Thank you for the experience of you.

Purple clouds in a peach-lit sky
Flowers along gravelly roads' sides
I'm sipping sweet tea as I drive
Thankful for evening scenic rides

Caged birds do not sing

Until they are given a voice

Do not fly

Until they learn to find their wings

But with patient nurturing,
they will grow from meek and timid things

From quivering chicks hiding in the shadows
Into a fledgling

Preparing to take flight into a sky of endless possibilities

If there comes a time
that you might lose me
Find me in my poetry

I read, it seemed, a thousand books. The looks I took through windows tall and wide did not hide from me my sorrow and sadness felt as I gazed upon the leafless trees outside. The Mayor of Casterbridge did not move me once; Othello did not touch me. The tears, the fears, did not abate as I sat in wooden chairs;  I simply starred at winter. I did not know how blind I was, seeing with only one half of one eye. I'd go into the stacks to cry;  a certain kind of comfort were all the lonely books that kept me company. No sudden symphony of enlightenment did I hear as I leaned against the shelves, themselves my only friends. The end seemed more near than spring seemed soon to blossom. I often was content to read the poems of William Blake and Tennyson and Coleridge and Keats in dark corners where no one stood but I. But as darkness grew to end the sun and color skies pure black, I knew it time to say goodbye to rhythms and to rhymes and begin my stroll along endless paths to sleep away my hidden horrors, and as well, my sorrows sodden.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

I used to read your poems
but lately you don't write
you're silent and aloof
you know that isn't right.
You can't close a door once opened
you can't abolish all your dreams
you're a poet of the heart
mustn't fall apart at the seams.
Say what you can in words
they speak the message true
spoken from the heart
the poems will see you through.
A hermit's not your style
a recluse, you are not
never give up writing
of things that you've been taught.
I used to read your poems
I'd read them once again
if you would send them out
(this one's from a poet friend)

Odin’s coming, his hand on his spear
The sight of Gungnir strikes dark elves with fear
High on his saddle on his eight-legged horse
Sleipnir radiates primeval force
Burdened with knowledge, he travels the land
Patiently waiting to see the world’s end

and if i die tomorrow don’t worry
i’m already used to hell

She said "I'm falling in love."

I said "I'm falling apart."

Pets are different as are people
Which is in control, do you know?
They are side by side and may think as equals
The feelings they share are beyond compare
They look into each others eyes
With feelings that can't be disquised
Companionship, love and, trust for these are a must
Some may think it is silly, but really
Pets are friends till the end.
                                        By Connie Hopkins

i still
do not know
the poem i've been trying to write
and maybe
that's because
i haven't been
writing one at all
or maybe it's because
the poem i've been trying to write
is not ready for paper
and maybe
i'm the paper
that's not ready for it

I have been here before
I once felt the pain of a broken heart
I came to understand that the feeling doesn't just go away
Everything at that point stops moving,
You get to see nothing, you only feel the suffocation like the ground beneath your feet burns, fingers numb because your heart clearly remembers it all.

I just don’t want to be hit in the head
with a baseball bat
when I’m not looking
so if you’re going to hit me in the head
with a baseball bat
make sure I’m looking

I spend too many nights thinking
Wondering, writing, dreaming
Of someone who doesn't even think of me

i spend my days
pouring myself into the cups of others

only to find that
when it’s time for myself
to take a sip

all that’s left
in my cup
is the remainder of a girl
who gave too much

where does it end
the end of this path
don't ask anyone

numbered steps
do not stop  through

our hearts weep for this inhumane society that we live in
you say you care but we hear you cheering for evil and hate
you say you are a stand for righteousness but we see your arrogance

our hearts weep for the injustice to our communities
you say you care for our families but you throw rocks at us
you say you love our children but you trash their future

our hearts weep

You can't make a flower bloom.
You can shine all you want
but it won't open
until it's ready.

I traced the texture of your words
Like my heart was blind
And your voice was braille

She was a thrifted sweater and denim and jersey knit sheets
Pizza breath and red wine and toothpaste
Alabaster skin and knotted hair and freckled shoulders
A tangible dream and my favorite good morning
She agreed to let me kiss her and I agreed to let her slip my shirt over my head before she became
Blood and tears
"I trusted you" and "I’m sorry"
Midnight poems and a drunk "I need you"
I’m afraid I loved you like the way I wrote

I make my own soup and I kiss my own boo-boos,
I tell tall tales about love, hell, and voodoos.

I cover up my sadness with jokes, smoke, and malice
Who knew living a tragic life could feel so lavish?

God and I have a pretty tight relationship
I talk to him every night when my fingers touch my lips.

I throw my bones at dogs and contort my soul for fun,
Chewed up, spat out. I’m just like everyone.

-SLuR

You.
Are.
A.
Walking.
Masterpiece.

your name is
forbidden in
my mouth
or in my heart
because when
i think about
you;

i'll cry a little more,
hurt a little stronger
love a little softer
because you no longer
make me feel sober

i'm drunk on the
memory of you

My entire life,
I have been waiting.
For years,
Almost two decades now
I have been waiting.
Waiting,
For the better parts.
Waiting,
For the “soon”.
Waiting,
For my life to begin.
Because,
I don’t feel like I have lived.
In the nearly twenty years
I have been alive
And breathing
I do not feel
In any of those years
That I have been alive.
I don’t feel like a single breath
That I have taken
Has been real.
I feel as if
All these years
I’ve been stuck
Behind a window
Watching as my life unfolds
Before me.
I feel that
I have had
Zero control.
That I am in the backseat
Letting someone else drive.
That someone else,
Is writing on the pages
Of MY life.
But no more.
I will break that window,
I will take that wheel,
And I will write
My own pages.
My life has begun,
And now -
I’m in control.

I love him
I tell myself
I know that
We will be together forever
I don’t believe that
We could be separated
My thoughts tell me that
He’s the love of my life
Sometimes my heart lies and says
I could live an eternity
Without him
Like my friends say
“We’re perfect for each other”
And you can’t tell me
He’s not the one.

Now read from bottom to top.