I tried to live,
slowly it pushed me down,
I followed it’s rude rule,
it hurt it tugged and pulled.

It spoke up to say.
I am bad,
I am ruin,
I am suffering,
I am nothing but damaging,
I am not your friend,
I am not your support,
I am not your responsibility
but yet I share your life,
I am pain.

Today I sat with pain,
I drank his tea and shared
my life with his friends,
suffering and illness.

I have learned how to except them
in my life, for I have no choice.
Chronic pain stole my time.

Meowza!

Meow Gothic kitty meow!
Low and slow, watch her go.
Through the night
she’s a star shining brightly.

Yellow eyes and purrfect hearing,
she’s a kitty prowling the night,
but during the day she’s spoiled tucked away in my arms.

© 2018 By Amanda Shelton

“What is left of this heart of mine, is hard to define. All but dust and  blood is what is left behind.”

© By Amanda Shelton

Upon the waking of a dream
I watched as reality
steamed.

Dripping wet with tears of sorrow,
all seamed doomed,
yet here comes the marrow.

Upon the waking of a dream,
I watched as it melted at the seems.

Dreary I fell into worry
and doomed digression,
all became dark,
full of murky depths,
and monsters whom leaped at me
from the darkest dreams I ever dream't.

**© By Amanda Shelton

I can't hide or run,
pain is on my back.

I built my road but pain
got cheeky and damaged
my plans.

It laugh's in my face
while setting on my back
twisted and bent.

Scratching and clawing
at my skin, pains no friend.

Poking and pinching,
bringing depression
and anxiety.

Pains a cheeky boy with
claws for hands and a
creepy ear to ear smile
with a mouth full of
razer teeth.

©️ 2022 By Amanda Shelton

Love is like a candle
it doesn’t last without
a flame.

It burns so fast, it turns
into memories of smoke
that lingers for only a moment
before it fades.

You are left with a half burnt wick
and a used up waxy stick.

Ashes are smeared on the table
while a heart lays in its own blood
beating one last time before
dieing.

You can blame love for the damages
but never suit for love doesn’t
care for you.

I have made my peace with the world,
but not love for love always
comes back on its hands and knees.

I fell head over heels so many times,
the bruises on my knees haven’t healed from the fall.

Love punishes me.

© 2019 By Amanda Shelton

Upon the beams my spirit rose,
through the darkness it brightly grows.

Like fireflies twinkling in the
night, my spirit shines.

A beacon of hope and possibilities,
the spirit knows.

Dreams lay the foundation for
growth, as the imagination is
set free it flies beside the
spirit, like a shadow not far behind.

As the spirit grows its wings,
the dark declines slowly as
possibilities shine.

There's no light without
the dark.

There's no dark without
the light.

I am like a firefly,
I burn bright and through the
night I am a beacon of hope for
those who are lost in the dark.

You are not alone, for you
are a firefly too. We all are.

©️ 2022 By Amanda Shelton

“Dying to meet our feet will guide, but only our hearts have the right to decide.”

© By Amanda Shelton

Mixed race,
am I supposed to be labeled for having
white skin?

Why can't people see the person within?

I feel sorry for those who judge others
for not fitting into their standards.

It's sad really,
that there are still people who can't see past their own point of view.

How can you learn if all you see is you?

I am a mutt just like you,
I come from a family of different cultures and diverse colors.
We all do.

There's no difference between you and I expect I can see past the color of your skin.

Underneath the cover of skin we all look the same, we are human.

Black, yellow, and white I am all of these put into a human package.
That's what being human is,
get use to it.

Love yourself first so you can love someone else.*

*© 2017 By Amanda Shelton

I am no longer a slave to fear,
I suffered and struggled,
but all was lefted higher
when I let you cary me
through the fire.

I gathered my well
I built my wall’s stronger
all in your name,
I gave you all of my strife
and excepted my life.

I lived as life pushed on
harder, as is your well
and your desire.

You gave me kindling
to build my fire,
allowing my flame
to grow higher.

I have just one desire,
to live for you
and grow until
I can’t grow any higher.

You are my hope and dreams,
you bring me to my knees,
not in vain but for
strangth and exceptance.

Aman

**© 2017 By Amanda Shelton

Autumn kissed my soul
with her beautiful fall.

My imagination ate the star’s,
as the moon stole the sky.

With bountiful wonder leaping
from my eyes, I am left floating
through the oceans of my dreams.

Autumn wakes, with her brown,
red and orange gowns.

As autumn approaches with eyes
wide-open to greet the earth,
the leafs fell to her feet
as her breath froze the ground,
she woke to winter’s kiss.

As I rise with the tides
my mind begins to drift,
reality is calling, this
dream is ready to lift.

©️ 2021 By Amanda Shelton

The beach is where my soul yearns to be.
I can smell the salty sea.

I lay my body upon the shores
of dictent sands,
as my being yearns
for more breathtaking land’s .

I dream of riding heavy waves,
as they carry me away.

I kiss my lover,
as I kneel on my sandy knees.
I am begging, pleading,
return to me,
return to me,
my salary heart for
it burns for the water’s edge.

I yearn for the salty breath,
the heavy winds
that crash upon
my dictent shores.

Oh what love I feel,
I do deplore,
I beg and plead,
that my sea born lover will
return to me.

The ocean is my true love,
can’t you sea?

© By Amanda Shelton

Between the teeth of monster's
grinde the bone and flesh of
forgotten dreams.

As nightmares wake to shadow
and fear, my mind sail's the
oceans chasma deeply driven
by futures pull.

Reality forever leeps forward
into the depths of colliding
waves of experience.

Upon the rim I ride, I tip
slowly into the center of
lucid dreams like a dancer
dancing with its shadow.

These monsters that I create,
grimly I took a leep.

With a mouth full of inky grit
I spit my passion for expression
as poetry leeps onto the pages.

©️ 2021 By Amanda Shelton

A violin plays for the wind,
up goes the bow strumming the strings.

A symphony orchestra concert
from nature is created,
such skill and gifted are the crickets.

A beautiful sound that comes from
a tiny insect the color of green grass.

Don't be fooled by it's beautiful song,
for they are known to eat crops
and leave damages like no other creater.

They are famous for causing
plague in the Bible,
and grain fields to disappear
in a night.

Be ware of the violins at night,
such beauty can bring fright.

The crickets love the night.*

*© 2017 By Amanda Shelton

As bright as the sun
you burst into my life,
You cause the smudges to
fade away.

You become like the brush
and I the artists hand,
we craft beautiful art together
under the rising sun.

We both burst into stars,
as I follow you into the chaos
of loving unconditionally.

© 2017 Amanda D Shelton

One moment you are standing
in the mist,
the next you are setting
in a padded room.

You can hear scratching
from old memories
running through your mind,
reminding you of old times.

You start to fade,
black and white,
the static comes through,
now voices are calling you,
but from where?

You find yourself having tea
with your shadow,
it reminds you,
you forgot your shoes.

Looking down you see
your bare feet
and then the floor begins to move,
as your feet grow farther away,
anxiety set’s in.

Heart beating fast,
faster still,
you feel like running
but you can’t move.

You’re stiff as a tree,
you look down again
and you find you are a tree.

You go from a rooted bed
to a rooted ***,
so tight you feel like
you are chocking
on dirt felled air.

All this time you’ve been asleep,
dreaming you are
fighting with insanity.

© 2017 Amanda Shelton

It’s sad to be judged
by the love of your life.

You wouldn’t think
that someone you love
could do anything like that.

Because love isn’t mean,
love isn’t boastful,
love isn’t a lie,
love isn’t a beautiful day,
love isn’t a fairy tale,
love isn’t a glass slipper.

Love is complicated,
love is hard,
love is painful,
love is gooy, oozing all the time,
love is scratchy,
love is wakey,
love is full of it,
love is pushy,
love is never changing.

It is the person who uses it,
who makes it,
forms it,
sculpt it into
a piece of art,
sometimes they use
the wrong glue
so it falls apart.

**© 2017 Amanda Shelton

In winter they cried ice cold tears,
each one shadered like glass
as they flowed steady and fast.

Blue I feel,
as I lost the warmth​ of the sun
upon your chilling kiss.

My white gown grew its roots
upon your barren ground,
it bloomed on the night
when the moon shined
full and bright.

I your moon flower​ beamed
bursting forth,
as my petals fly free,
they die before they freeze;
hitting the chilled earth
with a dreadful thud.

Memory of you;
My ghost flowers grew
upon the memories we grow
and cultivate;
as the stars bare witness
to our chaotic dance.

**© By Amanda D Shelton

We need imperfections to
grow stronger and smarter.

Mistakes are good if
we learn from them.

God teaches us how to prosper
by making imperfect life forms.

To prosper you need love
for love is prosperity
and success.

God is love.

©️ 2021 By Amanda Shelton

The pain of love,
the pain of living,
is something to bare.

I am made of flesh and blood,
my bones bare witness
to my life.

I work hard to live hard,
I breathe, and think,
I collide with time as if
I am its catalyst.

I can move but not freely,
for I am held down by choices.

Love has broken my every heartbeat,
with each thud
it pump’s through me,
like tiny needles
running through my veins,
pocking my every move.

Thud! Thud! Thud!
Each breath I take
is another painful
memory of you.
Love… Painful You!*

*© 2017 By Amanda Shelton

I am like a cloud,
I move with the wind,
I cry when I am gray.

I am like the spring,
I bloom for the seasons,
I guide life into my womb,
I bring rain to the river's and brooke's,
I bring bird's to build their nests,
I bring the beast's out into the fields.

Quite I am,
waiting for the change.

I am a ghost
reaching for the post,
seeking purpose and meaning.

I am a poet,
growing my plots,
leaving you my written legacy,
upon my poetic format
I smear my ink on these pages.

**© By Amanda D Shelton

Love is acceptance and success
because it helps build societies
so be kind to each other and
humanity will thrive.

Peace comes from the heart
and vibrates into the universe
by our personal struggles and
actions.

We are an example for each other
so be good and others will follow.

We can't stop abuse with silence
so be loud and proud to tell the truth.

Be brave and that like a stone,
and your strength will grow
upon the foundations you build.

©️ 2023 By Amanda Shelton

On every leaf the sun’s rays gently plays.
Upon the mornings dawning
the birds chirp
and the curtains rise,
to allow the light to bathe
my tired eye’s.


**© 2017 By Amanda Shelton

I hope you are not bitter because of someone else. The hardest thing to do is to forgive yourself so you can forgive someone else. To be vengeful is never helpful, if anything it causes more damage. So please move forward so you can forgive yourself.

**© 2017 By Amanda Shelton

Tis 2:00am as fog rolled in,
the tree’s sighed and the soft
snow fell quitly outside.

The coffins bare,
the earth chilled and frozen;
this is where he lays,
deep in 9 feet of dirt felled air.

Soulless without a care,
a fool to bring suffering
to the poor humans,
who never noticed he was there.

A shadow of his former self,
he resembles nothing of himself.

Lurkering amongst the beastly
shadows, where monsters belong
to blood and bone,
the foolish break,
this fool follows his natural bent.

Intentions are of course seaking
his thirst, with an open mouth
full of gagged teeth.

He claws for insurance,
an immortals bank never drys,
forever is a long time.

So gather your affairs,
before the dawn bares witness
to your foolish pride.

The vampire is here,
come for a ride?
(it’s just you and I, I swear)
he smiles wide.

Merry Christmas my beastly friends.

**© 2017 By Amanda Shelton

Like a bird I once took flight,
the sky was my line and the
lyrics of my life blew me to
the breeze.

I sang free and loud,
I breathe for poetry.

I sank into the lyrics of my flight, my feathers fell soft and light as I am lifted high words like a latter rising to
the heavens I climb.

©️ 2023 By Amanda Shelton

Upon my fleeting words
I reveal my roads.

Step by step, word by word,
line by line, a poet travels
the world.

We breathe poetry,
we eat it too.

Until our clouds are full of stars
ready to rain upon the earth
poetic storms.

©️ 2022 By Amanda Shelton

Sometimes I feel alone
in a crowded room,
sometimes I feel cowded
when I am alone.

I am always alone in my thoughts,
pictures of the past hanging on
the walls of my mind
movies of my life rolling on
the screen.

Memories, never going back,
the past is behind me.

My shadow is what I leave
in photographs in my mind.
A ghost not yet dead.

Someday I too will be but smoke
in the wind, a photograph within
your mind.

Depression once told me
I am nothing,
I am but a piece of dirt
underneath your feet.

I fought its downing choke,
its pressure to be better than
myself.

I pushed myself into the light
scared and exhausted.

Depression is the heavest
ugliest monster waiting in
the darkest depths to pounce.

It knows your woes,
it becomes your fear,
it bruises your soul and
scars your self esteem.

Rolling in the deep,
towing your failures,
tugging on your heart strings
as it breaks one string at a time,
leaving you in silence
no more music for you
to enjoy.

Depression is the deep void
between nigh and day is nothing,
where I get lost amongst
the forest of my rolling thoughts.

Floods happen often here,
choking my breathable air,
clawing at my soul,
leaving me naked and afraid
deep inside the bowels of depression.

I beg myself, don't leave me here
reaching for my life with outstretched arms. Weak and
crawling on my belly from
the drenches of depression.

Depression taught me
I have only myself.

Depression also taught me,
the dirt is where life grows,
it is planted inside its girth
watered and fed by its growing roots. I chose where I plot my roots.

©️ 2023 By Amanda Shelton

On a falling leaf comes seasonal change, in the forest that grows in my imagination lives creativity. Here sadness inspires growth.

A stroke in time is a drop of
paint slowly dripping down the
canvas in my mind.

Memories breathe upon the shimmer of paint, my mind soaks up the details like a sponge as my hands bare the grind and process.

I can write what I paint, I can
paint what I write. No paint drop is forbidden and no poem is forgotten.

I have a river of ideas flowing free from my mind, I am a dreamer with a pencil in one hand and ideas in the other.

Sad me drifts on the Sea of dreams, as ideas fall like leaf's landing on the black mirror Sea, reflecting my thoughts as twinkling stars the shimmer underneath my boat is magical.

In a moment of vivid clarity
my reflection bursts into billions
of ideas, shooting across the endless sky like stars.

I woke.

©️ 2023 By Amanda Shelton

Upon the blowing wind
lives my Autumn dreams.

With a delightful glee
my soul took flight
as the breeze stole
my heart.

The whispering pines
swooshed and bowed,
the dirt grew into
a foggy cloud, as
Autumn changed her
gown.

Greens turned brown,
purple, and deep red
as the leafs shimmied
to the chilled ground.

The shadows slowly lengthened
as the night creeped,
crawling beside the sun
before saying farewell
to his brother he kissed
the sky with his full moon smile.

The stars winked
and the sun swooned
as the moon stole the
hour.

© 2019 By Amanda Shelton

At last thine heart came to me,
opened like a scalloped shell
holding for me its pearl.

Lay at my feet,
they love will claim my heart,
I sacrificed my passionate feelings
so freely.

Our love like the caged bird
was set free.

I bowed to your advances,
I kissed your passions
with my willingness
and blushing smile.

Come lie with me and be my lover,
forever in a passionate state.

Frozen love never thawed
or moved for me,
until you came to me.

Love was set free…

Love is free.

**© By Amanda D Shelton

Upon a dream you bloomed,
you rose within my half
opened eyes, like a lingering
tear you fell from the sky.

You became a moonflower,
you blossomed within my
waking hour, no longer
a whisper, sweet and tender,
your love was always there.

Upon my waking dream
your kisses blew me away,
like a storm waiting for me
to step out into its flurry,
your love was always there.

© 2019 By Amanda Shelton

It started with your smile,
slowly it grew into love.

My clouds parted for you,
the fog lifted for a view,
the sun beamed brighter than
before, the blue sky was bluer
too, it caught your blue eyes
like an ocean surprise.

Sadly, a storm blew in,
it devoured my heart, it
broke the ties that bind
us.

The blue turned gray and
black, the ocean dried up
leaving my heart broken
and cracked.

©️ 2022 By Amanda Shelton

You are strong for
the strongest survive
the storm.

Once in a past great moon
my sphere dimmed down
too a sliver of ash,
the tiniest breeze would
blow my moon away.

Until poetry blew me a kiss
and our love affair has
gotten stronger over the years.

Expression is the best
way to release my fears
into the heavens above
where the stars chase
them away.

Upon my poetic breath
all is an exhale imagined
by my poetic mind.

I gather my tears upon
this page, leaving you
with a smile and
a gracious bow.

Remember, You are strong
for the strongest survive
the storm.

A lone you are not,
for other stars are falling too busting, growing, and expanding with you.

We are like a drop of water
in a large pond, our ripples effect reality as we grow.

© 2019 By Amanda Shelton

Depression has no grace,
no dignity for it's victims.

I once was like water,
I flowed so easily
I moved mountains with
my pressure,
I surfed the biggest waves,
I climbed the highest peaks,
I flew like a bat.

Only to fall hard.

Like a fly,
I was caught in the struggle
caged in the dreadful pain.

Depression is like a spider,
it waits in the shadows,
in its web it traps its victims.

I'm struggling in the web of depression.

©️ 2022 By Amanda Shelton

You are a scar upon my heart,
We grew closer in between
the shadows and beams of light.

Our love also grew within
the dark, never to fade
for it is a strong spark
that grew into a burning blaze.

We are like two stars,
always falling together
always burning across
the same skies, we are
always as one a sun
that never dies.

We are never truly apart
for there’s a string attached
to our hearts, space and time
can never steal our ever
growing spark.

Struggle and strife
only build’s a stronger
foundation for the future
of our lives together.

As one made from two star
crossed lover’s our collision
was epic, and dramatic
leaving reality bruised and
burning brightly as a reminder
of our beginnings.

Forevermore, I love you.

© 2019 By Amanda Shelton

Upon the wind I ride,
with great stride
I come on pride.

I suffer much but still I drive,
I drive deeper still
with my heart of steel.

My windy steed I ride
like the queen of dusty dreams
and long forgotten memories.

I ride the winds of weathering tides,
as they roll across my lifespan
of deserted plan’s.

I fought shadows with my bare hands,
with flashing stars falling from my vision.

All this and a face full of sand.

Life is not easy nor can you disregard its plans.
It will remind you of its presence and its dance.
You have no choice but to tango.

Shine on me,
love me for me,
like a love poem,
construct my vision
with philosophy.

Kiss my poetic mind
with your ideas and
metaphors, construct
my lines with ink and quill,
bring the paper so I don’t
spill my poems onto the floor.

I am constructed with poetic
smudges from past memories
faded not by time, for I live
forever upon these pages.

This is a poetic death
of sorts but my memory
lives on through
smudges and marks.

© 2019 By Amanda Shelton

I could barely breathe
as love stole my kiss,
broke my heart
and shattered my dreams.

I once got lost
in loves quite stair,
wandered for year's,
wondered how I got there.

Soon I found myself
setting at a table,
watching love eat my heart.
With each bite
I can feel the crunch,
chewing deeply into my life.

ABCL :
Already Been Chewed Life.

Love stole my heart
and ate it for lunch.

© 2017 Amanda Shelton

Freedom is no longer available,
we are slaves to large corporations.

We colonized American,
only to in slave her people
who lived off its soil
before cowboys
found gold and oil.

Now we have been taken by the
greedy and needy man, who
has been handed rights
to slow down the one thing
we deemed free (the internet).

You think because you have been told
America is free and bold,
that makes it true.
Yet look at you,
we have a president who came from
greed, and TV.

Who thought he could run a country?

He knows nothing of the people,
he knows business and gluttony.

Hollywood has turned into a
horror film, always on film,
those stars shine bright,
but if you look to the sky
you’ll see a darker side.

Why? Because love of money
is the root to evil.

Businesses run everything,
from the foods we eat,
clothes we wear,
the fruits we bare,
and now the internet.

How do we share when
companies have all the rights
to choose our rights?

I am ashamed of America,
I am ashamed of my people,
who stole our freedom.

Poor America it has joined
the other nations
who are corrupted
by the needful heavy man
who runs the main land
(The Government).

**© 2017 By Amanda Shelton