Writing Guidelines

Power Poetry welcomes honest writing about pain. Power Poetry does not publish content that teaches, encourages, escalates, exploits, or broadcasts harm.

That's the line. Everything below is the longer version of the same idea.

The power of writing comes with responsibility. Power Poetry is a space for young poets to express themselves, support one another, and tell the truth with care. We welcome poems about:

• joy, anger, grief, identity, and injustice;
• family, love, loss, and the people we've lost;
• depression, trauma, bullying, and being misunderstood;
• survival, recovery, and the long road back;
• and the complicated mess of being human.

You can write about hard things here. You should write about hard things here. That's how poetry has always worked.

Power Poetry allows honest writing about painful experiences. Poems about depression, grief, trauma, suicidal thoughts in the past, survival, and recovery may be published.

However, we may keep a poem private, close comments, add crisis resources, request edits, or remove content if it includes:

• self-harm or suicide methods;
• instructions for how to harm yourself or someone else;
• graphic details of self-harm;
• encouragement of self-harm or suicide;
• suicide-note language;
• goodbye language;
• suicide pact language;
• harassment telling someone to hurt themselves;
• or signs that someone may be in immediate danger.

If your poem is held for review, you are not in trouble. Your poem has been saved. Our team is reviewing it with care.

Beyond crisis content, we may hold or remove writing that includes:

• hate speech, discrimination, or dehumanizing language;
• harassment, bullying, or threats;
• encouragement of violence;
• graphic or exploitative descriptions of harm;
• personal contact information, including social media handles, phone numbers, and addresses;
• spam, ads, fundraising, or commercial posts;
• plagiarism — claiming someone else's work as your own;
• impersonation;
• doxxing — publishing private information about another person;
• sexually exploitative content or any content involving minors;
• unsafe external links;
• or content that puts the writer, another person, or the community at risk.

Poems that include sexually explicit material may be marked as Mature. Mature poems are still published, but they're hidden from browse and feed pages for readers under 18 or who aren't logged in. Direct links still work; the poem shows a Mature badge.

When you submit a poem, you can mark it Mature yourself. We may also mark a poem Mature if our content scanner picks up explicit language.

When a poem is held for safety review:

• your poem is saved;
• it is not publicly visible;
• it may still be visible to you;
• the Power Poetry team may review it;
• we may add a crisis resource note before publishing;
• comments may be closed;
• we may ask you to revise it;
• or the poem may remain private if it would create safety risk.

If your poem is held for review, it does not mean you did something wrong. We review some poems privately to protect writers and readers.

If you read a poem that worries you, you can flag it. The Flag Poem button sits below the snaps and views on every poem page. Choose Crisis, Spam, or Other, and our team will review the poem promptly.

You are not alone, and your voice matters. If you are in crisis, please reach out:

• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988, 24/7, free and confidential. 988lifeline.org
• Crisis Text Line — text HELLO to 741741. crisistextline.org
• The Trevor Project (LGBTQ+ youth) — text START to 678-678 or call 1-866-488-7386. thetrevorproject.org
• If someone is in immediate danger, call 911.

These guidelines are written by humans and reviewed by humans. They are not perfect. If you disagree with a moderation decision, or you think we got something wrong, write to us — we read every reply.

The revolution is not on this screen. The revolution is what happens when you close the screen and open your mouth — to a friend, to your family, to a counselor, to your community, to the world that needs to hear what you've written.