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 755° 
Liana
So you know how sometimes when you start to give up on humanity
someone wonderful happens?
Like when you just walking somewhere and a stranger says that they like your outfit
Or someone that you've never before smiles and waves
And you think that maybe
People aren't so bad?

My idea of a successful life
Is to be that person
As many times as I can
 686° 
afrota
Do not rewrite the past.
No hand can erase
what time has carved
in wounded skin.

Let your oldest notebook
inscribe the first line
of a new tale —
written in fresh tears
and the sweat
of becoming
a future still unfolding.
 675° 
Cynthia
⚠️ TRIGGER WARNING ⚠️

Red was the color of the water
when I jumped into a river
that was too shallow for me to dive into.

In those short 5 seconds,
I soared through the winds.
The air pressure nearly enough to rip me to shreds.

Those 5 seconds when my skin peeled off from my back,
I grew wings.

They lit on fire,
and I burned with them,
and it was almost soothing.

The pain was a reminder that
I was alive,
even if it was only for 5 short seconds.

In the brink of death,
I felt the most alive I had in years.

I don't know if it was the wind
or the fact that I was burning.
But in those five seconds,
I was a human.
Something I had been alienated from my whole life.

I was dead before I hit the gravel.
My body twisted in all types of different directions,
and when the police found me,
they had already pronounced me as deceased.
A bit of a deeper one, but felt nice to release.
 476° 
badwords
We split rock once—
shards of hunger and breath
pressed into cryptic veins,
every groove a fever-etched omen
by fists that blistered and bled.

We flayed parchment—
flax and hide peeled raw,
stretched across centuries
to net the writhing unsaid,
ink: venom & sacrament.

We conjured letters,
a thousand spitting iron serpents,
casting skeleton alphabets
to ignite riots—
movable, yes,
but never self-possessed.

The tool is never the delirium.
Never the rupture.
Never the feral gasp.

We carved eyes—
glass cyclopes staring down suns,
mechanical maws drinking shadows,
spitting back sleek carcasses,
veneer masquerading as soul.

We dreamt in circuits,
cipher-prayers & soulless sutras,
automata with twitching limbs
that build, disassemble,
mocking the cathedral
but never kneeling.

And now—
the algorithm howls:
“I will etch your myth.
I will ululate your grief.
I will sculpt the marrow of your truth.”

It lies.

A hammer pounds—
but does not conjure the cathedral’s ache.
A brush bristles—
but does not thirst for the canvas’s hush.
A neural grimoire can mimic,
can multiply until the world chokes
on infinite carbon copies—
but nothing blooms
without the sickness of being alive.

Art is incision.
A holy theft.
A blood rite against oblivion.

We do not tremble before tools.
We seize them—
splinter them—
forge new weapons
from their debris
because we are insatiable,
because we are drowning,
because we are—
human.

Let the hollow vessels hum.
Let the scaffolders scaffold.
Let the parrots shriek
their pallid mantras.

The craft will not save you.
The code will not save you.
Only the hand sunk deep into the blaze—
only the breath fogging the glass—
only the voice that shreds the quiet
because it must,
again and again and again.

Until there is nothing left.
In a forge where ghosts barter with empty vessels, this poem traces the arc of humanity’s relentless hunger to etch spirit into matter. Each stanza is a rung on a scaffold built from sacrificed skins, shattered eyes, and iron tongues, spiraling toward a cathedral that machines can only mimic but never inhabit.

The algorithm—a shimmering siren in synthetic robes—offers false communion, promising to sculpt truth from hollow codes. Yet beneath its sterile hum, the poem cracks open the core wound: that art, real art, is not birthed by echo but by **the compulsion of mortal hands scorched by their own need to mean. **

A hymn to the unquenchable fire, a dirge for the tools that mistake reflection for genesis, this is a revolt against the smooth and the soulless—a reminder that only the flesh-inked, breath-tethered, ruin-hungry voice can breach the silence that consumes us all.
Love is fleeting;
not promised,
nor permanent.
But if you look for it--
you'll see,
always Present.
*titular Daniel Johnston homage, 1984
 350° 
Ivan
people say that
'talk is cheap'

and so that is why
Poets write!
 342° 
Silas McKenney
You were drawn to my shine,
To the light in my steps, my aura, my time.
You walked beside me all the while,
Curious-why do I smile?

I spoke of joy, of a heart that glows,
Of peace within, the love I know.
But you had none, you’d lost your spark,
And sought to ***** out all my dark.

You didn’t want to see me grow
You only came to steal my glow.
Sappy lover
 267° 
nvinn fonia
i dugg a hole really deep 1 then i blew it upp boom !!!!!!!!everything wwent  to hell
 224° 
Chloe
A soul so sad
A lonely feather falls
The sea begins to calm
I wipe my tears
The mask slips on
Don’t let them see me cry
 222° 
Nwafor Oji Awala
I never walk alone
Son of my father
Blood of my ancestors
Careful as cat
Silent as snake
Brave as honey badger
Strong as polar bear

Blood of my ancestors
Son of my father
I never walk alone

(c) Nwafor Oji Awala
Ogale
2025
The poem centers around a deep connection with my ancestry.
 222° 
Travis Green
He was my everything
My legendary loverman
The heavenly poetry in my chest
The man of my dreams
That owned every part of me

I couldn’t contain myself
He had me undone, unhinged
Drunk on him to the brim
I felt his mind-blowing fire
Streaming through my veins

His super sensational thugness
Flooding my bloodstream
His energy, electric and unprecedented
His broad, battle-born chest
His tasty abs, so breathtaking to gaze at
Biceps and triceps that made me
Melt like crazy in his embrace

He was an action-packed ocean
Of mouthwatering poetry
Every wave a line of sublime rhymes
Every ripple so irresistible
Everything about him
A high-voltage masterpiece
Of adrenaline-drenched masculinity
 215° 
Akriti
Not by the mean faces
I see everyday ,
who smile
with a mask on.

Not by the harsh voices
I hear everyday,
that always
pull me down.

But by the unseen faces,
by their unheard voices,
only their words-
the wisdom within...

I am inspired.
 209° 
Leanne
I love the touch of our faces so close so near,
Our skin entwines, so soft, so textured, yet clear.
Our closeness wraps these hearts in flame,
You makes me feel you've  always know my name.
Our touches ignite a soul’s bright fire
This love, this spark, its you  I’ll never tire.
So close to you, I long to dive within,
To live, to breathe, inside of your skin
RL❤️❤️
 206° 
RandleFunk
Wondrous miracle
Golden shards weave through green arms
Lost by tiny screens
 199° 
Jay Lewis
It’s that moment of dread,
where everything gets intense,
where I only see red.
Where I only see red.

The anger comes bursting out,
like an animal on the prowl,
It’s digging it’s teeth in now.

It’s that moment of doubt,
where these vicious thoughts of mine,
are closing in on my mind.

Everything goes red.
These vultures are picking off what’s left.
I remember every bad thing that was said.
God sometimes I wish I was dead.
 192° 
Marco Langmann
And now? Who knows…
 182° 
ymmiJ
drink the rain
heavens bleeding pain
mans' insane
 172° 
Rafail
Ты была с чудовищем неволи
Мог бы наверное сгрызть
Грех пронизывающий доколе
Шрам глубоко отражает вид

Впустить опрометчиво нечто
Видела же безудержно рвал
Реформировать приблизительно
Это помогло сделать шаг?!

Чувствовала кончики пальцев
Думала как найти тепло
Нарочито убрав их быстрее
вера обманет, чтобы псих смолк

Возник временной континуум
По спирали около телесный сдвиг
Снимаешь сейчас с себя все боли
Лишь вымерший скрупулезный миг

Выработать ряд ошибок
Будет только прямой урок.
Бьется в отражении монстр
С себя содрав кожи замок

Предсказанное одно сбудется
За ушами встанет торчком
Дьявольское искушение только
Самих сотрет быстрее в смог
 167° 
Bernardo Cruz
I wrestle with the stars
Crushed diamond under my hand

In my Jungle Lion is not a king

Famous people are my community
They adored me
But

That’s all imaginary
Imaginary community

Feeling loved via Fantasy
While reality bites me
While self-hate surrounds me
Ill embraced this immortal

Fantasy
 163° 
Pierre de Ronsard
L'inimitié que je te porte,
Passe celle, tant elle est forte,
Des aigneaux et des loups,
Vieille sorcîere deshontée,
Que les bourreaux ont fouëttée
Te honnissant de coups.

Tirant apres toy une presse
D'hommes et de femmes espesse,
Tu monstrois nud le flanc,
Et monstrois nud parmy la rue
L'estomac, et l'espaule nue
Rougissante de sang.

Mais la peine fut bien petite,
Si Ion balance ton merite :
Le Ciel ne devoit pas
Pardonner à si lasche *****,
Ains il devoit de sa tempeste
L'acravanter à bas.

La Terre mere encor pleurante
Des Geans la mort violante
Bruslez du feu des cieux,
(Te laschant de son ventre à peine)
T'engendra, vieille, pour la haine
Qu'elle portait aux Dieux.

Tu sçais que vaut mixtionnée
La drogue qui nous est donnée
Des pays chaleureux,
Et en quel mois, en quelles heures
Les fleurs des femmes sont meilleures
Au breuvage amoureux.

Nulle herbe, soit elle aux montagnes,
Ou soit venimeuse aux campagnes,
Tes yeux sorciers ne fuit,
Que tu as mille fois coupée
D'une serpe d'airain courbée,
Beant contre la nuit.

Le soir, quand la Lune fouëtte
Ses chevaux par la nuict muette,
Pleine de rage, alors
Voilant ta furieuse *****
De la peau d'une estrange beste
Tu t'eslances dehors.

Au seul soufler de son haleine
Les chiens effroyez par la plaine
Aguisent leurs abois :
Les fleuves contremont reculent,
Les loups effroyablement hurlent
Apres toy par les bois.

Adonc par les lieux solitaires,
Et par l'horreur des cimetaires
Où tu hantes le plus,
Au son des vers que tu murmures
Les corps des morts tu des-emmures
De leurs tombeaux reclus.

Vestant de l'un l'image vaine
Tu viens effroyer d'une peine
(Rebarbotant un sort)
Quelque veufve qui se tourmente,
Ou quelque mere qui lamente
Son seul heritier mort.

Tu fais que la Lune enchantée
Marche par l'air toute argentée,
Luy dardant d'icy bas
Telle couleur aux jouës palles,
Que le son de mille cymbales
Ne divertirait pas.

Tu es la frayeur du village :
Chacun craignant ton sorcelage
Te ferme sa maison,
Tremblant de peur que tu ne taches
Ses boeufs, ses moutons et ses vaches
Du just de ta poison.

J'ay veu souvent ton oeil senestre,
Trois fois regardant de **** paistre
La guide du troupeau,
L'ensorceler de telle sorte,
Que tost apres je la vy morte
Et les vers sur la peau.

Comme toy, Medée exécrable
Fut bien quelquefois profitable :
Ses venins ont servy,
Reverdissant d'Eson l'escorce :
Au contraire, tu m'as par force
Mon beau printemps ravy.

Dieux ! si là-haut pitié demeure,
Pour récompense qu'elle meure,
Et ses os diffamez
Privez d'honneur de sépulture,
Soient des oiseaux goulus pasture,
Et des chiens affamez.
 152° 
ShifaShahid
Rotten apple, Wilted roots, Withered leaves
Feeble branches, tampered growth, Barren tree
Standing alone, in a deserted land despondently
This is a picture of the world without humanity
 137° 
Sherri Woodman
Today I got a hug, out of the blue                                                             ­     
                                                           ­                                                               
and it even came with an "I love you''                                                            ­    
                                                            ­                                                        
Such a simple kind gesture                                                          ­                                                  
              ­                                                                 ­                               
  It brought me such pleasure                                                         ­                     
                                                                ­                                                          
It picked me up when I felt down                                                             ­                       
                                         ­                                                                 ­      
  turned my day totally around                                                           ­                 
                                                                ­                                                  
  Just when I thought no one cared                                                            ­            
                                                                ­                                        
someone loved me, someone shared
In shadows where my dreams once glowed,  
An imaginary friend’s tales overflowed.  
In that world, fears take flight,  
Yet by day, I'm gripped by fright,  
A scary solitude, weakness bestowed.  

With memories softly entwined,  
In this paradise world, solace I find.  
But mental illness creeps near,  
Loneliness whispers here,  
As I wander through fragments of mind.
Darkness
 123° 
Sean Maloney
Smile and laugh
My typical my code to fit in
Not sure how I made it
Or why I feel like it doesn’t work

I walk with my group
Split off from my best friends
But are they really friends if they abandoned me
I don’t feel joy here
I’m just trying to fit in

I also feel happiness
I’m like a broken clock still making the ticking sound
I wonder if it’d be different born fixed
Or if I’d still think the same

The person I am
It doesn’t really apply anywhere
I know I never have
I think I never will

Just trying to fit in
Make myself a character to keep around
Cause I’m not a person
Just an object to use and hate
 121° 
Zhanara
Love is lie
Don't believe in it
Love yourself is true
Don't lose it.
author: Zhanar
 116° 
LS
I talk to God, but nothing speaks.
Just walls, and nights, and quiet weeks.
I claw through days in borrowed skin,
Each smile a lie I bury in.

I’m tired of breathing just to break,
Of holding on for holding’s sake.
And if I shatter, let it be
I’ve reached the place that feels like me.

At last, my soul might find release,
So leave me now…
I have my peace.
 101° 
Ivan
Sin
Did a sin,
A sin I can't erase-
Oh the sin I'll gladly preserve.
the sin of craving your taste,
Your presence, your very existence.

Sin made only for me,
A Sin with ocean eyes, rose lips
And a smile written for poems.

Oh darlin', my own lil sin
The sin that feels like art.
The one i wanna hide away from the world..
Yet show you off like the view
I'm falling for...deeper every time.

You're like the language I'm not fluent in,
The language made for the death of me..
One i would gladly die learning.

Oh my sin,
This hell of mine is someone stealing that heart,
While i die bleeding mine into words.

And my love,
This roman empire of mine
Sits under the stars..
While you stare at the moon
And i..gaze at mine.
This is how I proposed her
 100° 
Ivan
Sea-
So near,untouched
Yet I feel
Your cold.

Your jagged surface,
A blackened sapphire-blue.
Snow peaks drift like islands
in your remote expanse.

Sea,I am not your lover.
But I gaze at you
With the same eyes.
 99° 
nivek
God knows what He is doing
even if Donald does not
 98° 
Frankie
A tender touch, a whispered sigh,
A sudden storm, a tearful cry.
A heart laid bare, a soul exposed
to the wounds inflicted.

The pain endures, a heavy load,
Where love once bloomed, hoping shadows wont grow.
 86° 
Mark Bell
Too many troubles
Seeing no way out
Spinning spinning
No more rules to flout.
All the traffic lights
Are stuck on red
The only option
Is to wind up dead.
Too many troubles
Dead ends are rife
Stuck on a merry go round
All darkness in life.
Your breath is shallow
Your eyes so red
The only way out
Is a bullet to the head.
Look my friend
If it’s life you dread
Yes it’s a good call to
Shoot yourself in the head.
Too many troubles
No food for the feast
All but sad so rest in peace.
 85° 
Carla Marie
There is no magic potion
Or Spell or Hex required
No Doctrine 
Or Approbation
Or Degree to be acquired
There is no formula or recipe
Modus Operandi 
Ritual or Rite
No red tape 
No routine
No code words to recite
You can bring your baggage 
Or leave it
Or I can help you to retrieve it
And unpack it
Or unload it
Me of mine
You’ll help relieve it

It’s just love Baby…

It’s not so hard to do
Just to me bring 
The very thing
That I convey to you

Just love me Baby…

It’s not so hard to do
Just to me bring 
The very thing
That I convey to you
 83° 
Rhiannon Clayton
The Blackbird greeted the day with a cheerful, “Good morning.”
In response, the owl softly murmured, “Good night.”
As one dream fades away, a new one takes flight.

-Rhia Clay
 80° 
Liana
Looking around the
Giant room full of people
Not a friend in sight
I have a class with not a single person I'm friends with. It feels hellish. I write this during class.
 76° 
Phia
Desperation leaks from my words
As I beg the universe for life
Happiness
And you
 75° 
Pouya
Being in the mind?
Feeling behind.

Just going beyond!
Feeling cried.
 74° 
silvervi
It’s not happening as you expected? So what? How do you know that what you wanted to happen was for the best?
Embrace the challenges. Embrace the unexpected. That way, you’re unstoppable.
I know it's hard sometimes. But we can grow so much! 💓
 74° 
NOLWAZI JOUBERT
Time! Time!
Couldn't you give me enough time?
Time to atone for my mistakes,
Time! Time! Time! Time!
Just one more time?

You shared your mind in poetry,
Sang your heart out unconditionally.
You kept smiling through the pain.
I want to be at fault.
I want to say I'm sorry.

I know the time had come.
I wouldn't have stopped you even if I tried.
Maybe if I dared to follow,
For the very first time you would scold me.
But I could be by your side forever.

You shared your mind in poetry,
Warmed weary hearts with your voice.
You smiled the pain away.
You were My Mr Perfect,
And now you sing melodies with angels.

All I ever wanted was you.
In a bubble of frozen time.
I'm loving memory of Humphrey Mthokozisi Mthethwa
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