Alyssa Killingsworth is only a junior at Apex High School, but she is already a published author! She entered a poetry contest and became one of fifty winners to be published in Live Poets Society’s upcoming topical anthology, Of Love and Dedication. Peak Student Media sat down with Killingsworth to learn more about this amazing accomplishment.

What’s the name of your poem?

Beautiful Beings.

What inspired you to write your poem?

My friend group. I just really really love my friends. They mean a lot to me. And the thought of them leaving hurts a lot. Looking at my friend group, they’re all pretty strange, but I love them alot, and they are my beautiful beings

Did you think you would win/get in?

I had honestly forgotten that I had submitted it. I waited until the last hour of the deadline, which is funny in retrospect, but yeah, I procrastinate alot. It’s really neat to win things you forget about!

How did it feel to see your name in print?

It’s really weird. I get to say I am a published poet now–which is pretty snazzarific. To see something I had artistically created–to see that my writing is worth something to someone–a whole society of someone’s’–it means a lot.

Do you have anything else to say?

*laughs* I guess….Stop knocking poetry, people!

 

Beautiful Beings

By Alyssa Killingsworth

I don’t “make friends”.

I find beautiful beings.

I find hearts made of gold

And souls made of silver

That just so happen to float into my life

Little balloons of vibrant colors

Worth the world to me

And just like every child who finds a pretty

I catch hold of them and just for a moment

Get to see them flying through the wind

I love my beautiful beings

But they’re not always quaint

And not for the faint

But they are my beautiful beings

And I wouldn’t trade them for any food’s gold.