He came with an axe to chop down
the tree's, only to be greeted
by a beautiful maiden
dancing through the trees.

With her song she seduced him,
come closer to me and be my lover
a whisper came from the weeping willow,
lay with me.

As she drew closer the weeping willow
bloomed, blooms fell as winter
came upon a frozen kiss.

He laid down upon the cold ground
at her feet, as the roots grew around
his frame, devouring him and
he lost his heart to the beautiful maiden
underneath the weeping willow.

Owed to the weeping willow,
her lover buried under winters
frost weeps no longer.

©️ 2023 By Amanda Shelton

Life is like crashing waves,
always rolling sometimes colliding
with our dreams.

We struggle to stay above the waves
while life keeps going, falling apart
at the seams.

Pieces of our achievements begin
to wash away into the seas of possibilities.
Making room for new possibilities or
for our dreams to drown in the depths
of the crashing waves.

You have a choice to learn how to surf
or go down with your dreams.

Oh what possibilities are these?

An artist suffers for their art,
it's both physical and mental.

The only difference between an artist
and other people, is the ability to express
themselves in a relatable and imaginable ways.

We are like the waves, crashing around
colliding with others through our art
and writing.

The Artist is inspiration for the possibilities.

We artists are a conundrum of sorts,
a rolling stone tumbling down a mountain.
It builds upon itself collecting ideas along
the way down.

©️ 2023 By Amanda Shelton

Rushing through this moment on
a passing fraze, I fell along the way,
the rocks and dirt scraped my knees.
I bled poetry.

Running on a moment, got no time to sit
got no time to be falling on a dream.

I am running fast but times faster,
it's like being on the edge of possibilities
but never catching up to the dream.

The clouds gather here, a deep oppression
buried me in six feet of pain and suffering.

Rushing to the end, it seems deep but
there's only an inch of time to climb.

The walls slowly crumble, the house begins
to rumble, the ground shivers and the weather
quivers, life is one moment full of broken foundations and ruined walls that fell.

Only one remains, a 41 year old foundation
I've built from the ruins of my past.

These walls are built from pain,
the floor is made from my
broken heart pieces, the frame
is designed by emotions I've felt
alone the way. Love makes
the foundation strong and stable.

Life is not fragile and slow,
it survives many storms and
it is pathed with passion and strife,
the cold cuts like a knife, the heat
burns for a moment. But still I remain.

I rose from the ruins of my strife,
upon the broken ribs and grinding
pain I crawled. Picking up the pieces
from my broken heart.

©️ 2023 By Amanda Shelton

You loved me like a leaf blowing
in the breeze, you left me and
I started falling.

You never rooted our love,
you never hydrated the roots,
you never planned a plot to secure
our future.

Every time I built a *** you broke it,
every time I built a foundation you
damaged it, every time I fed the soil
you starved it, every time I tried to
consul you you buried it.

Upon the ruins of us you left
love to freeze and die.

Like winters deepest touch
you turned love into ice.

You are a cold memory
of what we could have been
now you're a gray storm,
dangerous and frozen.

©️ 2023 By Amanda Shelton

This is my plot where I lay
my mother's memory.

Deep and soft she's always with me
for I am her legacy.

-------------

On a whisper I leave you,
in memory I will stay with you.

Dear child, don't forget my lessons.

Forget me not,
because I left you my legacy
for you are my future.

Letting go is not easy,
it's not your responsibility.

Grieving is the only way through the darkness
and to unlock our memories.

So live on through the sorrows of yesterday,
let your tears hydrate our plots
with love and dignity.

For tomorrow is only a horizon away,
a beam of light brings the marrow
and my memory will live on until
you forget me on your last day.

We all are like ghostly flames,
even after the wick is done
smoke remains.

©️ 2023 By Amanda Shelton

I held back the tears with fear,
it built a wall in between suffering
and release.

The pressure of it all felt like
an anvil on my life, it cushed
me in between its fingers.

The girth of suffering burried me
under sorrowful stars that have
no wishes for you stole my dreams.

Behind your lying eyes there's a dark
surprise, you have sharp teeth and
claws to brutalize your victims.

You started out with blue silver
linings they crossed your eyes like falling stars, we began colliding as
the dark clouds rolled in, bringing
the darkest that you were hiding.

Pain seems cumbersome and
immortalized in my traumatized mind.

Is this what you wanted?

To be immortalized in my trauma
seen as a monstrous devil hovering
over the horizon stealing the light
for yourself?

Well, this is a new dawn a new day.
I have lifted your shadow I have
freed myself from your painful
beatings and darkened depression.

I have learned how to be brightly lit
and be heard.

Immortal pain is nothing more than
a ghostly smoke from a used candle.

I am renewed! In recovery...
I am a candle maker not just
a candle.

©️ 2023 By Amanda Shelton

I lost my heart amongst the roses
and thorns as you slowly choked
me.

Love slowly turned to porcelain
and stone. It shattered under your
pressure.

Your perfume was luring,
you are romantically delusional
polluted with your indulgence
and shady promises.

To love myself I had to lose you.

To the darkness you
dove head first, no thinking
of a future for us.

I lost you to the shadows of
the future of love's indulgence
it got deep and you dug it's grave
before we could speak our vows.

You pushed me into the depths of
your anger and rage until I became
a bleeding wound festering.

The ghost of love's possibilities
still stabs me, burning deep within
my lucid dreams.

It stalks me like a monstrous shadow,
out reached agony clawing at the stitches
of your stab wounds from constant
narcissistic nagging, my heart is throbbing
in raw pain. You keep tugging.

You beat the drums until I became
a painful strum, a broken song stuck
on repeat.

Boom! Bleed! For me
Boom! Bleed! For me.

I'm a river of broken dreams
pooling on the floor, a stain from
a murderous lovers outrage.

You have no love,
only painful strumming
beating at the chambers
of my heart there I locked
myself up. Safety security
away from your nagging agony
of selfish deluted penalties.

I no longer pay your taxes
no more wasted hours trying to
please your narcissistic needs
and broken ideas.

I have ran my roads alone before you,
I am only growing stronger
without you punching my pride
and beating my self-esteem until
it's bruised and burning in pain.

I became the fire you tried to smother,
now I am burning your memory
your ashes blew away on a breath
of winters frozen kiss.

I got one last wish that you
are forever gone.

I want to allow my heart to
make room for possibilities of
love's embrace once more.

I am renovating my heart chambers,
removing the rubble from the ruined
love affairs that you left behind.

©️ 2023 By Amanda Shelton