies

I, experience, am experiencing all the pain there is

don’t write my story

for me.

Read more in the Press Democrat..