I was told by a friend that poetry was dead or, at best, on a respirator clinging onto dear life. If that is the truth, then this book will be the defibrillator, poetry the patient and I the doctor. The Beauty within the Vessel: Poetry from a Troubled Youth is a book of poetry written as I navigated my senior year through college. With every poem I write, I hope to bring a unique voice and style to the genre of poetry, one that focuses on trying to make poetry engaging and modern, while trying to hold on to the classic techniques of form and style. As you take this journey into the my world, you will read poems about my experiences trying to find purpose in life: negotiating relationships, transitions, loss, faith and the ultimate struggle of becoming an "adult."