I feel like my poem "Safe Haven" is a sort of reflection of myself in many ways. It's true that I can't really stand to see the world as it is and while sometimes I observe or try to help fix problems, but most of the time, I tend to stray from the real path in front of me and wander into the woods of my own mind. Maybe I do this because I don't have to worry when I lose myself to my deep thoughts and wild imagination. My mind can spread out to so many alternate worlds or stories or just plain thoughts and I feel safe just letting my mind wander wherever it pleases and hiding in it instead of sharing myself with the world (If that makes any sense). I guess you could think of it as my mind being another world and me being a resident of that far off kingdom, which feels better to live in than the real world right now, therefore, I try to stay in it as much as possible.
I described the world as "cold" and reality as "a nightmare" in my poem, showing it's darker truths and how I feel about them. When it says "Some say there is no escape," I'm saying that many people can become so wrapped up in, angered, or saddened by the world that they can't find a way to escape it or even try to see other paths to follow, which can lead to very negative, even tragic effects. Many people have lost their courage, trust, sense of wonder, curiosity, and imagination thanks to the outside world and if they lose these things, they lose the ability to be strong or to find sanctuary in fantasies, which I showed by me saying "Some might never see the things I can"
"Many can't tear their eyes away from the real world, but I can barely stand to look at it for even a minute." It's at this line where I start talking a little more about my own personal life, feelings, and story. Before, the lines could have regarded a large amount of people, speaking as a voice for many. Now, saying how disgusted, sad, angry, and scared I am looking at the real world, the poem starts to head down my own narrow path of my escape. I can't let the real world crush me, so, "Instead I search, explore, discover a new realm" My new realm can stand for all the stories, dreams, fantasies, and thoughts in my mind and how I can so often lose myself in them. I don't fear the things in my mind and instead use it as "An escape from the horror that is the real world" Sometimes, I lose myself and it feels like I'm falling off the ledge of reality and when I do, what I leave behind is lost, what I fall into becomes my own wish for reality, and I know I will always be safe there. It's always hard being torn from a place so perfect in my eyes back into the cold.
The last section says "Some think of this place as nothing more than a fantasy or just plain imagination or even just a dream" which I feel can state that if I were to tell people some of the things I see, or feel, or breathe, or how much my imagination means to me, they might not believe me, or even scold or scoff. But in the last lines "But I call it a Safe Haven, and it is all my own." I say that I don't care what the other people think of it. No one can do anything about it and no one's words will mean anything because it doesn't matter how much my Safe Haven means to anyone but me. I capitalize "Safe Haven" as if I am referring to a real place to emphasize how real it can become in my eyes.

I hope that some reader will find my poem and discover that they can have a Safe Haven as well that they can call their own and be able to enjoy as much as humanly (or not humanly) possible. There will always be a way, all you have to do is search to find it.
-Anastasia Newton