Kexin Huang is an award-winning poet. She won the 2nd prize in the 3rd International Festival of Poetry & Liquor “Poetic Flavor” Composition Competition (with a cash prize of over 1000 GBP). She is the third-prize winner of protest poetry challenge on Young Poets Network, is highly commended in the 2022 Erbacce-Prize for Poetry and is shortlisted for The Bridport Prize. Her poems are published by The Poetry Society, Full House Literary, The Writers’ Block and others.
The Psychotherapy Glass
is still easily broken in many places in this world,
heated, growing transparent trust.
It is still treated like fragile items in many places:
people keep their distance from it in stores，
and mark it when kept in boxes.
It is versatile when heated:
souls are more malleable than we think.
It turns hard after being vulnerable,
being it marble or drinkware.
It might not turn out as expected
if the temperature or the mold is not suitable.
Making it is an experience of light in the furnace:
you may gather heat, sweat and tears while being illuminated.
Trauma is part of the mixture of what you have melted:
confront it, give it some texture and make art out of it. Be safe.
You are blowing yourself a safe bubble:
swirl the stick in the air and drip water to break;
it is your dancing with the therapist.
Feel free. We all reshape different worlds.
Kexin Huang
Kexin tells us that the poem was written to explore the similarities between psychotherapy and glass. “I watched a video about glassmaking, and as I did so, I considered the traits of the process and what items may share similar characteristics. Then I chose the subject of psychotherapy and compared it to glassmaking.” What a powerful poem this is. We really like the idea that you can blow yourself ‘a safe bubble’ and attain a state of freedom through this in which you could have the power to ‘reshape’ your world. Thank you Kexin for sharing this poem with us and good luck with your future writing.
Bottles photographed at Hogland Art Glass, Appleby South Island, New Zealand by Sue Dymoke.
Young Poets' Stories 
1 Comment