Why do we read poetry? First obvious one: because we enjoy it. The only other reason is for academic purposes, and that's not why this is here.

    Many of us read poetry simply because we often feel depressed and hopelessly lost, and in poetry we see how beautiful and strange everything is. So in that way poetry calms our anxiety.

    There are many different kinds of poems. They are not all calming. Some poems make me anxious, angry, scared, and sad, which is why I value them. As a reader, I want a full meal, not just dessert. I want the sweet and the bitter. Often, I read poetry when I'm already relaxed. In fact, I read more when I'm not stressed out.

    Here are the main reasons I respond to poetry, as far as I can tell. Metrical(格律的) poems are about setting up rules and then bending them. Usually, this is done by setting up a rhythm and then violating it or almost violating it. And then returning to it again. This satisfies my desire for order and also my desire for testing boundaries.

    Poetry plays with language and often slams words together in surprising ways, which is thrilling the way food can be when the chef has paired ingredients you never thought would taste good together but somehow do.

    Many poems are dense. Words mean two or three things at once and lots of suggestions are packed between the lines. This is intellectually inspiring and it allows me to read the same poem over and over always finding new things in it.

    And, of course, there's the subject matter. It interests me just as it would if the same subject was explored in a story or essay. Not all poems interest me in this way, but then not all stories and essays do, either.

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    Have your parents ever inspected your room to see if you cleaned it properly? Imagine having your entire houses, garage, and yard inspected at any time -- with no warning. Inspections were a regular part of lighthouse (灯塔) living, and a keeper's reputation depended on results. A few times each year, an inspector arrived to look over the entire light station. The inspections were supposed to be a surprise, but keeper sometimes had advance notice.

    Once lighthouses had telephones, keepers would call each other to warn that the inspector was approaching. After boats began flying special flags noting the inspector aboard, the keeper's family made it a game to see who could notice the boat first. As soon as someone spotted the boat, everyone would do last-minute tidying and change into fancy clothes. The keeper then scurried to put on his dress uniform and cap. Children of keepers remember inspectors wearing white gloves to run their fingers over door frames and windowsills looking for dust.

    Despite the serious nature of inspections, they resulted in some funny moments. Betty Byrnes remembered when her mother did not have time to wash all the dishes before an inspection. At the time, people did not have dishwashers in their homes. In an effort to clean up quickly, Mrs. Byrnes tossed all the dishes into a big bread pan, covered them with a cloth and stuck them in the oven. If the inspector opened the oven door, it would look like bread was baking. he never did.

    One day, Glenn Furst's mother put oil on the kitchen floor just before the inspector entered their house. Like floor wax, the oil made the floors shiny and helped protect the wood. This time, though, she used a little too much oil. When the inspector extended his hand to greet Glenn's mother, he slipped on the freshly oiled surface. "He came across that floor waving his arms like a young bird attempting its first flight," Glenn late wrote. After he steadied himself, he shook Glenn's mother's hand, and the inspection continued as though nothing had happened.

    One day an out-of-work mime(哑剧演员)is visiting a zoo and attempts to earn some money as a performer. As soon as he starts to draw the crowd, a zoo keeper grabs him and drags him into his office. The zoo keeper explains to the mime that the zoo's most popular attraction, a gorilla, died suddenly and the keeper fears that the attendance at the zoo will fall off. He offers the mime a job to dress up as the gorilla until they can get another one. The mime accepts.

    So the next morning the mime puts on the gorilla suit and enters the cage before the crowd comes. He discovers that it's a great job. He can sleep when he wants to, play and make fun of people and he draws bigger crowds than he ever did as a mime. However, eventually the crowds get tired of him and he doesn't like just swinging on wires any longer. He begins to notice that the people are paying more attention to the lion in the cage next to his.

    Not wanting to lose the attention of his audience, he climbs to the top of his cage, crawls across a partition(隔开物), and dangles(悬荡) from the top of the lion's cage. Of course, this makes the lion furious, but the crowd loves it. At the end of the day the zoo keeper comes and gives the mime a raise for being such a good attraction. Well, this goes on for some time, the mime keeps laughing at the lion, the crowds grow larger, and his salary keeps going up.

    Then one terrible day when he is dangling over the furious lion he slips and falls. The mime is terrified. The lion gathers its strength and prepares to pounce(猛扑). The mime is so scared that he begins to run round and round in the cage with the lion close behind. Finally, the mime starts screaming and yelling, "Help me! Help me!", but the lion is quick and pounces. The mime soon finds himself lying on his back looking up at the angry lion and the lion says, "Shut up, you idiot! Do you want to get us both fired?"

    At times my mom has been uncomfortable seeing these qualities in me. For example, when I was 12, I went to Puerto Rico all by myself to stay with my grandmother for the summer. My mom was extremely nervous about it. She kept telling me how things were different in Puerto Rico, to always put on sunscreen, not to wander away from my grandmother, and other warnings. She helped me pack and did not leave the airport until she saw my plane take off.

    But despite her worries, she let me go on my own. As I moved into my teens, she continued to give me space to grow and learn even when it might have been difficult for her. When I reached my senior year, I decided to move away for college. Once again I found that I differed from my peers: while many of them wanted to stay close to home, I couldn't wait to be out in the world on my own. While my mom may not have been happy at the thought of me going away, she was supportive and excited for me.

    One big thing I realized during my senior year, as my mom granted me more freedom, was that she actually believes in me and trusts me. That means a lot. Most of my life, and especially when I was little, the main person I tried to impress in my schoolwork or other things was my mother. I knew she expected nothing but the best from me. Sometimes it was hard to live up to her standards; getting a single B on my report card would make me feel bad because I knew she wanted me to have all A's.

    I know that her high standards have helped me stay focused on what's important, like education, and made me who I am. I am thankful for her support and involvement in my life. Most of all I respect her. She is the strongest woman I know and that's why I have turned out so strong and independent.

    Have you ever run into a careless cell phone user on the street? Perhaps they were busy talking, testing or checking updates on WeChat without looking at what was going on around them. As the number of this new "species" of human has kept rising, they have been given a new name — phubbers (低头族).

    Recently, a cartoon created by students from China Central Academy of Fine Arts put this group of people under the spotlight. In the short film, phubbers with various social identities bury themselves in their phones. A doctor plays with his cell phone while letting his patient die, a pretty woman takes selfie(自拍照) in front of a car accident site and a father loses his child without knowing about it while using his mobile phone. A chain of similar events eventually leads to the destruction of the world.

    Although the ending sounds overstated, the damage phubbing can bring is real. Your health is the first to bear the effect and result of it. "Constantly bending your head to check your cell phone could damage your neck," Guangming Daily quoted doctors as saying. "The neck is like a rope that breaks after long-term stretching." Also, staring at cell phones for long periods of time will damage your eyesight gradually, according to the report.

    But that's not all. Being a phubber could also damage your social skills and drive you away from your friends and family. At reunions with family or friends, many people tend to stick to their cell phones while others are chatting happily with each other and this creates a strange atmosphere, Qilu Evening News reported.

    It can also cost you your life. There have been lots of reports on phubbers who fell to their death, suffered accidents, and were robbed of their cell phones in broad daylight.

If you're a teen artist, this is the perfect challenge for you. We've seen just how talented you can be; but this month, we're putting your skills to the test. This contest requires your art to be made out of a wide variety of colors. You should use different colors even for your outlines and shading. Think you're up for the challenge? 

Deadline:June 1

Rules:

You must be a teen (aged 13-19) to enter. 

No inappropriate content. 

Submissions must relate to the topic (only colors, no black-and-white drawings). 

Guidelines and Details:

Your entry must be a character created by yourself. 

There is no limit to the number of characters you can submit. 

How to Submit:

Submit entries through our website. All entries submitted to Teen Ink are automatically considered for the contest. There is no cost to submit or be published. See our submission guidelines for more information. 

Submit your work to the appropriate art category on Teen Ink. Include "only colors" as one of your submission's tags. You can do this by using the "additional tags" field in your submission form. 

Prizes:

Winners and honorable mentions will have their works published in Teen Ink magazine. 

The overall winner will receive a $25 gift card.