johnathan-juliano
American
Hello, my name is John. I am 25 this october, and I've been writing poetry for more than ten years. Among the many things that inspire my works are a literary mind, a keen interest in nature, and a personal history rife with both pleasures and strife. / / A lot has happened in my life since I started posting my works here, about 4 years ago. I've left home, and returned again, I've worked three jobs, experienced the loss of a father, and gone from having a fiance to having an ex fiance. / / At the same time, I've gotten involved in my local spoken word community, gained greater confidence in my work and self, and discovered within me a greater capacity for responsibility and caring for others than I ever imagined myself capable of. / / My life is in Flux at this juncture. My journey has just begun. I invite you to join me on the long walk, and to see what is to come.
When did I decide
That mine would be the face
Upon which you could grind your heel?
When did I become so complacent?
Have I always been like this?
Questions spin and swirl
Forming a vortex
To **** me into the darkness
With you
I do not want the destiny
You will never escape
I can not live within
The cage of your expectations, your needs
Let go your fascination
With my incarceration
Let me be free
Before I am you
Aug 14, 2016
Aug 14, 2016 at 3:10 PM UTC
The rising moon and setting sun share
A private dance in the magenta sky
Late in September, high abone the newborn river
Overgrown with ivy and nettles and other creeping things
The desert toads sing serenades to silence
The wren the rabbit, and the dove conduct a nervous waltz
Ever watchfull for the hawk and the owl, eager to cut in
The endless tango of life and death electrifies the air
On the hill, saguaros raise their arms to heaven
To worship the sun in their ancient ways
Bellow, by the river's edge a playful breeze
Sends bronze leaves to pirouette through fairy corridors.
Tall trees take root about the timid estuary
Enwrapped by sun baked stone and wreathed by mountains
The desert and the river
Dance together in the sweet autumn air.
Aug 12, 2016
Aug 12, 2016 at 5:30 PM UTC
The name of a girl
I used to know
Is sitting on the tip of my tongue
I dare not speak it
And if I did
She would never hear
She has gone to some place God knows where
And for whatever reason
He never tells me these things
Aug 9, 2016
Aug 9, 2016 at 11:49 AM UTC
Nero aint got nothin on us.
He may have danced while his city burned,
Well we shoot off fireworks, mere blocks from
towers of fire, and shout
in celebration of banal and fruitless
triviality
Turning in shame and fear
from the looming future
collector of debts
Thinking in vain
To shun he who comes for all.
Revel in bread and circuses,
the wild mad show, such fun to behold.
And pay no mind to the gunfire.
Jan 15, 2016
Jan 15, 2016 at 11:09 AM UTC
Here I sit, content to watch.
A silent witness to the death of another year.
The dance goes on, the dancers proceeding in pairs.
Yet again I have been missed,
And left alone to my own devices.
No more skilled in their operations
Perhaps a little less so.
My pen is out of practice,
my mind a rusty tool.
My soul, so young, should not yet tire of its labours.
But "should" does not, can not hold sway upon reality
And the reality is I am tired.
Jan 1, 2016
Jan 1, 2016 at 11:44 PM UTC
I feel that I fall for
More than I stand for
That's not gonna fly and therefore
I can't join the air force
Killing time
and showing no remorse
allowing life to take its natural course
Of course I failed to see
that effort is the source of sorcery
involved in letting life take form
My real eyes see lies
like mr shakur said
stillI see no changes,
but mr shakur's dead
so many thoughts go running through my head
dreams of people qouting rhymes that I said
When I'm dead
Bury my beside my book of rhymes
so I can write these clever little lines
for all of time
Don't shed
a single tear for me
instead please learn to see
the world for what it is
not what it appears to be
I do this all for free
just to spread some positivity
Cause I believe that positive can live
for all eternity
if we can learn to be
the living form
of poetry
flowing like a river to the ocean
my emotions stream
from me to you so let me say in closing
That I hope they help
to lift your load and let you shed your loathing.
Aug 24, 2014
Aug 24, 2014 at 1:23 AM UTC
Please don’t just play with me, my paper heart will bleed
But when I bleed, it waters the seeds so
Deep within my soul, I see the trees grow,
Cultivating my strength, learning to breathe slow
But the pain is too much, So I ask you please go,
Don’t cry Don’t ask Why I don’t, I don’t know
But I guess that this is just me, watching the wind blow
Wait no,
I change my mind, Don’t leave
I feel like a tree in the fall, I can’t breathe,
So I sleep, because I can’t feed,
The Trees inside my soul that support me
need you, why Could I not see
That without you there simply is no me
I know I was wrong, and I don’t have the right
To ask you to follow along with my sight
As I write words to make love burn bright
To bring back the spring, bathe the trees in new light
Walk with me through the garden again
See me as both lover and friend
The end is over the beginning is ahead
Just on the other side of the last time I said.
Please, please don’t leave me
Because I always say that I don’t need you
It’s a paper shield and see through
Please look past it I beseech you,
I want you to be the one I bleed to.
Life in pain, in your veins like a needle
And you’re my drug of choice, I need to feel you.
But Now I see the past is past
That no good thing is made to last
The future is the shadow that our actions cast
Let the sands of time bury memories of you
As hours pass, A piece of me is trapped inside the hourglass.
Because I’m so sick of love songs, so sad and slow, so why can’t I turn off my radio
Because the truth is I can’t I’m trapped in a cage
The chapter has ended I can’t turn the page,
Passion inside slowly turning to rage
Pacing directionless, trapped in the maze,
You’re the song I never got off of my mind
I wish sometimes that could rewind time
And go back to sublime, Lazy days together reclined
Eyes to the skies like the stars were road signs
That would point our way to the future we designed
And couldn’t see was still so ill defined.
But now I’m letting go
Though I feel lost, like I’m trapped in deep snow
I see the time has come at last so time so
I’m turning off the radio.
Aug 11, 2014
Aug 11, 2014 at 4:07 PM UTC
In little coffeeshops
By the back corner, far from the exits
But near the little hall leading to the bathroom
At a time set by a large window
The poet, his soul filled with words and reasons to say them
But unsure how to convey them
Can observe the nerves and synapses
Converging in this single axis
The windowside throne, the great looking glass
Provides a view of every soul to pass
Through the door to the core of any good café
The front register
Where they serve the junkies
Their first no cream no sugar fix of the day
The register girl on this sunrise shift stands tall and wears
A pleasant smile
Like a suit of armor
For the fractures frayed and loosened pieces
Of her 65 hours a week between two jobs psyche
From his back corner vantage point
The poet sees this early morning warrior
And watches her adversaries approach
The sleep deprived and the caffeine dependent
The men in suits with leather briefcases
Hustling and bustling through self inflicted exhaustion
Work force revenants who begin to shamble through the door
Out of the early morning mists at about 5:30
just as the world is shrugging of the shroud of night
In his seat of power, the poet, lord of the room
Can see, despite the dim lights of the coffeeshop
These early birds, gaunt and hungry like vultures
Standing shoulder to shoulder with the last of the night owls
Shabby old things with ruffled feathers
Too tired to sleep or simply without a roost.
Their re rimmed eyes provide a window
Through which a sovereign of the word
May glance upon their tired souls
Yes from that lovely back corner
The poet is a king, a lord in noble regality
Reshaping reality
Sitting in the back of any coffee shop
In Phoenix Arizona
In America
In the world
In this whole great evergrowing span of universe
And turning people into words.
May 10, 2014
May 10, 2014 at 10:47 AM UTC
The teddy bear has a dead eyed glare
And the boogie man is in his lair
Beneath your bed beneath your stairs
Beneath your skin you feel him there
Stalking you
From the mirrors he’s mocking you
Haunting you. wanting to
Make it all end, you know how that feels
But the voices in your head are screaming its real
When I was young I would watch the shadows on the walls
With claws and horns the danced around the halls
I’m older now , past twenty, yet can’t find
A way to end the plight and fight
The monsters in my mind
Apr 4, 2014
Apr 4, 2014 at 9:45 AM UTC
I saw the sun today, shining warm and bright like the smiling eye of god
It peaked in on me through my curtains
before I had even forgotten my dreams
Outside the air filled my lungs
And the sky was clear and crystal blue
All around me I could see the people
Talking
Moving
Imagining
Real live people
Some of them are even friends of mine,
People I know, who live in the world with me
They say life is unkind to people like me
But I say it is kinder
So if I become silent and thoughtful when you say
“I’ve had a bad day,”
Fear not
I am just reminding myself there is no such thing.
Feb 7, 2014
Feb 7, 2014 at 11:44 PM UTC