I Am Writing
Chloe Lin
because it is good for me.
I have heard
it will build a dam
and teach me
how to sew,
work my fingers
through the hole
of a needle and coach my hands to dance,
but I doubt
anything could teach a stubborn thread
to weave
colors past a
taut sailor. There is no surface, no breathing,
only everything under it.
About the Poet
Chloe Lin is an Asian-American writer from Long Island, New York. She is the Grand Champion of the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association’s 36th Annual Student Poetry Contest, recognized in Narrative Magazine’s Seventh Annual High School Writing Contest and 1455’s Third Annual Teen Poetry Contest, and is published in Rattle, Ice Lolly Review, and elsewhere. Chloe’s previous experiences include four years of the English Scholars Program taught by Alan Semerdjian, The Young Writers Initiative Summer Mentorship Program with Khalisa Rae, the Ellipsis Writing Advanced Poetry Workshop with Joy Priest, and Button Poetry’s “Curating the Self” with Sabrina Benaim.