Once upon a time I was happy,
wishful and strong.

But you came walking in on
a heart string, vibrating
reality until I got dizzy.

I started to fall,
my walls weakened
and crumbled underneath
your crushing waves.

The vision of you became
a monstrous view.

I began panicking trying to
run away from you.

The constant nagging and
emotional abuse beat me
until I was a bruised
damaged muse.

My fire started to fade,
you stole my kindling
and claimed it as yours,
you choked my flames.

All that remains is ruble
and ashes, the ruins from
passed failed attempts to
save our relationship.

You failed it all,
for cigarettes
and a quick fix.

You're not the sharpest tool
in my shed, you're weak and
rusted nothing can clean your
crusted heart.

It fell apart before you
came knocking on my door.

You are a faded memory of what
we could have been.

©️ 2022 By Amanda Shelton

I am in pain.

My head is like Grrr!
I am pirate headache
I bring waves of pain
and crushing winds
to make it harder for you
to get up again.

Rrr! Polly want a *******?

**** pirates,
I don’t like their crackers.

This Polly wants nothing
but relief.

Here they come again,
swords aready, I’ma fighten
pirate’s today.

Pirate Headaches bring
me no *****, instead they
steal my time and comfort.

© 2018 By Amanda D Shelton

If I had only...

I was able to forget the abuse,
and grew in the light
instead of the darkness
I was forced into,
and ran away from the monsters
before they hurt me,
and ignored the negative views
from others,
and spoke when I needed to be heard.

But it's not too late to live my life...

So here I am speaking my truth
so I can grow past the abuse.

I am like a struggling worm trying
to break free from the dirt
I was force fed.

©️ 2024 By Amanda Shelton

Build upon sand with mud and straw,
your house will fall. Weathered by wind
and rain, decay eats away at the foundation.

Build upon rock with brick and concrete,
your house will stand strong. Even through
an earthquake.

©️ 2023 Amanda D Shelton

You are my bud to my rose,
you are my breath to my life,
you are my coo to my caw,
you are my shadow
to my morning sun,
you are my path
to my destination,
you are my cream
to my coffee.

You are many things
to my life,
you add structure
and texture to my ever
changing world.

You give me reason for living,
you add demintion to my understanding.

You give meaning to my quest,
my journey will never be a bore
not with you aboard.

You are my desire,
my reasoning and
the only one who forever holds
the key to the chambers of my heart.

**© 2018 By Amanda Shelton

As the sun rises over the
wild flowers my sorrows bloom
as Spring breaks the chill of winter's
frost and my tears melt into a flowing river.

Lay me down upon the sun
soaked earth where my tears
keep sorrows company until the night.

My sorrows float down the banks
of tearful mountains over and under
rocks until it becomes a raging
waterfall crashing to the bottom
of the mountains.

As spring kissed the earth it soaked
my tears into the soil drinking my sorrows.

And upon the coming morrow
dew gathers on the grass.

Lay me down upon the grass where
dew drops reflect my sorrow, as the
light slowly fades into darkness
my cries will echo through the night.

©️ 2023 By Amanda Shelton

Boom boom bang*!
My lows are lowering,
my highs go thigh high
lower now. My ankles hurt
from the pressure.

I’ve got the need to sing
the blues, no lyrics, no rain,
just blues and sad clouds darkening.

The rain is falling now,
I’ve got the bucket out.

The mountains are building
higher too, I’ve got to work
My wings so I can fly.

My heart is beating loud,
my arteries are ready to
pop and bleed out.

Emotions rear, silently screaming,
burning from the inside out,
the storm is drowning happiness
but the steam is rising.

Happiness takes a break for now,
I’ll remember you I promised myself.

I left my candle on the window ceil,
where my poetry rests and awaits my
return.

Here I am in a slow burn,
the currents smoke and
rises in ashes,
as my wick flares and sparks
with doom blooming, as clouds
of smoke chokes me,
I am still breathing this
diluted air with little or
no confidence.

But I know I’m stronger,
I’m faster, I’m smarter than
before.

I am a natural born fighter,
my momma taught me well.

Never let the devil win,
I’ve got the cards, I’m
the string’s and I can sing.

Be brave, be proud, be loud,
stay strong and firm, like
a rock on the ocean floor.

I’m stronger now,
stronger than before.

I’m like a mountain, my
peek’s are sharp and rises
above the clouds.

©️ 2021 By Amanda Shelton

I am burning, slowly every nerve began to fire they haven’t stopped since.

Silent needles ***** my skin,
leaving painful memories that
linger in my dreams.

Ashes of the five years of freedom
slowly become a distant memory.

I fought bravely,
honestly and strong
but life always wins.
Good grief, here I am again.

Burning pain, throbbing head,
skin tingling, spine shivers with
lighting pain down my legs
shooting to the floor.

Cellular nerve damage shook
my world.

© 2018 By Amanda Shelton

I bury my poetry deep within this digital ground where it will grow and be available for reading. May my roots be strong and my words grow like weeds and like whispers blowing in the wind it will reach those who read me.

My ideas light fires within your minds. I a poet will linger like smoke upon the words I leave behind me.

©️ 2023 By Amanda Shelton

Be fair and just,
don't judge yourself too much.

We all have our flaws,
that is what makes us perfect.

I will fly upon unspoken word's,
like a flying carpet ride waiting
for you to arrive.

There I will pick the fruit
of fulfillment and gratitude.
Make you a salad to
help you grow and prosper.

You will be like a apple tree,
once I plant your seed
there's no stopping you
from growing.

Every word I spell,
every time I speak,
I hydrate your bloom
with my poems and artwork.

My technics are somewhat unique,
uncommon but yet normal
(for me).  

I am bent but still not spent,
I am rich with knowledge
and growth.

Come connect to my roots
and we can become a system
strengthened by our
knowledge and wisdom.

Farewell my sweet poet,
may we meet again
tomorrow morning.

When the dawn is new,
the trees come up from their
bow, lifting their top's higher
reaching for the sun.

That's when we will meet again,
until then; goodnight my sweet poet.

**© 2017 By Amanda Shelton

T'is a night of subtlety, a song of wolves bay at the moon. The fog rises with the opening of the coffin. Night shrouds her brooding form, she rose with a desire for blood.

Her silken hair cascades over pale shoulders, and her full crimson lips part slightly, to taste the red tears streaming from her eyes.

Now a night of new awareness, she remembers her life.

More coming soon...

The shadow's march on
through the night,
as the moon slowly moved on,
and the dawn stole the night.

**© 2018 By Amanda Shelton

I a dying rose, I have nothing
but perfumed words.

I a nobody, I have nothing
but poetry.

I a shadow, I have nobody
but myself beside me.

I a lingering sigh, I have but one
chance one life to do my best.

I am living on a breath, a wind that
blew from the west and settled
on your screen through poetry,
line by line I lay down my life.

I am like a seed, not like the rest
rooted in sand I started out half
sunk but grew stronger and
deeper reaching for the rocks
to build a stable foundation.

Here I rise, I shine and
grind the keyboard until
it lags.

Sometimes spell check thinks
I'm British French and Spanish,
once it predicted Romanian
was my first language.
What happened to English?

I'm white but am I really?

If you cut me do I bleed
white or blood? I swear
I am human.

I don't think my keyboard cares
it just sits and stares tries to
predict but fails.

Now I am a poet with broken English
not by choice but by design of
spell check, my skin is really
partly translucent.

Here I bleed poetry and prose spill
from my fingertips like a wizard
blowing smoke like a dragon.

Here you come to witness my strum,
my tugging and pulling brings you
closer into my cave of batty gloom,
that I resurrect from the deepest
parts of my mind.

Mute I am.
I arm myself with deeper meaning
to express myself, otherwise
I am silent and scared over communicate and second
guess myself.

©️ 2023 By Amanda Shelton

Upon the rising steam
carries my allergies,
relieving my lungs
from the sticky junk.

Breathing killed my
passion for running,
stealing my energy like
a vampire steals blood
from the living.

Asthmatic I am,
I suffer because I am
allergic to the breath
of life.

The air outside attacks
me with no remorse or
thoughts of my life.

Asthma is a deadly disease,
it steals my breath and
chokes me when I least
expect it to strike.

© 2019 By Amanda Shelton

Your uniqueness,
and diversity is your legacy.

You birth difects, organs,
and ideas.

You are the philosopher
of your own life,
you are the writer
of your own destination,
you write your own plot’s
and paths.

I wrote a line and walked
upon its graphite structure,
leaving behind my fingerprints.

Like men on the moon,
I walked the dusty surface
of poetry,
leaving my footprints in its page’s.

I wrote this rhyme,
because I understand that
I am a philosopher of poetic ideas
and design.

I am a philosogher,
a poet by design.

**© 2017 By Amanda Shelton

Be bold & brave, for life is too short to be afraid. © 2018 By Amanda Shelton

Be brave, for life is too short to always be afraid.

© 2018 By Amanda D Shelton

Chains rattle and bang,
dragging across my brain.

The doors creak, scratches across
the floor.

Emptiness is vast, a void creepy
and sad.

Ghosts linger here, memories of
lives passed.

They breathe decay, rust and rot.

A plume of smoke from a flame
smothered by time.

I am rooted in your deceit,
a rose with thorns.

I dream of being me, while my dreams
dream of being unique.

It is a dream within a dream,
do we ever truly wake?

A thought passes like a breath gasps
for a moment in time.

A passing phrase on a poetic gaze,
upon a heavenly sky the stars
shine and we fly.

My poetic mind opens wide,
behind my sleeping eyes lies
a feasting idea that eats prose
and verses.

Baking plots and cooking possibilities,
within my mind’s oven. I serve you my
poetic design.

©️ 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

Of many a night I sat writing
to let my thoughts roam,
the poetic runnel ran steady
and the streem flowed free.

Such nights as this,
I become more than just the poet,
I become the lady of the night
planning plots to take over the night,
with pen and paper as my weapon.

Devouring the moon with
my poetic gloom,
I watch as the moon swoons
and its shadow plays.

With each word I write
it’s wane guides my write and
clears my writers block.

Upon this night I become
the lady of the night.

Its a dark write indeed.

**© 2017 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

Don't regret,
remember the good and bad.

Life is too short to be worrying
if you did everything right.

Sometimes we make mistakes
and that's alright.

Just remember to keep shinning bright.  

I send you my light
as a beacon in the night.

Don't you worry
I will help you fight.

**© By Amanda Shelton

Be kind to a stranger and kindness will follow. You might inspire the stranger you helped to do the same for another. It’s karma Baby.  

© 2018 By Amanda Shelton

We all float down here.
Like cigarettes wafting
in the air.

Its a killer dealing you
the last blow.

It murders your interests
and relationships with its
greedy smile.

Like a monster lurking
behind the bin it
waits until you are
weak and tired
to strike you down.

So don’t forget
the scares its
given for that’s
when the monster
is driven.

© 2020 By Amanda Shelton

Beyond a thousand year’s
we become the star travelers,
insurance for our future
we strive for the sky’s above
(higher we go).

Made of gold and silver,
the human spirit flown,
like a lost star we blow
breaking the silence
of the vastness of space.

We fell slowly from the sky,
shimmy down below, like snow
covering the world with our lives.

Our fingerprints left behind,
never truly forgotten over time.

Such wishes we leave behind,
life reflects our cause.

Stars that burn forevermore,
henceforth I bring you hope.

Like an apple seed
the idea grows.
A thousand years behold,
your star fell years ago.

**© 2017 By Amanda Shelton

Hearts shatter so easily,
the pieces are sharp and crude.

The fragile pieces keep
cutting into my life,
making new wounds each time.

You take your knife
pushing it deeply
into my already broken life,
you ***** it deeper
until there’s nothing left
for me to bleed out.

You collect my suffering
in your ***** jar’s,
savoring my last heart beat
as if waiting for another
so you can take one more slice
just incase it didn’t fell
the jars to there brem.

You have become a grim reminder,
I shouldn’t trust you
as my friend or lover.

Sadly I have been through hell
many times before,
and I have grown stronger.

© 2018 By Amanda D Shelton

Depression can seem like
internal darkness, it shrouds
the mind miss guides thoughts
into its deepest depths of
poverty.

It seems I've been wandering
for two thousand years
or more within my dreams
of vivid thoughts, its choking
me holding me to the ground
with its thorny roots.

I bled for its embrace.

The shadows of the past
follow me, my future ghost
picks at my wounds
reminding me of my
future ruins, as my bones
lay underneath the girth
of dreaming earth, six feet,
my life is a seasonal change
buried beneath pain and
suffering.

©️ 2023 By Amanda Shelton

I want to shed my leafs
like a tree in autumn
so in spring I can renew
my life and move forward.

I want to shed the tears
and all the damaged years
you left behind.

I want to be free from your
in caged memories you left
inside my dreams and waking
mind. So I can enjoy my sailing
ship's and windows felled with
candles and waining dreams
that dream of me as I set
like the sun releasing beams
of poetry as the seasons change.

I fade into orange, yellow
and white until I am black
sky's sprinkled with stars.

I want to be free from your
anxiety and depression.

Release me from your *******
so I can be the person I am
meant to be.

Set me free into the Gothic realms
of my poetic life. Where I thrive
upon creativity.

©️ By Amanda Shelton

Bruises are not always visible,
some are under the surface.

I have been through hell and back,
took a tip through the creak,
returned with bruises.

I am stronger for the wear,
but I still have deep scares
from all I bare.

Once I thought love was
going to make me happy,
because I thought that’s
what love is.

I have learned
love isn’t always happy,
love can hurt,
love can leave you
lonely and sad.

Why?
Because love is a complex feeling.

In my experience with love,
I have seen the stars light up for me
but I have also watched
as the sun collided with my universe
destroying everything I held dear.

I have loved and lost
I have fought parolees spaces
of endless time,
where love seemed so far away.

I have learned how to love myself,
do to the fact that love can’t love itself.

To love is the most selfless act there is,
because you have to give yourself
to someone else to allow it to happen.

Love isn’t about you,
love is about everything else.

Letting go of your selfish lives
so someone can love you,
that’s the hardest thing to do.

**© 2017 By Amanda Shelton

On the verge of deluge,
veiled in black and white
vision, lacks no provision.

Its kept fresh by
the sharpening of
the knifes edge,
with burning wounds
and tears felling the
deluge of emotion.

Such scabs fester
and bruise with
each lash from
the devil’s dilutions,
your tongue turns black
and diluted with sinful
vengeance from the worlds
venomous bites.

Oh, dear Lord
I will put up a fight.

I will rise above these
blackened skies for I am
your child amongst sinful
lies, I never lied upon
the Earth not until I am
six feet under its girth.

I came into life naked,
I go out naked but
bring with me truth
that will cloth me
in your light.

I am brave, for my faith
strikes with vengeance
that like a mighty sword.

© 2019 By Amanda Shelton

When I was younger,
life was supposed to be simple.
Sadly I am not a simple person,
my life has been painful,
full of disorderly view’s,
I never got to choose.

Slowly as I grew,
life got easier
more positive construction
than before.

What changed?

Well, I did.
I took the reins,
I took control over
my own destiny.

I set a destination,
I packed my life into
my suitcase of forgotten dreams.
Set out for my adventure
to face my battle’s.

Today I am happier than ever,
I don’t fear life because
I faced death before it
could steal my life.

I chose to fight,
I chose to live my life,
through thick and thin
I walk the line in between
fear and suffering,
never falling too far
from the line.

I am walking the line,
it might be bent oddly askew
but I am still walking through.

**© 2017 By Amanda Shelton

I never feel lonely,
but I do feel neglected when
someone who says they have
support for me but doesn't give it.

People can be cruel,
selfish, and crude.
I chose happiness with God
over a dishonest fool who
follows the devil's rules.

What happens when your
partner goes silent?
what happens when your
love of your life quites
communicating?

I find it dishonest when someone
says they want to do but doesn't
follow through.

My heart is shattered
because my love decided to
sin over and over again,
even though I have suffered through
pain while he moved like a ninja
doing bad things.

I am exhausted from fighting,
I am exhausted from holding up
his weak structure.

My love, he doesn't trust in God,
he doesn't come to me and
help me hold up the structure
we're supposed to build together.

I am very sad to say,
I had to let him go
I had to take time away,
so I can heal and he.

I am hurting deep inside,
my heart feels bruised and
tired.

I am here praying for his well being.

Hopefully he lets go and
allow God to bless him.

© 2018 By Amanda Shelton

All possibilities are slowly waning, time begins fading, dreams collide with fallen memories.

My dreams are fighting reality,
like a ghost it passes by as I
keep walking watching myself
standing on the side.

Like smoke I see myself standing on the side,
I watch but I keep walking.

Life doesn’t stop, it keeps going
like smoke we all become memories to the possibilities.

I keep watching as my ghost keeps waning, am I dreaming?

Fading memories sink to
the bottom of the lake
where dreams come to die,
and life burns on the surface.

Mirrored dreams are like stars reflecting on the oceans dark nights when nothing but
sparkling memories shine upon my dreaming mind.

I am floating deeper into
the tapestry of my open heart
as its threads begin to unravel.

Waning memories come here to
dream, for I am a dreamer
and a weaver of possibilities.

Dream on weaver, your threads
are unraveling releasing
the possibilities.

©️ 2023 By Amanda Shelton

Porcelain angel has a
heart of glass,
every breath she takes
causes another break.

Fragile she is but still
she fights, as if her heart
is made from concerete.

Her feet are firmly planted,
but her foundation is not
rooted, so she’s holding steady
upon a weekend bed.

Her ground is felled with
broken dreams, and buried
wishes never seen
by the falling stars
that shoot above her head.

© 2018 By Amanda D Shelton

I can see the sun slowly going down,
my curtains show green and brown
it the dimming light.

Makes me ponder upon
daydreams of the marrow.
I will miss this day until the next
settles in my mind, making way
for tomorrow.

The shadows lengthen,
as a cool breeze rushes through
reminding me to close the door.

Goodnight says the sun,
good evening says the moon and stars,
as my eyes get heavy with sleep;
they wave at me.

© 2018 By Amanda Shelton

I rose from the deep,
from the loud boom I
breathed.

I am no longer hungry,
for my dirt has left me
it pushed from my core,
as it burned from the depths
of me.

Boom, boom, goes my heart
as my oceans rise and fall,
my tides are strong and trouble
for your toe.

Row, row the boat down the
rivers lane in between mother
natures legs into the valley
below.

No longer am I hungry
for all I crave is life
and breath.

Give me that sweet
precious air, fell my
lungs deep, as I grow
my roots deep into
the girth of the earth.

Now I meet my brother the moon, he's tangled in
the orbital dance between
two massive black holes
and a star blazing hot.

I am here, expanding beyond
your tiny view.

I am aware! For I see all
in my dreams.

I am... Continuum!

©️ 2023 By Amanda Shelton

"To be a creative thinker
you need to dream.

Awake or sleep a dream
can still follow you."

**© 2017 By Amanda D Shelton

My tears fall with the leafs,
as my sorrows blow in the breeze
a chill kissed my cheeks.

My sorrowful autumn with its
reds and browns scattered on the
ground, here my tears lie in between
the roots of the trees and my
happiness chokes on the dirt as
sorrow buries me.

Sad me, buried under the girth of
autumns sorrows.

Will you remember me until spring?

©️ 2023 By Amanda D Shelton

Sorrow bent her head,
cried tears that drowned
your fears.

Your dreams turned into
porcelain, slowly fell apart,
gave you a broken heart.

Your vision has been blinded
by the deeds of others
who see their needs
are more important.

You think why keep fighting?
When you should be thinking,
how can I keep fighting?

We dig a hole to plant
ourselves in solid soil,
only to find out the serounding
trees already stole the nutrients
from the soil.

Now we have to rebuild,
put the nutrients back,
see we can grow and develop
stronger roots.

**© 2017 By Amanda Shelton

Walking amongst the distant shadows,
feeling like I am drifting away
the fog is stealing my passion.

Like smoke from a candles flame
I linger on the edge of reality,
I learned years ago, a poet without
a pen is a drowning fool flooded
by unused ideas.

My passion bursts forth from
the deepest depths igniting
the fire of poetic desire.

My ink is that like fire,
it burns from within my skin
and bones, it acks to be free
from my heart that is its cage.

Such passion is pain, a long walk
with suffering and depression.

I built my roads on this digital
ground, and built my bridges with
poetic passion.

©️ 2022 By Amanda Shelton