Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
 
 Dec 2024
vienna bombardieri
What really matters
is not what happens to you
but how you experience it.

Don't let the world assault your soul, protect it if you can  
Don't let life beat you down, get up for the second round
Don't sit and stew on it, have a good cry then move on
Don't leave words unsaid,  "Say what you need to say."
Don't be a victim of circumstance just pave a new way.
 Dec 2024
irinia
from East to West a pain without name, something inescapable, like the girdle of caskets, like a corpse. we struggle with what seems to be mostly an idea - the dimensions of the body, with the memory of the skin, with the history of contracting our bellies and puking our dreams. this world covered by layers, textiles, invisible armours, self-imposed absences. tears crushed by violence, by laughter, after all it was not that bad, they say. we carry so many tears that we are heavier than air, lighter than our tormentors, sillier than our dreams
crushed words, crushed voices, empty meanings for the unraveled selves. i write only a chronicle of this time devouring its fragments
 Nov 2024
Carlo C Gomez
The time is now
In its pull
In each other's arms

The time is now
Overjoyed and thankful
Brave enough
As brave can be

The time is now
A new beginning
We'll go far

The time is now
We cannot miss
Before the faint hum of big forever
 Nov 2024
Jill
Colour-coded lists
with satisfying check marks
Tally for self-worth score
Free time is a dead wasteland
Work compulsion conquers all

Work is my saviour
Proof that I have use
Grateful for the gift
of structured daily toil

I don’t need a break
I am far too strong
I am made to stand
in any roaring storm

Endlessly on point
I cannot relax
Maybe I should take
a class in calming down

Another degree
Major in stillness
Minor in poems,
music, walks and gardens

What happens to me
While I do ‘leisure’?
What will I be worth
when I take time for me?

When days are rough at work, and heat is high
My self-esteem is carried by a role
To prove each working day that I am fine
And value comes from actions to assist
At frantic pace that slowly dents my soul

Beware when job and self strong-overlap
Identity is blank beyond my job
Then molehills swell to snowy mountain range
Allotments to sheep stations in my mind
And working day and night a sleeve-worn slog

Befogged in role, befuddled in self-worth
In muddled shame, obscured by guilt and fear
With added slow fatigue and hopelessness
And where do your needs end, and mine begin?
All rules of world and life become unclear

Learn to take time off
Negotiate with myself
New type of self-worth
Creative time, open field
Discovery nurtures all
©2024

BLT Webster’s Word of the Day challenge (negotiate) date 23rd November 2024. To negotiate is to discuss something formally in order to make an agreement.
 Nov 2024
Sadique
White, black, green, and red,
Waving a flag.
Let the world know
There is a right to be alive—
The people of Palestine have,
In their own olive land.
The latest death toll stands at 44,383 Palestinians, around 70% of them are kids and women.
 Nov 2024
Traveler
The story that you tell yourself,
is nothing more than a spell...
Spells can be broken.
The real you awaits,
the evolution of your soul.
Like a caterpillar the ego
must go.
Traveler
 Nov 2024
Emma
Wildflowers grasped in their hands,
Eyes expectant, waiting still—
Resplendent, she, in pearls and lace,
Crystals veiling iron will.

Upon a stallion, proud she gazed,
The cliffs below—waves, hungry, wild—
A dreamer young, her heart betrayed,
By guilt unpardoned, yet beguiled.

To marry love, the soul must pay,
An execution—hope undone.
Laudanum soothes the troubled night,
But daylight sees what grief has spun.

Rumors drift like soft exhale,
Tinkling laughter—shadows hide.
A sparrow leapt from trembling hands,
Defiant, boundless, unallied.

Death does not part, though life divides—
Choices, wounds that dare reveal.
Do we hurt to feel what’s real,
Or punish what we cannot heal?

Her fingers danced on shadowed skin,
Curtains swayed in darkness shared.
Together sought, together lost,
Unpredictable, love dared.

It is of no consequence, they said,
A black sheep wanders where none see.
Yet whispers linger, soft as waves—
A love alive, though never free.
 Nov 2024
Emma
Seeking shelter from the whispers’ breath,
The cross digs deep, her burdened path.
Her shoulders bow to grief untold,
Impregnated by hope grown cold.

Enemies masked in waltzing guise,
Spin circles beneath deceiving skies.
She bows graciously to his eminence tall,
A shadow looms, a silent call.

"Where are you from?" they question her so,
"From nowhere," she answers, a truth of woe.
"A ******* child, unwanted, unseen,
An echo of sorrow where life had been."

Candlelight flickers, betraying her years,
Its glow etching lines, language of tears.
Thoughts breach barriers, a storm in flight,
Black stallions pound through the veils of night.

He liked to play tricks, her torment, her plea,
A curse spun in pity, her shadow’s decree.
The ghost of him lingers, a sparrow’s ascent,
Her innocence pure, but her spirit bent.

Fading to madness, a lover’s embrace,
Embroidery patterns the fabric of grace.
The past weaves its threads, each stitch a scar,
A wraith’s pale flay in a world ajar.

No taste of codeine, no balm for the strife,
Defensive in virtue, her battle is life.
Through madness, through whispers, through sorrow’s long flight,
She vanishes softly into shadowed light.
 Nov 2024
Maddy
Chickens
Pigs
Goats
Geese
Many trees
Beautuful orchids and flowers
Incredible tropical fruit
Asian and Hawaiian cuisine
Local delicacies
Pele is sacred deity
Pele-honua mea
Pele of the sacred land
Ka wahine’ beyond compare
She can be gentle and loving
She has a wicked side as well
Many other gods and godesses
Legends and mystery
Sacred homage
Stunning blue oceans and white waves
Volcanic landscapes and black sand beaches
Lovely green sea turtles(Honu)
Big Island laid back lifestyle
Hilo has many days of rain
Listen to the quiet and natural sounds of Kona
Seems unreal in the United States
She is very real and stunning
Wahiaka o ka maluha a me ka Maluku
Place of peace  and tranquility
Always remember Kona
The youngest Island
The Big Island
Aloha
 Nov 2024
guy scutellaro
high buildings
prisons without barbed wire

down the street from the funeral home
across from the burnt down church
shadows scatter
like crazy crows
through streets that need no names

on the corner
illuminated by a streetlight
a heart is being spray painted on the wall
of an abandon building
a boy with a doubtful future
has a heart that is beating

we all start out that way
we start out innocent
we start out pure

i've had a few,
genuine and untainted

i've had a few PURE MOMENTS

when **** goes down
i imagine one of those
PURE MOMENTS

maybe you've had one?
maybe a few?

the boy is having one
and he doesn't
know it

it's only when
the **** goes down
that you need one
when **** goes down
and you are pacing around
the 4 corners
of that darkening room
you need one

i open the window

the boy turns
looks up at me
and smiles
and crystal clear like water in a brook

A PURE MOMENT
 Nov 2024
Ejiro
“If I had 9 lives I would spend each of them with you” you said in a cheesy voice
I giggled a little bit but then you asked if I were to have 9 lives what would I do with them
I sit back and think
I would probably say something like “I would try to not to spend my lives so easily as if they were currency”
but to be honest
I would spend each life as if it was its last
and when I do reach my last life
I’ll cherish it like it was my first
Next page