“Ours” Poetica
Often written from the heart
A poem is how a marriage starts
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Writing thoughts down for each other
Showing how you really feel
The destination is not always clear,
But the words begin to pave a road.
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Emotion doesn’t always show
A poem can help your marriage grow
On the paper you pour your thoughts,
Cluttered in mind but neat on paper
Maybe you keep them to yourself
Or you choose to invite the world.
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Talent, not much is needed
A poem is like bread after it’s kneaded
Once you start a purpose is bloomed
This garden now has to be watered
Constant attention can drown your flowers-
When water is limited it means the most.
“I Don’t Know”
I don’t know
What to write
Right now the
Words are not
Coming to
My mind
I don’t know
What I don’t
Know right
Now I don’t
Know what I
Don’t know
I don’t know
How my poem
Will end right
Now I don’t
Know how to
Extend it
I don’t know
If it’s good right
Now I don’t
Have a good
Plan for it
I don’t know
What other’s
Words will be
Like as they
May propose
Real questions
List Poem: A College Student’s Day
Monday’s alarm,
Breakfast!
Get ready, homework,
Coffee, meet with dean,
Anatomy, Health,
Lunch!
English, printing,
Dinner!
Gym, homework,
Snack, bed?
Where’d the day go?
Postcard Poem
Running
Around the trails
An obstacle course
Of all things
Up and down
The slide
Where you should
Only go down
Racing
As fast as I could
Then stars
In my eyes
The front of my
Young head
Meeting the
Metal cross bar
Blurry eyes
But I won!
But did it matter
No
First the doctor
Second the neurologist
Third the machine
On a big truck
It was so cold
Still, uncomfortable
Loud, lonely
What happens next
To Disney
On a plane
Where I could
No longer go
Brag Poem
In high school I worked hard
Honor roll from 8th grade on
Because of this I got rewards
Pushing me to keep going
In high school I thrived
Outstanding Effort in Spanish II
Outstanding Effort in Spanish III
My teacher helped me to succeed
In high school I did it all
Tennis Sportsmanship Award
Cross-Country Sportsmanship Award
I played candid and my finest
In high school I went above
National Honor Society
Early meetings, sleep depleted
But it was all worth it
In high school I sang it out
All the way to Tennessee
To the Grand Ole’ Opry
Then back home to have a solo
In high school I acted
Spending nights on the stage
Putting on a show
Gaining a family
In high school I served
President, secretary, treasurer
Leading meetings and events
Serving my community
In high school I built myself
Earning many scholarships
Preparing for my future
To get where I am now.
Free Poem
Weekend love is hard
It’s Monday but Friday seems far away
So much happens between these days
And I have so much to tell you.
Being without you is a challenge
It’s Tuesday and I don’t feel well
I failed a test, I’m really stressed
And I need your arms more than ever.
Eating alone doesn’t have flavor
It’s Wednesday and my work is done
I have free time for an hour-
But there’s no one to savor it with.
Studying alone isn’t effective
It’s Thursday and I have an exam
But I’m really just thinking of you
Planning our reunion in my head.
Weekend love is my motivation
It’s Friday and I waste no time
Work then class and finally
I can go home to his arms.
The weekend is here and I feel whole
Saturday’s are blissful days
Filling each other in
Never wanting the day to end.
The next day is the hardest
Sunday is a ticking time bomb
The hours fly and I have to go
Peeling away from each other-
Until Friday comes again.
Bread Poem: Bread and Butter Pickles
When my mom makes pickles,
vinegar steals the air like a sponge absorbing water.
It starts out in the garden.
She buys the seeds and nestles them in the ground
the way she used to tuck me in.
She waters them and cares for them
as they will give back to her one day.
Summer slows down and it’s time to fetch
the loved canning jars from the basement
where all the extra things go.
Cucumbers line the countertop
like papers on a busy college student’s desk.
I sit across from her and watch as her
strong hands slice the glossy green cucumbers
so delicately, but not too thin as they are fragile like me.
In a shirt that once was mine
she fills the large metal bowl with the thin green circles
that we’d use on our eyes to renew ourselves.
Meanwhile the stove is topped with the big pot of
boiling water that magically seals the lids of the cans
so they can linger in our dusty basement.
Then when we’d have Shepard’s pie or something
that needed extra love then one of us would go down
to get the delicious pickles-
and they are so good that half the jar would be consumed at once.
And they are so good that I never want to be too far away from her.
Epiphany poem: Selfish
It was the worst headache.
I didn’t have breakfast on purpose, instead I laced up my tennis shoes.
She drove me to the court where my teacher was waiting.
I, running on nothing but love for the game.
Feeling empty but empowered, I played for hours.
She picked me up and I refused a powerbar.
I made it this far so what is another hour?
The headache didn’t leave but I refused to give it the medicine it pleaded for.
The days went on like this.
Sipping green tea instead of eating.
But do you know how hard it is to sleep when your body is that hollow?
12:30 am.
Trying to go unnoticed as I tiptoe down the stairs and shove food into my starving body,
hating myself and trying to fight the fact that it tastes so good,
and by then the counter is piled with food
and I have eaten a carton of Neapolitan ice cream and anything else I could find.
Morning comes and I feel worse than ever because
what I did last night was a sin to myself and I stare in the mirror with my ankles together.
Lucky for me, my thighs still don’t touch and I try to do it all over.
“You’re going to kill yourself.”
Standing in the bathroom doorway.
She looks at me in sadness and disapproval.
The hint of a cry in her voice, like it’s obvious what I’m doing is wrong.
Like I know how to change myself.
But those words she said changed it.
They changed my whole perspective.
The way she said it, the look in her eyes.
She looked so hurt and it was this moment I realized-
I wasn’t only doing this to myself.
I was hurting everyone around me.
Eddie Adams Poem
My life suddenly flashed before my eyes
From the most minuscule
To the greatest things I’ve done.
I thought about my family
My three little girls at home,
Probably playing with their straw dolls
That I made them last fall because we were poor.
It was a hard winter
We survived on rice we had harvested in the fall
And vegetables we had canned that summer
He was always on the battlefield, so I had to do it alone
But I couldn’t leave them alone,
they would not survive without me.
“Please spare me”
I did not know what was better.
To speak or let my words go unsaid
The passing seconds felt like hours
I had not prepared for this moment
My youngest daughter barely two years old.
For the Sleepwalkers Poem
Today I want to recognize
Those who cannot speak without their hands
Who don’t have the ability to scream but remain calm.
Lips moving too fast, then pausing.
If they could respond with their lips moving back they would
But instead of their lips they sign.
People don’t know and make assumptions of ignorance,
Although they are actually paying attention the most.
It is the actions that tell the story.
I love the way they don’t give up.
Enduring people who overemphasize or speak louder
Sometimes they really are trying to help.
If we were animals it would be this way
They have their own language, with sounds we don’t understand
And we talk to them with words they don’t know
But the emotion is still felt.
Wouldn’t it be easier if we all learned this language
If we could simply take the class when we were young?
No one would need an interpreter.
How we take it for granted.
Being able to ask a question and be done
Not having to hire people to help you understand
There is a world we don’t know.
Sometimes it feels like people would hear me louder in silence
If we all stopped and listened to the silence
It could take us to a place unknown.
Syntax Emerges Poem
If you have been told lies
With ill consideration sent through,
Shouting through a screen that you’re worthless
And pretending it didn’t affect you.
If you have then realized
That aggression sent to your inbox is not true
Because the only one who can define yourself is you.
Then you can make your life worth more than they could ever afford
And do things they could only ever dream of
Because instead of staying at the bottom of the slide
That they just pushed you down-
You start to climb the ladder.
But once you have climbed that ladder of realization
It starts to become a mountain
And you stand on top of that mountain,
Looking down at the rocks below.
Who You Are Version 2.0
Hung up in suspension,
It’s like crying in a dark closet.
You’re in a cold little chamber of pain and grief,
But then a light clicks on.
Light like an equator between Heaven and Hell,
And no such light switch.
On the inside you feel vexed at the world,
Like morning eyes resenting bright light.
But you present yourself as a
reposed well being,
Who walks and talks
with magnanimous behavior.
No soul knows your true potential.
You’re hiding in your sun kissed skin
Which acts like a people magnet.
So the people you’re surrounded by
Love your fake self.
But who are you?
You’re holding back,
Like a child clinging to their mother.
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