3 Poems That Offer Perspective to the Overwhelmed Teenage Student

Being a teenager is challenging in so very many ways. Journeying between childhood and adulthood, teens struggle to cross that bridge while making many important academic and personal decisions along the way. If you have a stressed out or overwhelmed teenage student in your life, these three poems may help them to get some perspective and feel some self-acceptance.

1. Excerpt from “Letters to a Young Poet,” by Rainer Maria Rilke

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

The German poet Rilke wrote these words of advice to a young poet who looked up to him. While it is not a poem in the strictest sense, this excerpt shows Rilke’s typically beautiful mastery of language. It also offers some poetic advice to the young and/or unsure. It encourages young students and young people in general to see their own difficult ponderings and confusion about life as natural parts of their evolution. Many questions of identity and purpose come up in the teen years and students do have to make some choices about what to study and focus on. That being said, it is also okay (and very natural) for them to still be exploring, and to “live the questions.”

2. “The Guest House,” by Jellaludin Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Teenagers have to deal with many emotional and hormonal challenges. It can all be a bit overwhelming at times. Trying to control their emotions can sometimes feel futile. In the poem above, Rumi reminds the reader not to judge their emotions too harshly and to consider being open-minded and humble towards their present state of being. Teenagers are the “guest houses” for a wide variety of visiting feelings. Hopefully, this poem will encourage them to be more accepting and curious towards their changing internal emotional weather.

3. A Rhyme from Dr. Seuss

Today you are You, that is truer than true.
There is no one alive who is Youer than You.

Sometimes it’s a good idea to get back to basics–Dr. Seuss never gets old. A teen may be stressed out by studying for a difficult exam, choosing which courses to take, or dealing with a social scenario. These challenges can sometimes lead teens (or people of any age, for that matter) to feel lost, panicky, or unworthy of rising to the challenge. Dr. Seuss reminds us that we are all inherently valid, special, and uniquely ourselves. If teenagers can be helped to step back from the situation they are struggling with and to take a deep breath, they may be able to relax more into their bodies and themselves. Even a teen who is going through an identity crisis of some kind is still an individual and is going through it in their own unique and valid way. Here’s to all of you, and your teens, remembering to appreciate your “youness.”

There are certainly many more diverse excerpts of creative writing and songs that can help individual teen students to de-stress and to appreciate and enjoy the challenging but special teenage years. Every teen is a different evolving being, and that is to be celebrated.

Written by Julia Travers

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