Senior Killian Hynes writes poetry to express his emotions

Kali Mashayekhi

Staff Writer

Senior Killian Hynes is a special needs student at Mira Costa High School with nonverbal autism, but creates poetry to show his peers his true artistic skill in poetry.

Killian started typing in between ages 4 and 5 years old and once he digressed into High School, poetry became a popular hobby for Killian to do. Killian competes in the  poetry competitions that Mira Costa held, and hopes to express himself in another way either than speaking.

“Naturally, poetry allows me to express myself in a way that’s not normally possible, and the freedom of structure and style are ways to make it more personal to me whereas prose can be more restrictive,” Hynes said.

Hynes gains inspiration from some of his best friends and family that support him, and strangers that he meets out of coincidence. He sometimes builds off of those relationships and creates poem that could connect him to the important people in his life.

“I can be inspired by a long time friend or a complete stranger and I am absolutely grateful for all of the support from so many people,” Hynes said.

Another way Hynes gains ideas for the content of his poems is from a certain feelings or watching other people give off certain emotions. He finds its very interesting to acknowledge those emotions from people he interacts with and wants to write about it.

“I can be inspired by a certain emotion I feel with someone or by observing an abundance of empathy,” Hynes said.

Killian’s poems can also be created in his mind from pure creativity and nothingness. He can gain random inspiration ranging from his day to day life to the most deep kind of topics.

“Some work is inspired by ideas that have nothing to do with people, such as the vastness of space,” Hynes said.

Killian recently entered into the PTSA Reflections program and wrote a poem he named “Illuminata,” which went on to win 1st place in the Literature category and his entry will now move on to the national level of this type of competition.

“My peers, parents, and teachers praise me when I write my poetry. Now I’m even getting positive feedback from award organizations. I appreciate people recognizing my poetry because it is my way of telling my experience, and being able to share my thoughts in my own, unique way,” Hynes said.