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Today, we are featuring Inklings Book Contest 2024 finalist Marielle Miller! She finished 7th grade this past school year and wrote an imaginative poem called “Places in My Mind.” Our judges said that Marielle “does a fantastic job of juxtaposing moods as each ‘room’ carries its own emotional heft.” Continue below to enjoy Marielle’s work in digital book or plain text form.

There is a loud place in my mind where the bad things live,

Where the sky cries through smog and night

And water runs thick and muddy.

A place where everything long-gone and terrible settles down,

The smoke from their fireplaces clogging my eyes.

 

There is a quiet place in my mind where the good things work,

Diligently toiling away in their little factories,

Churning out hope and rainbows

And all the things that make me smile.

I wish they would speak up.

 

There is a rich place in my mind where praise lives,

Where the streets are paved with gold

And everyone gets a free set of jewel-encrusted robes.

It makes it hard to get much done

And the roads are slippery.

 

There is a twisty place in my mind where questions go,

Winding their way through mazes and puzzles,

Contorting and evolving

Until they finally reach the front of my brain

And I start to ponder them.

 

There is a strange place in my mind where ideas come from.

No one really knows how one thing leads to another,

But now I’m plotting things behind my blithe smile.

I imagine there’s a lab where these ideas are made,

Beautiful and impossible.

 

There is a locked place in my mind where dreams hide,

Hushed conversations I could understand once.

Now all I can see are the silvery wisps that slip under the door

Carrying visions of what’s inside.

It’s a sleepover I’m not invited to.

 

There is an overflowing place in my mind where words are stored,

Some fitting neatly in their boxes, some held down with straps,

Some spilling from their crates onto the floor

With a swirl of packing peanuts.

They do come in handy.

 

There are a million and one other places in my mind,

Some dark, some bright, some magical and some mundane.

They’re all marked on a map when you get there,

Flowing away from the “You Are Here” mark

In a maze of hope or horrors, whichever you decide.

 

I hope one day I can explore every nook and cranny

Inside this crazy city I call my mind.

But for now, I’m happy to settle down

And invite all my thoughts and feelings to a cozy tea party

Under the stars.

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