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 5055° 
Lily Barrett
I’ve been told I have walls,
That aren’t too easy to break,
They’ve been up for so long,
That my smile is entirely fake.
They’re made of unshed tears and a broken soul,
Of emotions that have taken their costly toll.
Tear them down if you feel you must,
But it takes too much to gain my trust
Strip me down to every pebble and stone,
Shatter me like a mirror and break me to the bone,
But don’t you see you’ve already lost,
For even my walls have a cost.
LHB 2020
 665° 
Agnes de Lods
when I read the myths
you were there
a voice behind the curtain of the unnamed

sometimes you were my Ariadne
and other times Demeter
I broke and was reborn in Persephone

they gave me many names
yet never truly saw me
closed syllables
are like metaphors born in pain

in the cry of endless words
one whisper touched me

you are ready
you will know yourself whole
you will look into the cold mirror
and not close your eyes
seeing the twisted lines

the pain of rejection, deep in the bones
is like the tide of a cold ocean
that’s why I write my thoughts in words
to draw from the solar plexus
the memory of tear drops
left in the mountains of Caucasus
when I met him

so you were and are the gate
like every soul
that descends to this earth

you are the meeting
with the Erinyes I once silenced
I cut off Medusa’s thoughts
just not to become
the one who turns to stone
the canvas woven by life

looking in the mirror
I did not turn away from you
to give strength to those
who lost faith in the power of symbol
in the power of your myth
 612° 
Kiki Dresden
I was born with wind locked in my tongue,
a song half-made, half-drowned.
Midwife said the cord
was coiled like a small river,
tight around my neck.
I came out blue,
gasping like a fish drug ashore.
They rubbed me with cedar ash,
cut the water’s leash,
and the first sound I made
wasn’t a cry,
but something lower—
like the hum of current under thaw.

I used to sing in the register of weather.
Pam laughed, said I was a castrati in another life.
No, Pam. I was a horsewoman
in the valley where the river
bends around the bones of our ancestors.
I carried **-Chunk children to school,
Dakota women to the trading post,
men drunk on corn mash and thunder.
I wove baskets from river reeds-
lightning stitched through darker bands
to mimic the storms over Spirit Lake.
At night we sang the Bird Songs,
those long traveling prayers
that teach the heart where home is.
When the soldiers came,
we hid in the limestone caves
and sang quieter.

Songs don’t die,
they just change their address.

When the city hums too loud,
I hear the buried river-
its pulse through pipes
asking if I remember.
I do.
I remember the small fires
inside my ribs,
how silence can be a kind of singing,
how grief is water looking for its mouth.
I walk to the lip of light’s forgetting,
half prayer, half river,
the river speaks through me-
blue, unbroken, home.
 490° 
Sunamin Tamang
God is deaf
and prayers are poems
and I, a fool.
 422° 
Tim
You and me,
we are bound,
like the silence
to the sound,
like a heartbeat
to a breath,
like life is bound
to death.
to be continued...
 412° 
Poet
<3
What am I supposed to do now?
You’re in my head and IĀ Ā can’t get you out
 308° 
Courtney Hawkins
I want to be the
main character for
a day, just a moment
ember to solar flare
forgotten pierrot, a
mask turned to dust
and I want you to
recognize me.
Wrote this a while back but only just found it in an old flash drive.
 267° 
addy
If I could bottle up your smile,
I’d keep it close through every mile,
Play it back when I’m missin’ you,
Just to feel what your love can do.

You’re that peace when my day goes wrong,
My favorite verse in every song,
The way you laugh, the way you care,
Feels like heaven put me there.

’Cause there ain’t no place I’d rather be,
Than right next to you, Zach, you’re home to me,
Through every storm, through skies so blue,
I find my heart right next to you.

When your arm wraps ā€˜round me tight,
Everything feels so right,
Your blue eyes glow in that country moon,
And I swear I’d stay right here with you.

’Cause there ain’t no place I’d rather be,
Than right next to you, Zach, you’re all I need,
Through ups and downs, through all we do,
I’ll always fall right next to you.

Yeah, I’ll always fall right next to you.
 229° 
Maria Etre
Your breaths are the winds
that blow the sails of
my heart
across the waves
of pleasure
 219° 
nivek
making sense of nonsense
which owns its space-
has its place in all hi-stories
 195° 
Jasper
Each weary tear
Begins its descent,
From the peak of the trembling mountain,
To the edge of the fiery world
Where they fly away and off.
 180° 
Raven
I'm with you
I feel you
I see you

Until I don't
And all I
Feel
See
Hear
Is HIM

I'm with you
I feel the softness of your skin
The softness of your chin
As you lay your kisses on me

Until I'm not
Until I don't
I feel the softness of your skin
Until it turns rough within
My head
I feel the softness of your chin
Until reality blurs
My thoughts distort
And you grow a rough stubble
That fades in
As you kiss me

I'm with you
I see your lovely gaze
I hear your lovely praise
I shy away

Until I'm not
Until I don't
I see your lovely gaze
Until reality distorts
Until my vision clouds and blurs
And all I see are
HIS
Angry eyes

Until I'm not
Until I don't
I hear your lovely praise
Until reality distorts
Until my hearing fizzles and blurs
And all I hear is
HIS
Praise and ugly words

I hide away
 153° 
Ashi Jain
What is heaven ?
To some its a white place in the clouds
And angels with wings
A place where happiness is found

But to me?
Its the sound of rain
The blue sky, the flying birds
A gentle breeze, the warm sun
An all these poetic words

This is true heaven
 137° 
paul sheridan
love isn’t
   understanding
     you
  don't have to
 133° 
brandychanning
is the one you earn...

which is why we usually say,
with a tiny trace of irony,

live and (l)earn
 129° 
silvervi
The inner critic is insatiable by nature.
Stop trying to live up to your inner critic's expectations. It will never be satisfied and it will always find something new to criticise.
 123° 
Onoma
Bleed-out in public,

not by the ounce--

but by what truly

preserves.

Kinship is a vast

consequence,

interlocking.

Utterly.
 121° 
Akari
Don't ask me what I mean
When you read my poems
I wrote them-
Because the
weather was uncertain,
Because words fell short
of the heaviness in air,
of the quite weight of humidity
I could never simply explain...
 110° 
Jon Corelis
Father a clouded northern sky;
mother a troubled southern sea;
brother a smoky western fire;
sister a muddy eastern field.

Seeds of fire sleep in the field;
seeds of sky sleep in the fire;
seeds of grain sleep in the sea;
seeds of rain sleep in the sky.

Quarter the wheel to make it go;
quarter the earth to make it roll
under your feet like a moving stair;
climb so high you'll reach nowhere.

Four is two is three is one;
quarter the city to make it done;
quarter the shining to make the track;
quarter the darkness to bring it back
-------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2025 by Jon Corelis
 99° 
izzy
when our paths no longer cross
and our souls leave our bodies
will your heart continue to beat
even if i do not stay?
if i had to stay
would you let it continue to beat?
if i felt nothing at all,
what would you do?
if our paths continue to collide
into the darkness of the night
would you let it be
or would you let me leave
for what if i need it to be this way.
 96° 
Addison
Why do I have these feelings for him
Why
He’s not my type at all
He’s quite literally the opposite
Yet here I am
After pushing these feelings down they have come back up
Why do I have feelings for yet another guy
He’s smart
He makes me laugh
He makes me smile
God. His smile
He’s not my type
Not at all
Yet somehow
Someway
He’s making me fall for him
 95° 
Geof Spavins
Blessed are the belly laughs
that ripple through the pews,
the snorts that break the solemn mask
and shake the sacred news.

For joy is not a quiet thing,
it tumbles, leaps, and spins.
The giggle gospel dares to sing
where reverence begins.
 94° 
Millee
i was never afraid of the dark,
rather what lurks inside
from darkness's eyes
shall i hide

the void calls to me
it's emptiness inviting
but all that lives
is chaos, residing
 85° 
Sarah M Weier
I am on the brink of change.
To my back are four voices ringing out to my ears
How I wish the wind was louder to drown them out
ā€œReally think about thisā€¦ā€
ā€œThat would completely change your life!ā€
ā€œEverything you know will be different.ā€
ā€œAre you sure you want to do this?ā€
No, I’m not sure.
I’ve been on the brink of change before and I’ve turned heel and ran away.
This time I am to fall for the Universe has a net hidden under the fog.
I am on the brink of change, the wind carries the voices through me.
I am on the brink of change and it’s time I stepped into the unknown.
I’m on the brink of change and the universe guided me here.
I am on the brink of change and this time I am stepping off the edge into the abyss.
I’m thinking of changing my career
 77° 
apollo
can we really worry about decaying
when we do it all the time?
 73° 
Nat Lipstadt
/\for you, the she,
who dipped her toe unaware the ***
grows everĀ hotter with every stirring and the
carnal charnel
nature of
a light
perusal,
a quick wick once-over, a scan, nothing
but just a light, slight, of a
finger~to~lips~tasting/
\
where -poem scripts
lie easy buried
neath a bare
minimum of
1 inch of soil

<>
not the meaning you instinctively assumed,
after years of misunderstooding
of the use-all of
perusal
Mademoiselle Usage,
a mis~usage|

the realizable danger of perusal is in its true meaning.
not in aĀ brief but glorious askance,
but the deep dive
into where the deep sea trench creatures be living,
where the nuance and the sea weeds brocades
the casual
visitor's
perusal,
and the urgency of living on the edge,
of ulterior motives apprised and appraised,
are sensing not,
the dangers consequential,

and down~into~the~rabbit whole
inevitably you encounter,
A man!poet mumbling on & on;
there is no such thing as respite,
the tears of the heart sees their swelling,
no pro bono 4 ply tissue is enough to
well **** arresting their continuity of their
welling,

writ not in cryptic notation,
all mine is there for plentiful plain,
not,
for excavation interpretation, exegetical heretical,
up until the
line of palpable,^
flashes the multi~mesmerizing^
yellow and red warning lines hysterical,

here is where
when in my depths,
you swim
or
flee

next question, please?
^
https://hellopoetry.com/poem/5175788/palpable/
~~~~

perusal
read (something), typically in a thorough or careful way.
"she, has spent countless hours in libraries perusing art history
examine v e r y
carefully or at length.
 71° 
Wezen
Staring at the unbelievable thing in front of my eyes
My parents were away,
I felt free to scream into the air. ā€œWait for me,ā€
Like the lyrics of a Hadestown song.

Why didn’t she wait for me?
She had been alone and scared.
I wanted her to wait;
I guess she didn’t

Not here anymore to cuddle, to love.
Gone. Forever.
Stiff as a board, we buried her.
Stiff- unlike my eyes.
How could I go on?
An ode to Eva.
Sitting here in Rome
Thinking I can’t wait to see your face
I’m tired of these I like you’s
It’s not how I feel
Because really, I love you
I am almost bursting to say
Not knowing when is the best time
If it’s not confessed, it will slip out by mistake
But you only deserve it to be said by my lips
So sweet and so intentional.
ā€œI love you.ā€
 70° 
Esme
I look feminine
The beauty spills from my hips
My love moulded in my curves
My name still female

But maybe one day
My name will spill for the last time
from my lips
And  people will call me ā€˜charlie’
But until then i will deal
Deal with the ache in my heart#when
my parents tell me i cant cut my hair
And someone says im a pretty girl….

Maybe one day i will be a handsome man
Not a pretty girl
recently i have started telling most of my mates that i go by she/him and have slowly been explaining that i prefer he prnonouns than the she ...im genderqueer and maybe i will be able to explain that my 'real name' is charlie and not my currect name of esme. anywayssssss hiiii
 69° 
DENNY R ALLISON
Disney, cruise,  
  Vancouver,
    To Hawaii Blues.
Four year delay,
  Covid got in
    the way!
Loved walking
  Waikiki.
The "Arizona"
  Got to  me.
Diamond Head,
   A sight to see!
Stood upon a
  Volcano rim.
Watched, the
   turtles, swim.
Had a great time
At a luau.
But, I'm back
Now!
Hoping to find,
A good rhyme.
It’s today I loved you and all the other days too
                      Since forever our love
I know your here facing battles
I love you, I want you to see I’m here for you
You will beat this
I’m watching you, I’m watching you
It’s breaking me down

Your alive baby
Your alive baby
It’s breaking me down

You will be stronger
I know your scared
I am to together
We will try and beat this

Your alive
Your alive
I love you from forever

Love you forever
 59° 
Angel Zungu
I tried to earn respect,
but I wasn't paid any.

I rest,
I flex,
I dissed respect.
Did not earn this,
and I earned respect.

So much for being earnest.
 59° 
T
A rose can grow from concrete
I’ve seen it with my own two eyes.
Breaking through its restraints,
reaching for the sky.

With all its might,
it not only survived, it thrived!
Leaving a legacy for you and I
to always live by.

It goes like:
Never stop following the light,
never stop chasing new heights,
and never stop putting up a fight.
 54° 
Marwan Baytie
O Lord,
I have heard words that comfort the heart,
words that steady the soul.
And I have heard words that pierce like a sword,
that cut the flesh clean.
Bless us, O Lord, with tongues of gold.
Let our lips speak peace, not ruin.
Let our voices be fountains of mercy,
not fires that consume.
Guard our mouths, O Lord,
and let the breath that leaves us
be as incense before Your throne
sweet, pure, and everlasting.
Amen.
 52° 
G
All day my stomach has hurt

I haven't had the urge to eat

I think it’s the shirt you gave me last night

I can smell you on it

You’re smell goes up my nose and into my brain making me forget everything and everyone

Making my heart race

And my stomach hurt..

ā€œHer and I are dating nowā€ you tell me last night

My stomach drops as i give a nod of acceptance

I smell you on the shirt you gave me last night

And i can only wish that you had chosen me
 51° 
onlylovepoetry
but the idea of you
was a parfume pervasion,
a totality of reawakening
your words intrigued,
your expertise
in the matters ofĀ Ā the heartfelt,
tingled my senses subtly

the aroma of your words,
the visionary way you make the
words dance in my eyes, in different ways,
makes hear the music of you
the lies within,
they touch me inside,
where fingers cannot go,
but when I saw you:

my eyes tasted you
in all your magnificent eloquence,
intrigue became desire,
heat, licking flames of desire,
and I was bitten~smitten,
weakened by by blood rushing headlong,
and
per~you
it was not
optional
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā ­Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā  Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā  olp
Per se" is a Latin phrase meaning "by itself" or "in itself" and is used to talk about the intrinsic quality of something, independent of other factors. It distinguishes between an idea on its own versus the same idea in a broader context, often used in negative statements like "That isn't illegal per se".
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