Poet Melana Bass, 17, is a junior at TEAM Englewood; she competed in Louder Than a Bomb 2011 representing her high school.

‘What would I do without a mic?’ Melana writes. ‘I’d be lost in the world, or jump off a cliff, only god knows…’

Though everyone knows the points are not the point – the point is the poetry – congratulations to Melana, who was selected as an Indy Finalist in the 2011 competition which celebrated over 600 young writers.