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 0° 
Skyla GM
Silly things they are—
companions at best,
and true friends, even better.

Mine is the brown kind,
with smoldering eyes
and a folly for snacks,
scolding the trees late at night,
awakening me to
his fierce, warrior ways
every time a loud engine brays.

I wish to keep you forever and ever,
every moment—
you and me, together.

But ten years is a long while
for a dog like you.
I guess I'm just grateful
that happiness
is all you ever knew.
 0° 
Jana B
Oh lovely one!

Singing in the shower,
dancing in the kitchen,
bouncing, tapping,
hugging, smiling.
Exciting news and friends.
A journey from last year,
that strained year,
with that sadder, trying smile.

Oh lovely one!
My heart.
My girl, having a great patch, growing so quickly
 0° 
Donall Dempsey
OLD POND

old pond
half sunk doll
mouth open in silent scream

one eye sunk
below waterline
tiny hand grasping the air

take her hand
between forefinger and thumb
lift her out of her watery world

I take her home
bathe her
put her to sleep with my daughter

put her little clothes
on back of chair
in front of range

in the morning
my daughter's tears
"Oh Dolly...you've come back!"

one eye closes slowly
in a wink to me
I wink quickly back

Dolly getting dressed
scolded by my daughter
for not staying still
 0° 
Samuel E
I wake up to nothing
       but chirping birds
            and the drip of coffee
                   pouring down,
            and wonder how I feel
       about it all—
             and find it refreshing
       to know I see it
            like a fairy fountain,
       standing tall—
calling me to slip on shoes
    and even walk on air
         if that’s what I choose.
Not sure if I’m a morning person, but I enjoy poetry, and that’s enough to get up. Written in July 2025
 0° 
onlylovepoetry
For the petson who gave me these words

<>
Love is:
A multi celled organism, roughly round,
but not of necessity circular,
(circular love, easily shift shapes. BE wary)
It is, both fluid and rock hard concrete,
Overly defined and/or a deconstructed aerie breeze,
unmeasurable, immeasurable,
Except for the speed of its
Arrival
and the
hurricane of its
Departure,
Unseen and the Unsound,
so soon disappeared

Surely it is sensory, for I have witnessed,
this L0VE notional I have
seen, tasted,
heard, envisioned
even actually
felt


And yet,
a grown poet shed tears,
Upon completion of a love poem,
And recipient of said poem weeps without term

getting through another day.
and the day after.,
but precision counts,


It is  the
knot of not,
the ******* exhaustion of the absence thereof,
the dulling that that hopefully
takes the edge off the blade,
but does
not,

Erased when open eyes & declare awake,
for
the duller the day gets,
the more the blade cuts ragged deeper,
its horrific edge
scratches like broken nails,
bite like jagged teeth

Stars ***** you deep,
Hugs squeeze your breath out, away,
Dreams disappear, the sweet taste, retained,
fain but faint on the edges of the tongue,
blurry but there,
silently reverberating,
and the memory of the sensation is never entirely erased,


but
getting through the day,
'tis sufficient,
even adequate
for the love of hope
the love of love,
no matter what you deny,
is the tablet swallowed unconsciously,
so getting through to the next day
is the unlocking key
Just get through no matter what
 0° 
Aslam M
The new moon.
Present, yet unseen.
 0° 
Jimmy silker
Rocky was Robert
Clubber was James
But Apollo
Was Apollo
And Apollo
He remains.
 0° 
Ariana Bagley
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.
 0° 
Mishieck Mwale
My shallow perspective on life
Is my strong belief in karma.
My shallow perception of us
Is that we're fair to each other.

If I care about you,
You will care about me.
If I give you,
You will give me.
Like you can't do
What you want to.
Like you can not spit in my face
When I put a  kiss on your face.

I will not try to foresee tomorrow
'Cause I have the delusion of control.
I will surely wake up from this deep sleep
'Cause you'll definitely make me lose sleep.
One day I woke up from a nap with something I thought about writing. This was like a vision that showed me that someone in my life was going to betray me severely. My thoughts were so detailed like I had already seen it happen. But, I did not write that, because I thought that bringing thoughts about bad ends to life like that was bringing myself bad luck. Now I know that there was a part of me that knew what was going to happen. What if I had listened to that part of me.
Abba, forgive me and forget
     The sins for which I live disgraced
     And face the wicked world shame-faced,
And I shall live to prosper yet.
 0° 
Sherri Woodman
It's been raining in my heart all day                                                              ­   storm  clouds gather, growing dark                                                  The  chances of the sun's bright rays                                                        are  looking completely stark                                                            ­       A  thick blanket of fog rolls in                                                               ­       followed by strikes of lightening                                                       ­      A  wave of emotional turbulence                                                       ­  the  storm in my heart's closing the distance
 0° 
ProfMoonCake
I am in love with tomorrow
The one where I swim oceans,
Write at a bistro in Paris,
Drown my sorrows in Bombay rains.
 0° 
oluwajimi
Beyond the keyboard
I see you smile
Beyond that emoji  
I know you are mine.
Beyond the calls
I see you through the phone
Beyond the voice notes
I see your intentions
Beyond the reaction
I see your action
This is more than I can feel
But love is more than feelings.
#h #m
 0° 
onlylovepoetry
Sam Jennings:
What’s coming must be new — must be strange and fitful, awkward and passionate. A lover rediscovering the world, confused by its tactless kisses, yet charmed, endlessly but
its dents and imperfections, its sadness and its religion,
the dimples where its ancient smile

~~~~~~~
Oh, how I unabashedly covet his words,
Oh, how I wish all lovers here,
the would be lovers,
the never~me-woulda~coulda~crying when & why,
dinged and damaged by
first or failed prior attempts,
the oft heard discouraging words,
or worse the chilled silence of ghosting

The new romanticism,
colored by technology, damaged by the quiet disappearance of
dropouts hiding behind untrue names,
hid behind blackened screens,
and loss of shame & embarrassment at and of
the sadness that pervades the religion of these days of
lesser actual romantic love

Embrace the dents and the imperfections,
avoid those who present measuring cups of their attractives listed in priority order qualifications,
indeed
realize that it is within the dimples and smiles,
most genuine.
lies the yellow brick road
to the red rubies,
adorning the crown we seek,
of good love, true love,
with all of its accompanying
imperfections
unhid inside the dings, dents,
even inside the dimples and smiles.
and your own starry scars,
for who among can free admit,
it's imperfections that are
the most inviting
to only love poets
Any typoes?
 0° 
Zahra
When I was a kid,
emotions were
monotonous.
A candy was
just a candy.
Happiness came
fast and full.
I didn’t wonder
who gave it,
or why.
I just smiled
and ate.
Now,
I think too much
about hearts,
about hands,
about faces,
about the things
people want
when they give.
Now, a candy feels
like a trap.
Love feels like a deal.
And the world?
Too heavy
for joy to be simple.
One land, one sky, one sea, one people,
the boundaries that divide us are not on maps,
but in our minds and hearts. There will be
no nations, no money, no jails and prisons.
To heal those who are hurting, there will be
LOVE CENTERS where they will be loved,
not punished. All 8,000,000,000 Citizens of Earth
will have a responsibility and a right:  
to treat others with kindness and respect  
and to be treated with kindness and respect.
All Citizens of Earth are encouraged to do
what they love. Each will have to spend 10 years
between the ages of 18 and 60 to help humanity
and our home, Earth. Every Citizen of Earth
will be free to travel anywhere on Earth.
There will be no weapons on Earth. Our mantra
will be UNGUN EARTH. All needs--food,
clean water, health care, housing, education--
will be given equally to all Citizens of Earth.
A World Picnic will be held on a different
continent every year. The World Picnic will
last the whole year. All Citizens of Earth
will be provided transportation to spend
a week at the World Picnic to enjoy different
foods, different customs, different languages
from around the world. All can experience
differences with joy, not dread.   
Love, not hate. Peace, not war.
Planet Peace.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS
 0° 
Carlo C Gomez
Tar-dark world. The defining color is black, the inky night of her nocturnal hunts and the deep, bottomless dark of her alien retreat.

A watcher of men, she is everything and nothing. She might be too much of something, or too little of something else. Time will sort out the particulars.

There are no simple entry points – she demands engagement, and to be taken as a whole. Her discomfort is over her own allure, her undisturbed surface. It’s more about intuition and gesture than dialogue. They remain as echoes. They’ve made her beautiful in a real way, with hips and blemishes and dimples in her skin.

The imprint of the lives she begins to grapple with as her time on Earth extends, leads her to stop seeing herself as a mere conduit for her mission, and to start developing a sense of subjectivity.

Her life force is overlapping, shaping itself into a pattern of rings that simultaneously suggests a birth canal dilating, the stages of a rocket separating, and a lunar eclipse as seen through a telescope’s lens.

She's a life-form you can’t quite understand, but it’s carrying on relentlessly, like a beehive, moving backward through the constellations at first approach.
 0° 
Lenora Mira
Take a break
but only if you've earned it.
Be kind to yourself,
but do not fall into the trap
of overdoing it.

Self-care
is only caring
until it isn't for the better good

Self-care
is no longer caring
if it hurts you more than it should.

So, go ahead, and take a break
take a day to go slow, and wait-
wait for the emotions to cease
until you breathe with ease
and know with certainty
you will be okay.

Then get up and don't let yourself be late
for that meeting, or coffee, or dinner date
because you deserve a life of love, not hate-
so continue living,
and if you're tired,
take a nap.
 0° 
alia
Let’s not sleep—
let’s overthink!
Let’s rethink
every awkward blink.

Let’s write a novel
in our head,
then cry about
what we should’ve said.

Sleep is boring.
Peace is fake.
Let’s spiral till
the morning breaks.
 0° 
Amy Herech
I knew something as kid
that now I have forgotten
Time tricks you into thinking
you are going forward
I was chasing being brilliant,
So they told me stupidity
was the prize of intelligence - I get that now
But I’m yet craving sagacity,
Then will I truly get it when I get the chance?
Because perhaps what I lost
is an ignorance that I’ll never recover
And I’ll never be as smart as when i was dumber
 0° 
David
I undress her with my words
Seductive tease of soliloquy
Will her world be captured in rhyme?
 0° 
Amethyste
For a moment I took pleasure
On the fact that you existed
You were there
Silent
Withdrawn
But wise
Oh so wise

I felt I could talk to you
As if I talked to the moon
And God you could understand.
 0° 
Kai
The candle keeps flickering
Every time we bicker
It goes out
The flame
I keep having to relight the candle
Then keep going about
Its always the same

• We fight
• I relight the candle with the scarce light

The room used to be so bright with the light
When it would approach midnight
It'll look like the sun is out and about
But now, I can barely see a thing
Not even the biggest thing
Letting the shadows come out to play

I try my best
To fight back at the painful test
After the arguments
I look back at the room that's dimlit
My gaze fixed on the candle
The darkness around it is one I can't handle
Blood is constantly covering the candle
To simply relight the candle
Yet the flame won't spark

There's no point
There's no point.
The only thing I can do now is wait
Wait and watch the shadows come closer
To look at me like I'm prey
While you relax and watch
ahhh I love my will to live flickering away
 0° 
Infamous one
Y5
Once you see those true colors
Remember they dont have your heart
They dont care like you do
Making it easier to lower expectations
No longer accepting disrespect
Spoke firm got ignored
Gave it everything to be denied
The feeling of rejection fades
Looking for closure onto new chapters
Putting things first as a distraction
Making them seem important
The betrayal is unsettling refusing to lose
Seeking success else where feel free
Escape the bad onto good vibes
 0° 
Eryck
I found a scribbled piece of paper on my coat,
The wife wrote, "pick up some CANDLES" in a note.
I thought it said "CANDIES" hoping to discover,
that we finally would have candies,
In our cupboard.
So I bought in a rush:
Snickers, Abba Zabba, Milky Way, Three Musketeers, Reeses peanut butter cups, M&Ms, Almond Joy, Milk Duds, laughy Taffy....and such.
I called her and told her all the candies I bought,
She said, "CANDLES, stupid", so I hung up.
 0° 
Yashkrit Ray
Victory - you say
You fail once and they shout hell
Indeed, its silent
It was the haiku i commented on one of the Lynn Stillman's haiku to react on it and I was like woah! It's cool. Let's post it.
 0° 
Moo
When the moon soars abloom,
The God rests the doom,
Like a hand that guides a spoon,
Moon that nests alone fresh and unborn,
Slithers its way,
The purest ache of yearning's sway,
As the cloud take heed and veil it away.
the late eve's sunlight
doth quickly recline toward
dusk's dark horizon
 0° 
Serhat Doğan
Sometimes
Simple things are
Complicated than
Complicated things
Oh wondrous days of youth's sweet grace,  
When laughter danced across my face.  
Each simple joy, a treasure rare,  
In whispered winds, mystery was there.  

The world was bright, a canvas wide,  
With beauty found on every side.  
In every leaf and starry night,  
That wonder still lives, to my delight.  

So let me grasp those moments dear,  
For in my soul, they still appear.  
With open arms, I will create,
The wonder things had when I was just eight.
 0° 
Busy Bee
"She is absolutely fine," they said,
"only being sappy"
"Anxiety and depression are nothing—
But an act of madness."


But whatever I do—
It is not done to be happy.
I am just finding my way
to escape from this sadness.
#backin2019 #depression
 0° 
Zahra
Last night,
 meant to
loosen
the bulb
I wrapped
my hands
in woven
cloth, and
coaxed the
moon down
instead
It creaked,
blushed,
and fainted
slipped into
my palm,
like a lover.
I cried for two years.
every day, all day.
Cara wanted to marry me.
I was hesitant. At that time,
I didn't know why.
Much later, when I was
in therapy, I came to realize
that, in the past, I unconsciously
feared that if I married,
most likely we would
have children, and quite
probably, we would have
a boy, and unconsciously
I feared I would treat
my son the same way
my father had treated me.
My father had treated me
harshly. He never told me
he loved me. I will spare you
the details. Cara grew increasingly
angry toward me for another year.
She used jealousy to try to
get me to marry her. She
swam in her swimming pool,
but when she dried off, I saw her
bruised *****, which I knew
I had not caused. When I saw
it, I went into shock and suffered
involuntary kundalini, which lasted
six years. After all those years
of excruciating pain, I finally
recovered. All this happened
45 years ago, but some days
I feel as though it happened
yesterday.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS
 0° 
Octavio Paz
Si tú eres la yegua de ámbar
                    yo soy el camino de sangre
Si tú eres la primer nevada
                    yo soy el que enciende el brasero del alba
Si tú eres la torre de la noche
                    yo soy el clavo ardiendo en tu frente
Si tú eres la marea matutina
                    yo soy el grito del primer pájaro
Si tú eres la cesta de naranjas
                    yo soy el cuchillo de sol
Si tú eres el altar de piedra
                    yo soy la mano sacrílega
Si tú eres la tierra acostada
                    yo soy la caña verde
Si tú eres el salto del viento
                    yo soy el fuego enterrado
Si tú eres la boca del agua
                    yo soy la boca del musgo
Si tú eres el bosque de las nubes
                    yo soy el hacha que las parte
Si tú eres la ciudad profanada
                    yo soy la lluvia de consagración
Si tú eres la montana amarilla
                    yo soy los brazos rojos del liquen
Si tú eres el sol que se levanta
                    yo soy el camino de sangre
 0° 
badwords
If you get it, you lost it.


I am here
(On this platform it is evident for your reading now)
I express myself
(Heads scratching, wondering what and how?)


I share pieces of me
(A defragmented glimpse of an experience deemed ‘worthwhile')
Callous, sensuality?
(Or a traitor in sheep cosplay?)


A dead-end hi-way?
Or this pawn from yesterday?
Here, your final say


This family we never asked
Amontillado without it's cask
Dry and cheery
Heart’s are bleary
We own this laborious task

My sins are scrollable, thumbed in haste,
Wrapped in ribbons of curated taste.
A gallery of masks, all timed just right,
My shadow dances in the ring light.
What of shame when shame gets likes?
What of thought when thought’s in spikes?
I weep in drafts, but post a grin—
The world won’t wait for the shape I’m in.
So brand the bruise, then sell the hue:
A wellness tip in sponsored blue.
This self I host in feedback’s cage—
A pet, a post, a digital page.
I bare my soul (or just its shell).
You’ll never know. I sell it well.

I logged on seeking something undefined,
A tether, maybe—some reciprocal ache.
But all I found were mirrors misaligned,
Each smile too wide, each word opaque.

The comments pile like leaves, not read.
Applause from ghosts, replies from ghosts.
I feed the feed, it feeds instead—
A hunger that consumes its hosts.

I draft a truth. I dress it twice.
Add polish. Then delete.
I write in blood, convert to nice,
Make trauma fit a beat.

No lesson left. No higher shelf.
Just one more version of myself.
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