Instructions for Growing Wings

A Note from the Author

I have always believed in the power of words to hold entire worlds. That language is more than just syllables and syntax – it is a way of tracing the contours of our lives, of mapping out everything that we cannot say but feel, slowly blooming within us.

These poems encapsulate ribbons of thoughts as I attempt to make sense of what it means to be an adolescent, caught between childhood and adulthood, between certainty and doubt, between chaos and order. I wrote these poems because I wanted to hold the world up to the light and see its layers: the fragile, the fierce, what lurks beneath its shadows, the unseen threads that bind it all together.

I am sharing this collection with the world for a cause greater than myself. I share it with the hope that words can be seeds for change. Because I believe that art has the power to move beyond private reveries into quiet revolutions – a force to move hearts, shift perspectives and inspire action. Because words have saved me on days I felt as thin as tracing paper, and if these poems can make even one person feel seen, or less alone, then every hour spent writing will be worth it. More than that, if it can spark empathy, or kindle a desire to build a kinder, more just world, then this book will have grown wings beyond my own.

A share of the proceeds from this book will go towards charities striving to bring positive change to communities. Through this, I hope to extend my words beyond the page and stitch hope into the lives of others.

These are my instructions for growing wings.

These are the pages where I learn how to stay grounded,

self, unfolding

waiting,

to take flight.

-Shuen Chan

By Shuen Chan - 11th Grade Buy this book from Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Instructions-Growing-Wings-Shuen-Chan/dp/B0FJXTFBSL/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0