Not Governed By Fear - Hello Poetry

May 2016

David Ehrgott

Their hands were so fast
as they waved goodbye.
We thought he'd be a good guy.
Why were we so high?

It was gone before he got there.
There wasn't any money left.
Nothing left for health care,
except for over there.

They called it a bailout.
Look closer!  They're not bailing, they're buying!
We'll save you IF, you let us own you.
Give us a piece and we'll keep you from dying.

No, No, No!  It's nothing like that.
You can still practice capitalism.
Just give us a piece.  You hear?
China has been living that way for years.

May 2016

ryn

Eddy

I'm stuck in this eddy.
And I'm such a poor swimmer.

I get swirled around.
Like a little helpless fly
caught in a wineglass.
Unbeknownst to the drinker.

I'm stuck in this eddy.
And I'm such a poor thinker.

I allow my mind
to get swashed around...
Like a lone sock
in the washing machine.
Lost without its other.

I'm stuck in this eddy.
And I'm such a poor survivor.*

So I just submit
to the will of the currents.
Like an empty bottle.
Stuck head down at the neck,
in the bathroom floor trap.

Sink or float...
I can do neither.

#hellopoetry107 #eddy #currentstateofaffairs

May 2016

ryn

Older

My mirror hangs stoic,
as silently it absorbs all it could with unbiased eyes.
All it receives under the day's sun.
Yet it never stores...
Not memories recent...
Not images perceived from the distant past...

My mirror
exists in the now.
It gives me only the present.
It reveals unequivocally the ground
upon which I stand.
It divulges only in the brutal and honest truth.
The kind of truth photographs could never tell.

Today it showed me what I've been seeing
with eyes half shut.
It showed me that,
I am older now.
Older than I was yesterday.
Older than I was a second ago.

Every wrinkle told a silent tale.
Every tale left quiet scars.
Every scar sang requiems of past mistakes.
And every mistake costed me my youth.

My mirror showed me that...
I'm older now because I've learnt much.
And I'm learning much more
because I'm older now.

An old photograph of myself inspired this.

#selfreflection #hellopoetry107 #lifelonglearning

May 2016

Pradip Chattopadhyay

Palm Leaf Hat

If you're ever on the riverside
where the sun beats your head
you would see the old man
selling hats of palm leaf
but you care not to notice him
having already smelled the sea
and too keen to cross the river
travel southward on the island
till the saline wind scalds your eyes
your skins itch to jump into the waves
yet the man with the palm leaf hats
would not cease to tell you
how burning would be the sun on the sands
and so badly you need to protect the head
by parting bucks that mean nothing to you
but a world to the mouths he feeds
and before you stamp on him a final no
she has one atop her hair
beneath which her eyes flutter like butterflies
her sun rouged cheeks untimely blush
and two born anew lovers
merrily head for the sea
having bought romance
for forty bucks.

May 2016

Nonkululeko Anicia Khumalo

Friendship

Sometimes,
all that one needs is a friendly face
that they haven't seen in a while
to remind them of
how much there is
to value in life.

#love #friends #poetry #life #happiness #friendship #writing #comfort #contentment

May 2016

Jules

post-breakdown

it's strange,
but it is always after the storm that i feel the most hope.
call it faithful, maybe brave;
but possibly i'm just naive.

to me this is proof the fight is still in me.
somewhere, a small spark, in hiding.
but not gone,
and this is the most important thing.
i am alive still,
i whisper to myself,
and it means the most:
that the breakdown has not broken me.
that i have survived still,
and will continue to survive.

call it gullible,
but i still think to myself:
if i can survive this,
i can survive most things.
what is everything else
compared to what has just been?

still made it thru; may u feel the same faith.

#love #poetry #short #hope #faith #brave #storm #positive #breakdown #naive

May 2016

Ellie Wolf

In light of recent self-awarness

In light of recent self-awarness
I try my best to feel
less suffocated
by the instilled ideal
of forgiveness
and more accepting
of the primal, instinctive
need to express
what I cannot suppress

In light of recent self-awareness
I try my best to see
less of the drowning
nerve-racking
ticking
notion that is
The Moment
and more of the ambiently
serene concept of
The Present

In light of recent self-awareness
I try my best to be
less aware
and more myself.

#poem #self #anxiety #light #moment #suffocation #present #self-aware

May 2016

The Dedpoet

I Am Because You Were

When you were a phosphorus angel
     There was almost light,
And your glow became like the Fallen.

When you were holding my hand
       Your prints took over
Mine, like a stolen identity...
Willingly.

       And I was,
Because you were my existence
    In the abyss,
And your luminous spirit a breath
      Underwater.

And you were the storm
     That I left the shelter for,
A little grey can go a long way
      In a rain of sorrowing embers.

I was the reconstruction
     Of your project,
Rebuilding is never easy
But you stayed til I was me again.

       Life is big,
But so little in time,
     I am because you were,
I was because you're gone.

#dedpoet