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2d · 205
Rainrainrain
Rainrainrain and more rain,
my prayers were all in vain.
Maybe gods drink too much of wine,

which then turns into water,
and then we curse the wet weather.
Some kind of anti-miracle.
5d · 192
Mirror
In a mirror, we always look older
and we believe that it lies.
We blame it for every wrinkle:
Okay then, you lie, but why?!

How rude of mirror to do so,
like literally in the face!?
We give it so much attention
and what in return? Disgrace!

Or perhaps we do look older
indeed, and it doesn't lie.
Perhaps we lie to ourselves
and maybe we know well why.
6d · 252
***
***
This life feels like a prison,
but everything happens for a reason,
at least that is what they say.
All I can do is swallow my pride
and obey.

Until the guard will come to me one day,
and shout: Hey, you! You've done your time!
And now we have to take you away!
Okay?!


Okay.
Mar 22 · 118
#4
Piotr Balkus Mar 22
#4
Luxury
is something your life
would be miserable without.
Mar 22 · 161
#3
Piotr Balkus Mar 22
#3
How can the king help you,
if he doesn't even know
that you exist?
Mar 22 · 201
#1
Piotr Balkus Mar 22
#1
Don't watch the clouds;
watch the sky.
I give this advice
to myself.
Mar 21 · 175
Peace
Piotr Balkus Mar 21
Everyone needs Peace,
but not everyone has the courage
to admit it.
Piotr Balkus Mar 12
I wish I could say what I think,
without hesitation, second thoughts.

I know we have freedom of speech,
but something makes me bite my tongue.

Wise men say silence is golden,
but dead men say silence is gross.

I wish I could say what I think.
I wonder how some would react.

I wonder whose face would grow scarlet,
and who would laugh in my face.

How much do I have to lose?
Shall I just say it out loud?

Or wait until they tape my mouth
and cut my tongue, close the case.

Oh, then it will be too late.
It will be a bit too late, I'm afraid.
Mar 11 · 296
Mouth
Piotr Balkus Mar 11
I always open my mouth
in a wrong time,
in a wrong place.

It is:
All the time. Everywhere.

Not because I say outrageous things,
but because it's so easy to offend someone
nowadays.
Mar 11 · 96
On Ignorance
Piotr Balkus Mar 11
It is not that hard
to ignore what you don't know.
Much harder is to ignore
what you know.

But it's worth it.
Mar 10 · 738
*** Middle Of March
Piotr Balkus Mar 10
It's still cold outside,
so why are the birds singing
so joyfully and so loudly?

Still freezing out there,
so why are the flowers blooming?
I don’t understand.

The hope is still cursed,
so why am I writing this poem,
like it was my first?
Mar 6 · 109
Car
Piotr Balkus Mar 6
Car
You don't really need a car,
do you?
Mar 6 · 66
Freedom
Piotr Balkus Mar 6
Prisoners
know more about freedom
than us.
Mar 6 · 321
Desire
Piotr Balkus Mar 6
Desire to
desire less -
like fire,
which burns my flesh

and soul.
Mar 6 · 110
Meditation
Piotr Balkus Mar 6
Meditation
is the process of removing
goals.
Mar 5 · 133
*** We Clearly See
Piotr Balkus Mar 5
We clearly see the illusion of material things.
We simply choose to ignore it,
hoping for getting approval from above.

It doesn't matter how high we think of ourselves,
how high we hold our heads.
At the end of the day,
we are equally invisible to the night.
Mar 5 · 216
More Less
Piotr Balkus Mar 5
More you want,
less you get.
More you try to remember,
more you forget.

More you try to be happy,
more sad you feel.
Less time you have left,
more time you ****.

The wiser you are,
the less you know.
The more you desire,
the less you own.
I
Feb 21 · 125
Mrs. Death
Piotr Balkus Feb 21
She lives next door,
she never talks.
She never cooks.
She never has visitors.

She never comes out,
I only saw her once or twice,
not even sure if it was her.
Maybe she is hiding.
Maybe there is something I don't know.

She doesn't go to work,
I doubt she has a job.
How does she pay her rent?!
Or maybe there is something
I don't need to know.

She's doesn't make any noise,
she never gets on anyone's nerves,
no one ever complains on her.
And still she makes everyone around
move out.

Or maybe there is something
I don't want to know.
Feb 14 · 404
*** Dead Friend
Piotr Balkus Feb 14
I asked my dead friend:
'Have you been to Heaven?'
Of course! - he exclaimed!
Many times. And you? 'Never...'

'How was it?' Nothing special 
 - he was quick to admit.
Overpriced, tourists trap.
I prefer it here, where I live.
  

I asked: 'Are you serious?!'
He replied: Yes, my friend.

Then we went for a coffee.
It was a beautiful day.
Feb 13 · 243
*** God's Advocate
Piotr Balkus Feb 13
Maybe it wasn't him,
who was making decisions,
maybe he was just filling the orders
of his supervisors.
What if there was bigger God above him?

Maybe he didn't know about anything,
nobody briefed him
on what was going on down here.

Wha if he is innocent
and can't take the responsibility
for injustice and pain?

What if he never had the right
to an advocate?
Feb 9 · 280
Them & Me
Piotr Balkus Feb 9
They have children,
they have homes,
they have money,
they have jobs,
they have good cars,
and many more things they want to have.

I have paper and pen,
I have my poems,
that's enough.
Feb 9 · 845
*** Smile
Piotr Balkus Feb 9
Smile to yourself,
don't smile to others,
apart from children,
smile to them,
for they will appreciate it
and understand.
But don't smile to their mothers and fathers.
They will think you are weird.

Don't smile to strangers,
they will ignore you,
or will take it as your weakness
and will dare to approach you
and ask for money or a cigarette.

Smile to yourself,
to the face in the mirror,
you will feel safe,
you will feel like a winner!
Jan 13 · 92
*** Words
Piotr Balkus Jan 13
You agree with me, saying
that I have taken them out of your mouth.
Yes, correct,
like literally.

I dared.

I'm not scared of the rain
and storms.
Yes, I am guilty of being a dreamer,
so what?
Aug 2019 · 586
The Gallery
Piotr Balkus Aug 2019
The gallery is closing soon,
hurry up,
don't say you will come
another time.

I bet you want to see "Sunflowers".
You say you can wait.

You can? Okay, but
what if they can't?
Written after my visit to The National Gallery in London.
Mar 2019 · 452
Sleeping With Ghosts
Piotr Balkus Mar 2019
They hold me tight,
they kiss my lips,
my eyes.

When it's time to wake up
they say: "Don't worry,
stay in bed.
Keep dreaming,
keep dreaming,
don't let anyone wake you up."
Inspired by song  Sleeping With Ghosts by Placebo
Mar 2019 · 370
Mother Earth
Piotr Balkus Mar 2019
The body I temporarily own,
I cherish and I adore -
it'll be taken from me,
I will become
free.

The eternity I crave,
my nothingness I try to escape -
she will offer the shelter for them.

To the mystery of life
she will find the clue,
and the child who will die in me,
in her belly will move.
Oct 2018 · 808
The Dead Soldier
Piotr Balkus Oct 2018
He is happy now
in a peaceful rest.
He fought for his country.
He did his best. 

It wasn't an easy life—
bed of thorns, no roses
—but he is smiling now,
whispering, It was worthy

He could've lived much longer
if he hadn't gone to war;
he could've spent his days
in never-ending awe. 

But he chose a different fate,
much different fate he chose.
 Staring at the stars,
he is smiling now.

Knowing that his land
isn't a land of the chained,
he is full of joy and
young again.
Inspired by "The Great War Symphony - The Dead Soldier" by Patrick Hawes
Sep 2018 · 486
The Unfinished Life
Piotr Balkus Sep 2018
Sometimes I feel that when I was born,
someone else has ended their life unfinished,
cut too short.

I tried to turn it back, but it's really hard,
impossible in fact, to round it up and let it end,
it's too late now.

Sometimes it bothers me, it calls from within,
the unfinished life of someone
before me.
Apr 2018 · 668
Rachmaninov
Piotr Balkus Apr 2018

Radio
was playing Piano Concerto
by Sergei Rachmaninov,
and I felt like passion and love
were filling my heart.

My heart is like a dove.
And I'm off,
I'm off to Paradise.

And it can rain
and it can snow,
and Fate
can tumble the dice.
Nothing can stop me now,
on my way
on my way to Paradise.
(Inspired by Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor Opus 18 by Sergei Rachmaninov, played on Classic FM)
Apr 2018 · 402
Labourer
Piotr Balkus Apr 2018
He is a labourer.
He fills the skip,
he sweeps and cleans the studio,
he moves the boxes,
he wraps and packs,
he loads and unloads truck.
Nothing annoys him,
nothing ****** him off,
with a big smile on his face
he does his job.

He is a great labourer,
a happy chap.
Mar 2018 · 3.3k
Naive
Piotr Balkus Mar 2018
I'm sitting in my room,
writing,
believing that I can change the world,
knowing that I can't,

I'm sitting here, alone,
I'm thinking of those who are suffering,
those who've lost everything,
those, who will never feel like home.

I'm sad,
feeling like crying,
wishing to save the world,
knowing well that I won't,

but something tells me
to keep on trying.
Mar 2018 · 619
They've Sold Us Bullshit
Piotr Balkus Mar 2018
They've sold us ******* at a reduced price,
it was so cheap and hard not to buy.
Like a scrappy burger from a fastfood shop,
cheapest burger in town, you just can't say no.

They've sold us ******* about democracy,
bright future, freedom and prosperity.
About the new chapter in our poor lives.
They've sold us 'good news' - the big pile of lies.

They said "Just wait and you will see
what a great country we all live in".
When the voting time came, they beg "Vote for us!",
then they turned Parliament into a comedy club.

Now we are standing on the bus station
waiting for a bus, which is on diversion.
They apologise for the inconvenience,
promising that it will come, it's just been delayed.

But the bus is not coming, we keep freezing on,
knowing too well by now, that it'll never come.
"Can you, by any chance, get a replacement bus?!"
They can't, 'cause nobody longer cares about us.

They've sold us ******* at a reduced price,
it was so cheap and hard not to buy.
Like a scrappy burger from a fastfood shop,
cheapest burger in town, you just can't say no.
Feb 2018 · 85.0k
Love Isn't Blind
Piotr Balkus Feb 2018
Love isn't blind,
blind are those,
who never loved.
Feb 2018 · 1.4k
The Death of A Homeless Man
Piotr Balkus Feb 2018
He died in a sleep, yesterday morning,
unnoticed, without a warning,
quiet, like people die.

Now he doesn't need their spare change,
he doesn't need their promises
to sort this problem out
before 2025
.

He doesn't need you now, London,
like you never needed him,
he won't bother you anymore,
you won't hear him again saying Please.

He doesn't need you, Westminster,
death solved his problems, not you.

He passed away in his sleep,
he now lies in a warm bed, smiling,
and angels bring him hot food.

But, he wasn't the first and the last,
there's many more out there in the cold

and every death of a homeless
is a little death of our Free World.


The poem was written after learning about the death of a homeless man in the tunnel near Westminster tube station in London.
Feb 2018 · 351
Wild
Piotr Balkus Feb 2018
They call him wild, untamed.
He doesn't belong to their world.
Too quiet
to be one of them.

He doesn't fit,
so they call him stranger,
someone who is a danger,
devilish, barbaric seed.
But he wouldn't **** a fly,
he is too shy to be
one of them.
Too shy to be.

They are scared of him,
because he doesn't fit
to their - barbaric - world.
Feb 2018 · 208
Strong
Piotr Balkus Feb 2018
You thought you were strong,
and look at you now,
lying on the floor,
yelling at the sky.

No one will come to help,
you kick them all out,
warned that you'd ****
if they dare to come back.

You laughed when they left,
now silence laughs at you,
and your body, like a shadow
in the empty room.

There's nobody to save you
nobody to help you out,
not even to pass you a rope,
a gun, a glass, or a knife.

You thought you were strong,
now you know your strenght,
lying on the floor,
waiting for - the end.
Feb 2018 · 399
Robbery
Piotr Balkus Feb 2018
Someone
has robbed me yesterday,
has stolen my dream
of living in a world
where nothing is fake.

And I can see him,
he is everywhere,
all over the papers,
on the Internet.

I recognize
his innocent face.
Jan 2018 · 178
White Box
Piotr Balkus Jan 2018
It wouldn't be bad
to not remember anything,
starting each day from the scratch,
believing that life has no end,
making a new choice every day
deciding whether to bite the apple or not.
It wouldn't be bad
entering the unknown  tomorrow
with hope and love in heart,
without black boxes of the past
where everything is written down
from dust
to Dust.
Dec 2017 · 124
Stars
Piotr Balkus Dec 2017
Stars know
that you are beautiful.
And they know
that my heart is in bloom.

Stars are happy to die
for our wish come true.

They know they won't die,
they will always live
in me and you.
Oct 2017 · 333
There's A Country
Piotr Balkus Oct 2017
There's a country where live
people who don't have their own place.
They travelled the world and never reached
their destination.

They were exiled, misplaced, not admitted
anywhere, drowned in their tiny boats,
shot by steel hearted guards.

There's a country, no one knows about,
like an island somewhere
in the middle of ocean,
yet never found.

Nothing is strange about this country,
except that it exists.

We all one day will arrive there,
it's the matter of time.
Oct 2017 · 670
Three Middle-Aged Men
Piotr Balkus Oct 2017
Three middle-aged men
had told a ******* the train to shut up.

She wasn't even loud,
they were much louder than her.

When she got off at the next stop,
she friendly waved at them.

She won,
she beautifully won
that old, ***** game,
played on the train
by the three middle-aged men.
Oct 2017 · 335
Unattended Bag
Piotr Balkus Oct 2017
No one cared
that there was an unattended bag on the train.
Staring at their phones, not looking around
what's going on,
raising heads only to see if it's their stop,
busy with Facebook notifications,
Instagram posts and youtube sensations,
commuting to work
from A to B,
half-******, half-asleep.
At 7am it's hard to be happy,
when you are going to work,
it's hard
to be something more
than a dumb, silent slave of the modern times.

No one cares about the unattended bag.
It's hard to give a ****,
when no one gives a ****.
You wanna talk to the driver? Good luck.

Someone noticed the bag, got a bit suspicious,
he looked around, and it was hard
to produce a word, to open his mouth,
to make all heads turn to him, all their eyes
have them fixed on you, when you are trying to explain
what's your concern.

There's no members of staff on the train anyway,
you don't wanna be late for work,
because of the stupid bag.

It's much easier to carry on
with staring at your phone,
not thinking of anything,
not getting paranoid about stuff.
It will spare you troubles in life.
Sep 2017 · 1.6k
Spotkania o pracę
Piotr Balkus Sep 2017
Spotkania o pracę,
na które nie przyszedłem,
było ich trochę.

Mówiłem: Tak, tak,
przyjdę, jutro o dziewiątej,
sto procent.
I nie poszedłem. Jaka szkoda!

Byłem gotowy wieczorem,
wcześnie poszedłem spać,
by wstać świeży.
Ale nie wstałem na czas.
I nawet teraz, gdy o tym mówię,
wciąż trudno mi w to uwierzyć.

Puste było krzesło
w biurze, gdzie już na mnie czekał
manager,
ubrany w garnitur,
z papierami do wypełnienia.
Wciąż tam czekają
na podpisanie,
nie wiedząc, że nigdy nie będą przeze mnie
podpisane.

Wciąż tam siedzi,
manager, którego nigdy nie miałem przyjemności spotkać
i uścisnąć jego dłoni,
wymienić uśmiechów.

Spotkania o pracę, na które nie poszedłem,
bo były albo za wcześnie,
albo za późno.
Ominąłem mój los.
Taki widać los.
Sep 2017 · 463
Pompeian Fortune-teller
Piotr Balkus Sep 2017
One day it will erupt
and turn this city into grave - I say.

No one believes a fortune-teller,
no one wants to face the fate.
They won’t leave Pompeii,
nothing can make them go,
there's no place like this
in the whole Rome.

Nothing will make them leave,
only fools run away from paradise.
They are singing and drinking wine,
girls are dancing and music's playing.

I wish I didn't know how it will end,
I wish I was one of them.

I'll pour some wine into the glass
and down it as fast as I can,
and then I'll have another one,
and another one.
I'll be singing with them, dancing.
I'll kiss a girl and then I'll sleep with her,

I will be trying to forget it.
Sep 2017 · 455
Trafalgar Square
Piotr Balkus Sep 2017
Life is fair,
when the day is dying,
and I can see pigs flying
over Trafalgar Square.

The fountain is singing,
the drunkard is drinking,
the homeless sparechanging
the night.

Sir Nelson is chilling.
The busker is screaming
and blind men are dreaming
about light.

The moon is starwatching.
The buskers Beatlesing.

Im trafalgarsquare'ing
my rounded dreams
Nothing is as real as it seems.
Sep 2017 · 1.4k
Short Poem About Art
Piotr Balkus Sep 2017
Art hates fame
and flashing lights,
public places,
great gigs in the skies.

Art hates those
which watch her constantly,
she hides in blind eyes
and let them see.

She hates wisdom,
prophets and preachers,
she's a friend
of truth seekers.

She doesn't pay
for those who believe in her,
but give them instead
sense of existence.
Sep 2017 · 289
Trip To Bath
Piotr Balkus Sep 2017
It's like discovering a ****** island,
inhabited by people who you thought never exist.
It's like finding a city buried by time,
hidden away from present tense.

A busker in front of the Abbey sings
"There must be some way outta here",
and every step I take along the glorious church,
every breath of a air I taste standing on Pulteney Bridge,
every second of the peaceful silence my soul fills up with
tells me
that there's no way out of here.

*28.08.2016
Sep 2017 · 261
Nightingale
Piotr Balkus Sep 2017
I'd like to be
a nightingale.

Nightingales sing
the beauty of the night,
the moon, the stars,
and the starry light.

Unlike a man.
Man sleeps at night,
only snores to the stars,
only gasps to the moon,
hate its bright light.

He needs to wake up at dawn
and wash his face
and hurry up,
and chase the bus,
do things he hates.

That's why
I want to be a nightingale.
In fact, I am.
Sep 2017 · 411
To My Brain
Piotr Balkus Sep 2017
You won't understand
how it feels
to love.

You never loved,
you only calculate,
you only think.
You are never
on the brink. You never feel.

You won't understand how it is,
how man turns blind and then
how blind man turns man who can see.
You never felt this way,
you only think, and look
and calculate

what is good for you,
what is bad,
what is to remember,
what is to forget.

I hate you
for hating me,
I hope one day you will learn
and you will feel
how it is like
to love. One day
you will shed a tear, I hope. I bet.
Then you will speak to me,
you will look at me differently,
you will remember my name.

I'm sorry for you sometimes,
it must be sad
to separate the light from shadow
and shadow from the light
with one simple cut, one look
of the cold eyes.

You are never sorry for me,
but
I'm sorry for you sometimes.
Aug 2017 · 291
Refugee
Piotr Balkus Aug 2017
Running away from the barbaric land,
where eye-for-an-eye is the only law.
Running awayfrom the blind hatred of its people,
from my own home, which has been besieged.

Fleeing the wars and heartless bombs,
hollowed eyes and kidnapped souls.
Runnig away from prophets and preachers.
From life after life and death before death.
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