You Hear Me?: Poems and Writing by Teenage Boys

by Betsy Franco (Editor), Nina Nickles (Photographer)

" You Hear Me  is a fresh approach to hearing what today's youths have to say, and it's refreshing that the words come straight from them." —  School Library Journal

In a powerful collection of more than seventy uncensored poems and essays, more than fifty teenage boys from across the country explore their many-layered identity, love, envy, gratitude, sex, anger, competition, fear, hope. Here, unadorned and without the filter of adult sensibility, is the raw stuff of their lives, in their own words. Isn’t it time to listen?

Genres: Poetry, Young Adult, Banned Books, Childrens, Fiction, High School, Teen

107 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2000

About the author

Betsy Franco is an accomplished and versatile author whose body of work spans over 80 published titles, including fiction, young adult novels, picture books, and poetry collections. Known for her creative, collage-like approach to storytelling, Franco has also written a screenplay for each of her novels, with Naked optioned for film and The Art of Love currently in post-production.
Franco has a strong background in film and theater, having served as the screenwriting mentor for Metamorphosis, Junior Year, a film adaptation of her novel and play. The project was a family collaboration involving her sons James and Tom Franco, and it was well received at major festivals including Cinequest and Mill Valley, earning recognition as a top ten film by the San Jose Mercury News.
Her creative partnerships with her sons continue across various mediums: she appeared in James Franco’s film The Broken Tower and on General Hospital, while Tom Franco has illustrated her books and co-produced films with her. She also works closely with her son Dave Franco, who assists with her writing projects and participated in the audiobook of Metamorphosis, Junior Year alongside James.

Reviews

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give this book four stars because I think its very existence is so important. Poems by teenage boys--a representation of a hugely underrepresented group; if we listened to teenagers more often, perhaps we'd understand them better. I enjoyed reading it and appreciated the vast (and intense) array of ideas and topics, and the young people's approaches to them, which were very brave and focused. I do think that this book could have been edited more closely . . . more than that, I think that the teachers working with the boys could have pushed them harder craft-wise. There were about three stellar poems in this book; most were mediocre. I have to admit that it made me think: My students could do better than that! ;)

That said, I did photocopy three or four of the stronger poems to use in class; I think hearing about some of these topics from the voice of a fellow teenager will be inspiring in a way that, say, T.S. Eliot fails to be for them.

[katyjanereads · Rating 5 out of 5]

1. I am a teacher and I have given this book to several of my kids. They see me put sticky notes in my books to show things I like or want to comment on. I got this book back from two kids and the whole thing was sticky noted up. It made me so proud.
2. This is an amazing book for high schoolers, boys and girls, reluctant readers, poetry lovers, people who like edgy books.
3. This inspired me to want to create a poetry unit based on just what my kids experience. Kids don't normally gravitate towards poetry because they think it's stodgy and complicated, but writing about their own lives, they can do. Kwame Alexander, Ellen Hopkins, and Rupi Kaur have really redefined poetry for teenagers, I think.
4. Poems I loved with my own comments underneath:
"Just because I love darkness
Doesn't mean I'm depressed
Doesn't mean I can't love
Doesn't mean I'm blind.
Just because I love my Mom
Doesn't mean I'm not a rebel
Doesn't mean I can't love others
Doesn't mean I'm a mama's boy.
Just because I act psycho
Doesn't mean I need medication
Doesn't mean I can't be compassionate
Doesn't mean I don't cry."
Marcel Mendoza, age 16
-Nobody puts Marcel in a corner. I love that he's saying that we are not one dimensional characters. We are many things.

Joker
"You would be surprised
To know that the funny man
Is also the sad man
Like a clown fallen from its stilts.
But this is his career
Never will a joker feel secure in a serious environment
He will keep telling jokes
Never will a joker be secure in his insecurities
He will keep telling jokes.
In the process of getting out of a hole
A hole dug for myself
A bottomless pit
I will die...
Like the product of a pun
A misunderstanding.
The saddest joke...
A clown dying by his stilts, full of regret."
Michael Tobias Bloom, age 16
-This poem reminds me of my husband. He can never be serious. He has a pun for everything. But he has sadness about his childhood that he lets out sometimes.

Dark Cellar
"I like to hide in my dark damp cellar
Where rats scurry across the cold cement floor.
I don't know why I like to hide in my dark, damp cellar.
All I know is that anger and sorrow
Evaporate into clouds of air
And bad thoughts disintegrate
When I'm there.
Every boy should have a cellar."
Joshua White, age 12
-How many kids are stuck inside of their cellar/mind and need an outlet for their anger and frustration?

I Refuse
“When I see the word father, the first person that comes to
mind is myself. I am the father of a six-month-old girl who
can light up the room when she smiles. Don’t all parents
feel this way about their children, or is it just me? All
fathers don’t stay around their kids though. It seems to
take bravery or some miracle for them to stick it out and
see to their kids’ well being. To be a father is more than a
responsibility; it is a job. Tradition says that a father is the
provider, not an easy role to play when you’re still in high
school, working low income jobs. Still, I do it for the good
of my daughter, my creation, my seed. I refuse to be a
dead beat dad because no excuse is a good enough excuse
to abandon your own creation.”
Steven Hill, age 18
-NO EXCUSE IS A GOOD EXCUSE TO ABANDON YOUR CREATION.

I Want
“To know
If there’s a ghetto
In heaven.”
Troy Williams, age 16
-Well if this doesn’t say everything it needs to say about racism.

Love Between Two Cultures
“Between two cultures you find
a love that is different,
Between two cultures you find peace and friendship,
and when you fall in love
it doesn’t matter of what blood, just the blood
that is in your heart.”
Juan C. Medina Arias, age 18
-Just beautiful.

Me and Woman Kind
“How unfair,
you with your unpronounced,
Unrecognized power,
Smooth sexy hips are your Gestapo,
erotic eyes your surveillance cameras.
The words you speak are more powerful,
more controlling than Big Brother.
Caught in the tangle of your hair,
I convince myself
I AM disloyal, I AM independent,
I control my freedom.
You, teenage queen, don’t
own what I think,
nor lease my opinions.
But, like a faithful pup,
I bound back,
sniffing for love,
competing for attention, distraction,
meaning.”
Samuel Fox, age 17
-I love that he compares women to distorted governments and their control of men. Pretty much true.

Guts
"With her he had some classes
and saw her every day.
His eyes always seemed to wander
Towards her general way.
Quite the crush has developed;
Within love he was enveloped.
He could have asked her right away,
But didn't have the guts.

If she peered a little left
And tilted her head correctly,
She could face the teacher, yet
Still watch him indirectly.
He was ever a distraction;
She couldn't even do subtraction.
All but three words she could say;
She didn't have the guts.

Just a single moment needed,
Yet many a moment passed.
While unrequited love grew deeper,
Quickly the years elapsed.
They thought their fears to be a crime
And made me write this sappy rhyme,
To warn you all this very day:
You'd better have the guts."
Kevin N. Gabayan, age 17
-Let's have the guts!!

5. The boy, Jared Ryan Jackson, who came into a lot of money and didn't spend it wisely and ended up dying because of a heroine addiction made me so sad.
6. The story about the dad who told his son, Jaime Daryl Marconette, that he was gay really got me thinking. "Telling me about his relationship must have been one of the hardest things my dad has done. He placed himself at a crossroads of rejection and acceptance; a risk he took that shows me how much he truly loves me." How much courage someone has to have to face rejection. And how many times to we reject without thinking about the other person and instead thing only about ourselves?
7. The story about the wrestler who wrestled the kid with one leg: I love what he said about looking like an idiot either way. Beat him, you look rude, don’t beat him, you look weak. “...the same dilemma presents itself in every competition. In victory you humiliate another, and in defeat another humiliates you...I realized that winning and losing are only two of many possibilities and that each competition has the potential for an infinite number or outcomes...Our primary goals, taught to me by the players, are pride, respect, and good sportsmanship.” Can we beat someone with more grace? What can we learn from loss? Is there a less barbaric way of winning?
8. Todd VanDerWerff writes a story about being adopted and wanting to meet his real mother. He says that maybe she gets a little restless in November and no one knows why (when she gave him up.) “Maybe it’s the onset of winter or maybe it’s the leaves falling off of the trees, but only her closest friends and family will ever know that it’s really something else entirely. For she is haunted by her past. And the baby she loved too much to keep...” My dad always got restless in November when his mom’s death date approached. I also have someone close to me who had an abortion and has always regretted it. Does she feel restless around a certain time?

[evergreencrime · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to write a poem for homework
I had to be at a party for bon voyage
I picked this for inspiration
I wandered the library to get out of waving.

I liked some. I didn't care for others. Some
required too much thinking. Either way I
hope these kids are okay and lived through
their trials.

Think I'll read more poems, I did create the
poetry shelf. Not really trying,
just leaving a review so keep your knives
to yourself.

[RyanneAndHerBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will almost always give poetry 5 stars
Because how can you say
That someone's own feelings
Are worth less
Than anyone
Else's?

This collections will show people that you should not judge a young boy just by the way that he lives because that boy has thoughts of his own. Maybe his clothes are big and his face is tough but even that boy just wants to find a purpose and to one day be loved.

Decided to spend my day at the library reading poetry ❤ Today is a good day.

[Dena · Rating 5 out of 5]

You Hear Me?
Summary: This piece is an anthology of poems and personal writings written by teenage boys from across the country. The writing includes thoughts on love (both falling in love and experiencing a broken heart), family relationships, drugs, self-esteem, anger, and everything in between.
Personal Reaction: I really fell in love with this book. If I had my students write poetry, and they were to lose all inhibitions in their writing, this is the type of writing I would receive. Working in a rural community where the majority of students are economically disadvantaged, I have students that face a multitude of challenges. There are students with alcoholic/drug addicted parent(s). There are students living with an aunt or grandmother because they have been abandoned, a parent is in prison, or one parent or the other is working out of town in order to provide for the family. There are students who are a day away from being homeless, students who are involved in drugs—using, dealing, or both. There are students who are abused at home, sexually active, working to provide for their families, or living a life no child should. This is a book I’d like to secretly pass to each of my students that I know is struggling. It would be a way to say, “You’re not the only one.”
Classroom Extension: Trying to get my students to completely open up during writing assignments is always a difficult task. With this reading, I would find a collection of similar poems for girls, so that each gender would have their own assignment. I would begin by having the male students read selected poems from this work, and then have them journal for a brief period to get them adjusted to the writing process. Then, from their journal entries, I would have students either develop poetry or expand short journal entries into longer narratives. The key for this assignment to be successful is for each student to know that their writing will be kept confidential.

[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was both very approachable and very powerful. I think the internal life of young boys is still such unknown territory. I really appreciated that these boys were willing to try their hand at creatively telling their stories.
Also, as a lay person who neither teaches writing nor poetry, I was really touched by many of the pieces. There are some very beautiful lines if not beautiful pieces. I was glad I read it. It was extremely touching, especially considering the current news stories of bullying, teen suicides and teen pregnancies. Finding out how young men feel about their place in the world is valuable information and we should encourage their efforts.

[Linda Dexheimer]

Linda Dexheimer
Poetry

This a truly unique collection of poems by teenage boys. Poetry isn't usually a genre you see a lot of male interest in at any age. These poems are often graphic and obscene but they provide insight into the life of teenage boys. The poems cover a broad range of topics and the writing is honest. Readers can identify with the poems and sympathize with the writing. They are also fairly easy to read and understand.

[Miszladiisparklesz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really connect to this vook because it makes a different way in how i think about school. I really get my sense from this book about how poetry can explain my life and how i feel. this book taught me how i figure out my life stories or just my feelings. i recommed this book to people tht love poetry and whop haves passion for explaing ther selfs in a way that is not violent.

[Serena Mihalek · Rating 5 out of 5]

I chose to read this book because it showed the perspectives of teenage boys through poems. I believe there is a lack of these types of perspectives and experiences of teenage boys to understand and read about, especially through creative ways like poetry. These boys talked about very powerful topics that are touching to read about through their creative pieces.

[Ruby Snow · Rating 4 out of 5]

“We are nothing less than great / but that’s too much to believe, isn’t it?”

[S :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a beautiful lens into other young lives in such different worlds.

[liv · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is so underrated it is annoying. i think everyone should read this book and get to read what is inside teenage boys' minds. there is some sensitive subjects and some vulgar language but that just makes these boys even more human. they get a space to write what they feel without anyone getting in their way to do that. some of these writings are so powerful that i didn't realize a lot of teenagers actually thought like that. it was amazing to read about some of these boys' lives and what they went through at their ages. i think everyone should read this book at least once. i also forgot to mention that this book ALMOST got banned at my high school. some parents were complaining that it wasn't appropriate for high schoolers to read and i completely disagree. the boys that have their writing in this book are high schoolers AND middle schoolers. this book NEEDS to be in high school libraries because it gives everyone a chance to read it and see how teenage boys actually process and think about what happens in their lives. anyway, thank you for listening to me rant and liking this book. happy reading!

x

[Breanna Bond · Rating 5 out of 5]

My opinion of the book "You hear me," is a great book. Some of my favorite parts of the book were when the teens talk about sports. The reason why I liked when teen boys were talking about sports is that they are so competitive. Another part that I acknowledged was when one of the teens was talking about his dad. He says "I wish you were here", I wish you could hear me." I wish you would respond.
This makes me think about my mother. It didn't say how he passed away but I feel like it was something to do with drugs. My mother overdosed. Some parts of the book relate to me

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, I have to give this book a 3 because I get what the editor was doing. She chose poems and writings that were heartfelt. The boys poured their souls into their pieces, for the most part. But I found many uncomfortable to read (hoping that my teenage son doesn't have such dark thoughts), and I found many still just bad writing.

So while I am so glad the editor gave these boys a place to express themselves, it's just not a book for me.

[Emily Philbrook · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories and poems in this book ranged the entire spectrum of what one wishes it would. It had powerful themes of love, sex, danger, and passion, through the eyes of teenage boys. The poems were emotional and well selected, all conveying something powerful in the lines. You get a glance at the insecurities of teenage boys and their everyday struggles. Worth the read, hard to put down.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

These poems were so simple, yet powerful. I could feel the life experiences that went into each one through the words. They were such a good representation of life's complications.

I really recommend this book if you are looking for a different kind of poetry, that is real and raw and beautiful.

[AndersL_D2 · Rating 3 out of 5]

You hear me is a collection of poems written by teenagers. They inspire a lot of thought and I had a good time reading it. You would like it if you like poetry that relates to you or a book to pass the time.

[❈ Camila ❈ · Rating 3 out of 5]

"What am I scared of? I'm scared of being loved. Letting someone love me, letting my guard down, showing you everything."

- joker
- he shaved his head
- carabao dreams
- my dad and me
- ascension
- amor de dos culturas
- the baby she loved too much
- a poem for us

[Benny Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book because all of the poems were written by teenage boys. I especially enjoyed this book because the poems were much easier to understand and connect to because some of the poems written can relate to my life too. I would recommend this to all people, but to especially boys my age.

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many of these were surprisingly, mouth-gapingly good.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, this poetry is raw, deep and moving. Beware, some of this writing is full of numerous expletives and disturbing detail.

[Elijah Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

i liked it, it was very deep and meaningful

[Candy Aurigema]

it was good to see how boys see the world

[Fiona Arsenault · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was so humorous

[Ingrid · Rating 2 out of 5]

Look, it's poetry by teenagers-- the quality just isn't there. That being said, I think that this is a really interesting project and a great, unvarnished glimpse into the lives of teenage boys circa the late '90s.

[Kendell Mckern · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very moving and empowering. Lets not forget the voices of the young men who feel just as hard as we do.

[Mariah Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book kept me sane during my junior high years.
Such an important collection of poetry.

[Jayda W · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was about how young men, all different ages and races wrote a book of expression of being a male through poetry. Each one of the boys that contributed to the book, each had a different story to tell. A different energy to portray.

"I am the hated one, Spreader of the disease, Carrying the blame unjustly. I am dying innocent. I am the ungodly thing preached about in church- Preached against in politics. I am loathed, I am shunned, I am feared, I am gay." (22) To know and to read a book about young men telling about their life stories and the things that they face in everyday life is stunning. For men to express how they're feared for different, rather their too skinny, fat, gay or straight is moving. "In sixth grade, it was bad. I was beat up by some mean kid. People were calling me every bad word there is. They did talk about Tourette and what it does to me. It helped a little at first, but it didn't last. In bathrooms, there were no locks on the stall doors, so kids kicked in the door every time i went in there. I had to go to the bathroom in the nurse's office." (21) As i look back and re-read this quote as you could say i see how heart braking it is. For someone to get treated wrong just because of a mental challenge that they couldn't control makes me feel a certain type of way. If you're not going to treat someone nicely, just simply stay away from them. But, overall I thought this book was amazing. To read, and to feel life as a teenage boy is therapeutic, regardless of what gender you are. I think it was kind of amazing because men and young boys expressing their feelings about a situation, or life period is disregarded and overlooked. I definitely recommend this book to people who love books of expression, and poetry, also to one who likes to see teenage life from a young man's point of view.

[InezL_D1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poetry where teenage boys express the problems and concerns they have in their life through words. You would like this book if you would like a powerful collection of writing and understand more about what is in teenager's mids. The theme of this book is overcoming challenges.

[Julia Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book spoke to me in ways that cannot formally be put into words, but I will try :) This book was a collection of poems, essays, and other literature works by teenage boys. Published in the early 2000s, "You Hear Me?" expresses the voices of the not-so-silent. At times, the writing can be sexual and disturbing...but it is raw. These works, mostly written by teenage African American boys, confronts their personal experiences of being treated cruelly, indulging in memorable times, expressing life's subtle and funny moments, and treading in the dark waters of adulthood. These experiences bring the modern image of being a teen and the realistic brutality of the world into just over one-hundred pages. I recommend this book to everyone, and I do not say that lightly. These pages tell the stories of the youth, and it is not all butterflies and rainbows.