@MaineCuddle thank you for your kind words! I'm too shy too. Never performed anything. Well, except zoom readings. But never in person.
@MaineCuddle @Mela_B I used to be super shy, and poetry was a way to help me break that. Performing your own work is thrilling and terrifying, such a raw expression of self.
My poems were trash lol but I'm glad to have grown from them, in some ways actualizing and releasing the energy written to the words. It's cathartic and emotional. If you ever find the courage, I highly recommend it.
I worked my way up to stand up comedy, much tougher crowds! Hahaha and my material still sucks
Something I wrote a year ago.
Longing
In amongst the leaves that blew, upon the old tree on the hilltop too, a sweet smelling aroma grew, it was from my darling true.
Her hair shines with the sun's delight, her beauty emanates in that great sight, her love I hope for with all my might, perhaps one day I'll hold her tight.
In this town of revelry, happy faces I do decree, but no joy I take in thee, for I myself am alone you see.
The wind blows and people cheer, for me I hear the howling wind so sheer.
One day this heart won't ache, but how much time does that take? One year, two years, or 20's sake? I won't know until my heart is warmed by love to bake.
Now these thoughts that swell my heart, passes once again in wait for my life to start.
Thinking of my future to be, I'll wait to meet you eventually.
@Shade_Wolf thank you for sharing your beautiful poem. I hope you meet who and what you're longing for soon. 🖤
I've felt so much longing over the years and felt this - "wait for my life to start" in so many different ways (never knowing what I wanted to be when I "grew up" and hating my jobs, dedicating my life to my kids from the time I became a mom at 20, my third child, born when I was 30 was born disabled and she will never leave the nest). At nearly 50 I think I'm finally feeling content though and realize my life has been happening this entire time. There's a saying that goes something like if you're depressed you are living in the past, anxiety is worrying about the future, living in the present is living in peace.
I'm living for this thread. Well done, all.
@Shade_Wolf poignant and beautiful.
This is a poem I wrote just last week. It's a sort of intro to a piece of prose I'm hoping to write. I'd be interested in hearing what kinds of questions it asks or answers in people's minds:
You searched for me while yet unborn, And found me next to you. I saw your heart in tatters torn When my face slipped from view.
Your heart recalled what mind forgot: You searched for me again. You tried to fill the empty spot But couldn't numb the pain.
I saw your heart was near despair, You thought you'd never win. You didn't know that I was there: Above, beside, within:
And so I spoke a word to you: I said, "It's time to see: To clearly understand what's true Concerning you and me."
You lifted up your weary head, And opened up your eyes. You faced at last your life-long dread, Your heart began to rise.
You looked into my face with love, And saw reflected there, A picture of our God above, The image that we share.
Because of the rain and poem thread that @jasmineluv started…
Whenever I hear the rain I smell her hair.
And in that moment the next moment is always a Sunday morning.
Early and raining after the night of my life.
And there’s a density of sound the raindrops the crashing splashes on the treetops heavy rumble of rain the roof the sibilant hiss of drops the bushes below.
Of my heart beating so powerfully at the sight.
A symphony of things falling.
I let my guard down.. I fell without caution I walked into your arms With music, flowers, and freshly washed hair.. All snuggly, soft and full of passion I didn’t believe I possessed
Never was there more sync .. Then when my heart dived into yours .. Magic .. That’s what happened.. I could feel your soul.. Even when far apart .. Nothing else mattered ..
I felt as brave as a lioness .. Walking fiercely through her jungle .. I was crossing the river ..
The stars were witness.. So was the moon .. But that path to you .. Disappeared, only too soon..
So I stood by the rivers edge .. And waited for a familiar tune.. Looked at the moon as it changed its phases …
I guess you did not believe.. That feelings can just be.. Whatever it was .. You rearranged my timeline.. And left me in a field of wild orchids
And while I walk along the sea .. The waves gently grazing my feet Reminding me .. Of all I am And all I will be ..
You awakened me Pushed me off the cliff you did Taught me to unfurl my wings Fly to the moon you said… Don’t be afraid of anything yet Maybe that’s why we met You and me .. For you to push me over the edge.
Questioning realitay Just questioning my sanitay Questioning if god cares about my sexualitay Questioning the itch-bays on my dix-nay Just on my PLP firehose the positivitay Nah wait I meant make it rain Purpose from all the pain Porpose on my wavay Take these dark places and make it day Been gone but not too late This up's forever heard Em say
exquisitely strange the way the tide cycles our stars proximate aeonic, perpetual
this intimacy is blessed, sacred and agonizing.
I die daily for fate, close enough if it’s close enough to break me
sacrifice the future on the bloodbright altar of the here and now
hold you through all four horsemen
as the asteroid hits when the ocean rises to bury us while the long curve of radioactive fallout
shipwrecks our descendants wakeful
Happened upon this thread the same day as I wrote something new. So, I thought I’d share:
A frequency so high and bright that it literally blinds. Soaring past sound, stretching into light - a spear of the greatest might. Generated from the truest to strike chords in the bluest. The grandest note pulling at a string between stars - taut tetherer of souls humming with every pluck. The frequency of love.
Inspired by Survive of the Atlantis Grail books, written by Vera Nazarian
A Lament for Bianca
His daughter is learning what the father couldn’t bear to tell his son.
truth entraps us.
nothing is enough.
It is all filling emptiness
with next with new with different
still emptiness.
never really fills lies told ourselves
next curves new hearts different arms
never stops
next frustration new hurt different loneliness
you will attack anything if emptiness would fill
next fears new pains different aches
a bitterness too familiar
music to soothe
next food new sex different drugs
all distract never fill
Until
new darkness next oblivion different silence
feel like old friends family beckoning to join them
promise that you will
next nothing new feeling different emptiness
try again daughter hope again son
next appointment new doctor different sickness
What if the world was actually flat instead of round .. What if birds sang without a sound .. What if the seasons never turned.. What if there was only laughter and zero pain .. What if the sky’s never poured.. What if grief only felt like a prick in our soul.. What if kids never left and always stayed.. What if the leaves never turned a fiery red... What if the sun never set ..
What if you and I never met What if you could take back all you last said.. What if I never crossed that bridge What if you and me stuck to our sides of the street.. What if I never waded in that water with you What if we never entwined our bodies and enmeshed my soul.. What if we never sat and talked about the stars.. What if I never followed the blue moon that led me to you What if I’m from Venus and you are actually from Mars .. What if we never shared our truth.. What if you didn’t unravel the Pandora’s box in my heart What if we could not see each other, under years of collected soot.. What if we both had better timelines ..
I’m searching for answers.. Some I know .. And some I may never find ..
But today I was given a book.. Where the dialogues read “What if”
Me, I knew all the answers, pat to the last line .. But everytime “What if” left my lips My heart ran to you .. Because with you, I was my most honest self.. “ What if “ is something, I no longer seem to have answers to.. Would you help me ? If you have any answers to my “What If’s ” Drop me a line, maybe a couple or two..
This is beautiful. 👆
@Mela_B Thank you! It was written as a sort of caption for an ink and watercolor piece that a friend of mine did. It was a cityscape, and it was titled, "I grew a little". I bought it from her not long after I, a country boy, moved to the city to find some healing. It was scary at first, but it became my beloved home.
“Wild Geese” - by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting over and over announcing your place in the family of things.
@JoyfulHeart that's the opposite of me. I grew up in the city, and moved to the country.
I know of my own will and only the beloved knows of his own. Submerged in the color of Devine love it all becomes one. And by chanting on the rosary with that beloved it becomes no difference between that Devine and love….
Dulce et Decorum est By Wilfred Owen
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.— Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin, If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, Bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,– My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.
——
Happy Armistice Day
Peace, 🐒
This is a poem I wrote that was inspired by a watching/helping a friend break free of a cycle of domestic abuse. Sorry it's a darker topic but hopefully someone out there finds in empowering ♡
Once upon a Cosmic Twist I was Captured by your Kiss Lost in Hopeful Love, I Fell Without Control Under your Spell
Worse than Wrath or Eternal Sleep Forced to Face an All-New Beast An Adversary I Never Imagined That Broke me Down And Stole my Passion
Robbed me of my Own Self-Worth Turned "Happy Ever After" into a Curse Caught inside a Vicious Cycle Where each day is a Struggle for Survival
You were supposed to be my King I tried to give you Everything I stood by your side when things got Tough Yet you Drilled into my Mind I was Never Enough
Our Castle became my Prison Charade Shattered and Exposed the True Villain Left Fractured, Faced with the Conclusion The person I Loved was only Illusion
What did I do to Deserve this Trouble Crying Alone amongst the Rubble It's up to me to Clean this Mess Reclaim the Power I once Possesed
~Fae Faith 🧚♂️
@MonkeyNeedsAHug thanks for sharing that poem. It's a bitter edge to walk upon, dying for one's country. On one hand, it is a great relief for things that are experienced, that cannot be undone, whether physical or emotional or mental. On the other hand, the loss of a whole man, complete with his strength and love and passion for his countrymen and his family, is a grievous one to bear, to which we say, "let the other man die for his country; I'll live for mine." Happy Armistice Day, Happy Veterans Day. And may there be peace on earth, good will toward men.
Adam Meets Elba
Lewd did I live & evil I did dwel Drab as a fool, aloof as a bard. "Go deliver a dare, vile dog!" Able was I, ere I saw Elba. Gateman sees name, garageman sees nametag "Madam, I'm Adam."
.
I ASK for a moment's indulgence to sit by thy side. The works that I have in hand I will finish afterwards.
Away from the sight of thy face my heart knows no rest nor respite, and my work becomes an endless toil in a shoreless sea of toil.
To-day the summer has come at my window with its sighs and murmurs; and the bees are plying their minstrelsy at the court of the flowering grove.
Now it is time to sit quiet, face to face with thee, and to sing dedication of life in this silent and overflowing leisure.
Alone in the field A single yellow flower Looks up at the Sun
Silence. Break the silence. Break the ringing in my ear. It never stops for anything; I want something else to hear.
The ringing steals my thinking It's tone I cannot escape. Laughter, talking, singing Would be the merciful break.
There's magic all around Though it's sometimes hard to sense Ego shields the closed-off mind Shutting down in self defense
Easier to rationalize And let your heart grow cold It's effort to heal your Inner Child And break the programmed mold
The world is full of wonder Every connection that is shared Each experiance is fundamentally similar Yet uniquely unable to be compared
The third wise man:
We brought you some frankincense, sir, And also some gold, to be sure. But that isn't all We brought to this stall, So hold on a moment: there's MYRRH!