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 1069° 
Kundai N
There was no one to hear my laments
So I told them to the wind
The wind told them to the trees
The trees fed it to nature
And nature understood.
 677° 
badwords
I wrote a short HePo series, an amalgamation of poetry and narrative. I tried to make a journey out of it for the reader in the classic Choose Your Own Adventure style in the sense that the onus was on the reader to continue the narrative instead of simply imploring the reader to turn the page.

This is the 'Director's Cut' for those without copious free-time to invest in internet sleuthing. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it:

Chapter One:
https://hellopoetry.com/poem/4930049/1-hades-lament/

Chapter Two:
https://hellopoetry.com/poem/4930058/2-no-where/

Chapter Three:
https://hellopoetry.com/poem/4930062/3-death/

Chapter Four:
https://hellopoetry.com/poem/4930078/4-a-day-goes-by/

Epilogue:
https://kiloblitz.net/2024/12/09/life-of-nowhere/
https://hellopoetry.com/collection/135790/nowheretown/

The CYOA elements have be removed and this is more of a traditional narrative now. I hope everyone had fun exploring Nowheretown.
 620° 
The Blue Bottles
everything is changing.
youve changed.

you dont talk to me now.
i cry over you every night.

sometimes i wonder if you think about me
as much as i think about you.

then i remember
you left me because it hurts

i was too much like Her.

and you replaced me.

that hurt the most.
 494° 
RMatheson
I'm on my third jar
and I never drink
more than two
but now this pistol
looks lovingly at me
more than you do.
 410° 
Mary Huxley
I wore his vest,
trading stained threads
for something that smelled
just like him.

Bare legs, quiet room—
his eyes found mine,
and I swear,
time leaned in to listen.

"Just forehead kisses,"
I whispered once,
twice—
trying to stay soft
when my heart wasn’t.

But he looked at me
like I was still his,
like the ache between us
wasn’t ready to end.

His hands at my waist,
his breath on my cheek,
the silence hummed,
sweet and weak—

And then,
before goodbye could speak…
I kissed him—
once,
long,
slow,
like we forgot what leaving meant.
Blushed while writing thisssssss
Uuumh hahahaaaa
 386° 
Joss Lennox
A million different jobs.
A million different personas.
As an adult, it's hard knowing,
"what you want to be when you grow up."
While considered "normal" in your twenties,
not so much in your thirties and beyond.
In a world that's consistently changing from one day to the next,
why aren't we allowed the same respect?
We, as parents, wear many hats in order to provide,
they label it multitasking, we're doing it to survive.
Trial and error is the only way to truly be happy in life,
otherwise you're just committed to a career you despise.
That doesn't make one irresponsible, just more knowledgeable.
Two things can be true; you can have a stable career,
and still be a writer on the side.
You can follow your dreams,
and still support your family.
I wrote this about a time I was criticized for waiting to be in my 30's, deciding to work on becoming a writer/poet still working another job while being a wife and mother. Though, I feel like most of us have a jobs and creative outlets. We don't always figure out who we are or what we want to do in our twenties or younger. Some of us don't have the privilege. Best not to judge, when you don't know the circumstance.
 378° 
Soul-in-poetry
I laid out my heart
My soul
My brain

I gave all of me,
Yet still,
All I received in return—

Was ashes and broken bones.
 338° 
Nat Lipstadt
>crumbled, rumbled, street survivors,
paper scraps that took the rage abuse rap,
dead love notes, bills red with overdues,
these pre-poems have traveled wind currents
some in from Jersey, some hailing Minnesota,
ain't never see one that crossed the Atlantic,
but reckon it is not a theoretical impossibilty

unpretty city streets, like a museum, collects 'em,
plenty of exhibition space, forlon, historically
orphaned, disbanded, whose paths all got confused,
some sweet, all beat, balled and thrown, no home,
no more, each a reveille, each humming taps, now,
all scented by strret odors, none pleasant, each was
in its prior life, the meat, the grist, the meal of what
was, coulda been, a poem that would have survived
yellowed in care, tender glanced, tucked in books,
safekept, but slipped away, victims of friction, fraction

look down, be unafraid, unravel them slow, careful,
abused, all these messengers all need a good home,
a box in a closet, a book of tenders, witnesses to what
they've seen, places they've been, hand held, tenderized
by words spiced, variegated, ink, pencil, typewritten, like
their prior human authors, all sizes, all shapes, some on
colored paper, a l l astrayed, accidental, purposed, details
and detritus, once deemed essemtial, important, necessary
and needed, even believed, but times change

you're stuck, brain ain't cooperating, tired of staring inside
your self's self, pull on a sweater, it's a chilly spring overcast air,
that don't natural warm, more naturally warn, be careful where,
you step, your next poem is laying right there, grab a few, take
more than a couple, this is like a school dance, try a few, until
you bank the right one in the till, the connection made, a kiss,
in secret stolen, and the drive, the forces, the perspiration urgency
leads to you desk, nook, granny's cranny, and the world of words
overflow like seagulls in a harbor, so many spilling, hard is the
choosing, but excited adrenaline, free basing, in your veins and
****, you gotta just write again, right now, add a ***** poem
back to its rightful place in a heart, upon eyes, tongue taste them
syllables, clap and laugh as they symmetrically form, subtle rhyming,
the sleeping seeds have sprouted, the brown brain loamy cells,
fertile and potent, energize, impregnate, and you just can't wait
to walk the streets, in search of many, many more

it's ok, you have permission to utter a whispery nearly silent
hallelujah<
April 13 2025  10;10am NYC
this cane to me sudden, slow and no intentend to  marry< no reason wht,
but the title hit me square, and sat down and spilled the beans, and left me quite
satisfied, almost a little purged
 294° 
Jamie
You said
“I’m not going anywhere”

Silly me believing you
You loved me hard
Just to leave me like this

Why?

Guess there’s things
I’ll never know
 278° 
Hiba Mubashir
A positive vibe, or an uplifting song  
A way to say what's right or wrong  
A point where soul of the heart and heart of the soul belong  

Poetry, a message or call  
Description of the nature, like a tree standing tall  
It has the power to say it all!  


*Hiba Mubashir
 227° 
Samuel
I'm not a poet
I'm just emotional
twenty-something emotions
those hit hard

I'm not a poet
only a sleepwalker,
my fingers burning to type
my laptop keyboard so well-lit
so I fall into the desire

I'm not a poet
I just whisper to a quiet altar called Hello Poetry
a fatal attraction
so I type
welcome to the cult
Where's my keyboard, I can't sleep
 193° 
ymmiJ
seems people need to hate
living their lives wanting someone to blame
stupid pawns in others games
Tired of all the hate and vitriol. They keep pushing and history dictates the patience runs out. The backlash will be swift.
 189° 
Whit Howland
a palette
and a beret

could I ask for more
do I

want
An abstract word painting.
 186° 
Aubrey E Drummond
Long-time pain
I’ve lived in grief turned

Now
Self-pity
 173° 
Lyle
___
I Hate You.















There, I said it.
 172° 
MuseumofMax
My story is becoming

I feel it in the wind

It beckons to my soft heart

And aches within my soul

My story is becoming

I see it in my pen

The way words form together

The way they have become

My story is becoming

So listen for its whisper

I hear it quietly yearning

It waits for me to answer

My story is becoming

Though I don’t yet know what I will write

I know that it is forming

Beyond my very sight.
 168° 
Kay Lyn
I
Looking at me



Standing in the sun rays
I could feel the warmth on my skin.
A beautiful sunny day
I took a photograph of myself.
The image of my eyes were
emerald green with a hint of bronze.
I could see the images of
different faces until they all
became one.
My vision at dawn I was
a glowing golden hue I
looked at my hands
and it was me as one.

- Kay Lyn
God’s Love
Palm Sunday ✝️
 164° 
Kurt Philip Behm
When artists
grow reflective
their impact
is stalled

All direction
is hijacked
momentum
recalled

Looking back
through their psyche
a tunneler’s
view

As horizon’s
lie waiting
with visions
— anew

(Dreamsleep: April, 2025)
 160° 
Lena
it’s the gaping hole that never truly closes  
the gasping in the silence of the night  
awakened by the ache that comes  
as sudden and swift  
as the piercing cry of wails that rose  
when the man in white  
turned up at the door and painted the day  
the colour of nothing
 160° 
Debbie
Your eyes were deep oceans.
Salted with pain.
Drained from our veins.
I have a fear of drowning in you.
Silent confessions were like opioids.
The feelings that consume my heart
are now bone deep.
My cells know.
Why my blood runs slow.
When you kiss my pale
pouty lips.  
Further I slip into
the waves of you.
 152° 
Nev
It told me
you can survive anything
if you're quiet about it.

That healing
looks a lot like pretending-
until it doesn't.

It said
love won't save you
if you keep offering it
as proof
you're worth saving.

And forgiveness?
It's not always holy.
Sometimes it's
just surrender
in a prettier dress.

I asked,
when do I become enough?

The mirror blinked.
And said,
"When you stop asking."
Refelcts the struggle between surviving and healing, and the way we often seek validation from others before we learn to validate ourselves. It's about realizing that true strength comes from within, and that sometimes, healing starts when we stop searching for answers outside.
 145° 
Left on Red
The terrible
& wonderful
      truth

is that you're
not special,

and neither am I.

Suffering is common,
and we all die
under the same sky,

and there's nothing new un
der the sun,

inclu
ding you.
 123° 
Alice Wilde
I used to think I was an anxious child.

Now, I realize my parents
Could never accept my love.
 113° 
evangeline
Hope this finds you well—
(Letter addressed to Heaven)
Angel gets her mail!
A sweet little haiku :)
 106° 
Jon Corelis
Tobacco, liquor, and women are bad for you,
so I’ve quit smoking.  Someday, liquor too.

-------------------------------------------------
Copyr­igh­t 2025 by Jon Corelis

joncorelis.com
 105° 
Maanvinder Pilania
Blue were my days and nights
when you would check on me,
with late-night conversations
and your playful words about meetings
Is it the days that I miss, or
is it you whom I long for?
This affair was forsaken from the beginning
This poem is part of my "I Sent The Text" poetry series.
 103° 
winnie the poem
Elegant — yeah, just like I please.
A heart? Charming, smooth like a breeze.
The evening? Yours. The night? I ignite.
I am the morning star light.
Adorable — yeah, in a secret disguise,
But baby, I’m coming. Inevitable. No lies.

Only truths
 103° 
Nicole
Sometimes I stare at them
Hue's of rainbow, but
At a glance
Darkness
Obscure
Wraith
 102° 
Marc Morais
Keep her safe—
from the rusted jaws of silence
dressed with politeness
from hands that reach without asking
and words that leave bruises
no one sees.

Keep her safe—
not with locking doors
but with hall passes
to break the ones
that keep her voice out.

Teach her to scream in full sentences—
to laugh without apology
to name the sky hers
and leave it alone.

Tell her the world is not a game
she has to lose to be loved—
that skirts are not contracts
that fear should never be
part of her dress code.

Keep her safe—
not because she is fragile
but because she is fire—
that fierce when caged
burns everything down.

Let her rise without warning
or need of permission—
like a blade not begging for forgiveness
and when she walks
let the ground learn her name
and shatter—

Keep her safe—
not small
not silent—
safe
and everything
else
she wants
to follow.
Dedicated to the daughters of Hello Poetry
 98° 
Noah Ducane
T.
The bus is a good machine for seeing. It has slow and heavy motions, it groans like an elephant, and grazes in the streets. It rattles like a shelf full of silverware in a mild earthquake. When the wind is in front it is a fast and steady cold. Outside there are bees, and nests of birds, and bicycles but in the bus, there is a man with a large suitcase. He is sleeping. I sit, trying to be still and untired.
 93° 
Shang
we didn’t need music
just the hum of the fridge
and the dog barking two floors down.
the sheets were half off the bed,
her hair in knots,
my hands shaking
like I’d lived a hundred lives
and never touched something so real.

Serena—
she looked at me like she already knew
where the cracks were
and kissed me there first.
no ceremony,
just heat and breath
and two ******-up hearts
trying to beat in time.

she moaned like it mattered,
like the world might stop spinning
if we didn’t keep going.
I bit her lip, she scratched my back,
we left bruises that felt like
truth.

afterward,
she lit a cigarette
with a hand still trembling
and said,
"we’re not broken,
just bruised in the right places."
and I believed her.
Intimacy is such a delicate and necessary thread that weaves true connection, trust, and vulnerability between hearts.

oh, today is my birthday!
 91° 
Lawrence Hall
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                              A Roadside Snapping Turtle in April

If you’d spent the winter
Sleeping deep down in the mud
You’d be snappish too!
 90° 
Pouya
Time is ticking, and I try.
Try to do something...
Maybe the way is the other way!
Letting go, clearing the way.
Letting things happen naturally.
Like a flower blooming in the sidewalk opening it's way.
Not out of forcing, only because the bed is rich enough...
 88° 
matt r
springtime stay forever            please
breathe & sicken me        more&more

take no ideas from the groundwet
                                                     mulch
she is lively             &fresh
omniscient in the way she sweeps

in her swiftness            
                      blossom crawls & sticks
to                  (,unscrapable,you)me

& you,i  would thank  like the blessed
hummingbirds

(oh , if we could fold like hummingbirds)
                        
        who click&clack their sappy jaws
in code of sharp&biting birdsong

,as first so pink&flowery as they are
new                                  in comeliness,

& reject the typical seasons
                      to crushing pearls for fun
 88° 
Nicklas
I sit in my chair, as I often do,
staring through melted sand
into an ocean of darkness,
where illusory stars shimmer, never quite real.

Here, time almost stands still—almost.
The clock ticks, and 3:07 becomes 3:08.
For each minute passing by, more phantom stars ignite.
Until the true light finds its breath,
and shepherds us into yet another day.

And while the false stars continue to burn.
I shall continue to sit in my chair, as I often do.
Until the sky is ready to tell the truth
Until even lies fade away.

And then at last, the morning returns to keep the lies at bay.
This is my first poem, so I am not sure if the way I wrote it sounds weird or confusing. I got my inspiration for this poem when I was sitting on a chair in my kitchen, watching the sun rise and all of the city lights slowly being turned off.
 86° 
Honey
Are we really that easy to be influenced?
For our feelings to be canceled out just because someone said so?
Was it that shallow — to be easily moved by the waves
that drifted us apart?

Or was the want never really enough
to withstand the waves?

We were just a stick in the sea,
waiting to get back to land,
but thrown instantly —
as if there was never a foundation to stay.
 85° 
JohnDuffyASY
(A lone voice whispers)

For a dash of exquisite fun

Try to have such a mesmerising style of creativity—when stimulating, visual imagery.

So all those within your prose's proximity:

Can enjoy its delicious delivery

(C) Copyright John Duffy
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