Am I Naive, or Just the World?

From the Archives #1

I recently uncovered a folder filled with poems I wrote in middle school and high school. Most of the poems are horrendous, but some I have deemed worthy of sharing. This is the first of those poems.

I’m not sure when exactly I wrote this poem, but my best guess is that it was my junior year of high school around 7 years ago. It has some serious teenage sass speckled throughout it that makes me both laugh and appreciate my younger self. I have not tweaked any of the words or formatting of the poem, as I thought it might contradict what my teenage self was aiming for in the poem’s message. As a result, what you see before you is the original poem from the mind of my 16/17 year old self.

Let’s see if I really was the naive one or if it was just the world.

---

People often do not take me seriously for the age I currently am.

Often they say I am too young, too naive,

that it is not possible for me to achieve great things

while I still reside in a teenage body.

Is it naive of me to think that this is not true?

Am I ignorant in believing that I can do great things?

For I think this a fallacy,

to believe that youth fosters naivety

and age determines one’s ignorance.

Often I

(yes I who am young and inexperienced)

have seen grown people

(people beside themselves in years)

who cannot see their own value,

their own worth.

That in my opinion is naive.

To see God’s greatest creation before you

and not realize what it’s worth,

what you are truly worth,

is the greatest form of naivety and ignorance

that man could ever know.

Forgive me then for thinking

that great things come from what is great,

that great things can come from youth.

Forgive me then again

for sounding a little bitter,

but please first forgive yourselves

for your narrowness of mind

and your bias thoughts of youth.

Forgive yourselves for your own naivety and ignorance

before pointing out those faults in others

just because they’re young.

Originally posted 11/2/16

©2010 Hannah Quense