I Am Me- Immitation

I Am Me
By Lanee Danforth

The instructor said,

Go home and imitate
this poem by Langston Hughes.
Make it all your own-
then it will be true.

How do I make this my own?
I am nothing special, just a girl.
I am seventeen, born in Grants Pass.
I went to school there, then Prineville, then here,
to Bend High, the best school there is.
I am among many other students like myself,
yet I feel alone in my confused and questioning mind.
I leave the school, get into my car, and drive,
over the railroad tracks and past the river to my house.
I get out, go inside, sit down, and write this page:

It is not easy to be sure of yourself
at seventeen, my age. But I guess I am what
I believe and see and feel. I believe in doubt.
Not knowing who, what, when, where, or why.
(I see and feel blurred images racing by too) Maybe-myself?

Well I know what I like,
but not who I am.
I like to play, laugh, learn, love, and live.
I like the beach, sunsets, clouds, and rain.
I do not know where my road may lead,
the chase for what is, is my drive for success.
Am I different from everyone else-
or am I just another face in the crowd?
I guess we are all the same in a sense,
each of us are struggling to find the truth.
The truth about ourselves, about what is and what is not.
We are all here believing, seeing, and feeling.
We are all human.
However, something sets us apart-
perhaps the same thing that draws us together.
I am not just a girl, or a face in the crowd-I am me.
I am unsure, undefined, and determined.
You say that others are the same- that we are all the same, but that we are not.
We are that of which we choose to believe, see, and feel.
I am unique, I am special, I am simply me.

This is what my own page turned out to be.