ABOUT KIKI PAPE
About Kiki Pape
Kiersten Pape—known to most as Kiki—is an English major at the University of Colorado Boulder with a passion for storytelling in all forms. Creativity is at the core of everything she does, whether it’s a poem that comes to her in the middle of the night, a school assignment, or a fashion post on social media.
Kiki is deeply inspired by film and dreams of turning her future novel into a movie. She’s currently writing a children’s book focused on mental health and exploring marketing as a way to blend her artistic voice with the business world.
Poetry Collection by Kiki Pape is a creative platform that showcases her growth as a writer, weaving together personal experiences, cultural reflections, and the beauty of everyday life through poetry.
POEMS FROM ADVANCED POETRY
The Two Names I Call Myself
The Two Names I Call Myself is a poem about the quiet tension—and harmony—between the two sides of me: Kiersten and Kiki. Kiersten is the observer, the shy one who watches the world closely and speaks only when it matters. Kiki is the louder voice, the one who shows up smiling, gets invited in, and makes people laugh. This poem allowed me to explore how both names hold truth and how both identities live within me. Sometimes, I wear one like a mask, but I’ve realized they’re not so separate over time. I wouldn’t trade either—because together, they make me whole.
First Ripening
Untitled
This poem is a conversation—between past and present, between the girl I was and the woman I’m becoming. Over a simple coffee meeting with my thirteen-year-old self, I unpack the quiet heartbreak of growing up. She’s bold, untamed, and still full of contradictions: counting calories, dodging expectations, dreaming big. I see her now, sitting across from me with chipped nail polish and a frappuccino, and I can’t help but admire her.
This piece is for the girls we once were, the women we’re becoming, and the strange in-between space we often forget to honor. It’s about memory, identity, and the quiet ache of self-recognition.
What Song Would you play At the end of the world?
PASSION FOR POETRY
The First Ripening explores the connection between the body and fruit—both ripe with offering, sweetness, and eventual bruising. In this poem, I reflect on my first love and how it left me feeling exposed, consumed, and discarded. I use fruit imagery to symbolize how love can feel tender, messy, and transformative. My body becomes a metaphor: something peeled, tasted, and left to linger.
This poem is about the intimacy of being wanted, the pain of being overlooked, and the quiet hope we ripen for ourselves—not just for someone else’s pleasure.
What Song Would You Play at the End of the World? It started as a random question: seriously, what would play if everything ended? But then it became something more significant. This poem is about how we cope, distract, connect, and fall apart. It mixes little moments (like holding a neighbor’s hand or wondering if McDonald’s is open) with big questions (like, are we too selfish? Is there an after?). It’s playful and heavy at the same time.
I wanted it to feel like the last scene of a movie when everyone’s staring up at the sky, and the credits are about to roll… and you’re just humming a song you’ve heard a thousand times, maybe for the last time.
Finding my voice through Poetry
Second Semester
Senior Year
Reasons why and inspiration