1) Family ***** you up, but at the end of the day it’s up to you how you’ll deal with it.
2) You have to learn how to take care of yourself. Mentally, physically, and spiritually. Nobody’s going to do it for you and nobody can do it but you.
3) Education is very important but bad grades does not equate your intelligence.
4) It is okay to be sad every once in a while. You are allowed to feel vulnerable. The point is being able to pick yourself up afterwards.
5) Appreciate the little things. The smallest gestures of appreciation and love from people around you. It can be as simple as “text me when you get home” and you will see who are the people who matter.
6) You will never be able to fully define yourself. By doing so, you are restricting the idea of change. You are constantly growing–evolving, into a better (or worse) person you were yesterday.
7) Learn to adapt. Adapt to your environment and the people around you but never forget who you really are.
8) Society is weird because you are expected to be yourself but they will shun you if they disapprove.
9) Discrimination of all kind exists. There are thousands of people who suffered/are suffering because of this. As a decent human being, it’s your obligation to treat fellow humans as people.
10) Life is filled with very rough patches. If you are going through hell keep going. Because one day you will look back and be able to say “I’ve been through worse.”
11) There are different kinds of perception of beauty. If you find someone unattractive, don’t be an ******* about it.
12) Intelligence is not equated by beauty or if the woman is wearing makeup or not. They are in no way correlated with each other. Destroy this idea that women cannot have more than one trait.
13) There are different kinds of strength. One can be physically strong and have a fragile heart, another can have the weakest body and have the strongest will.
14) The opposite of love isn’t hate. It’s apathy. Stop the “I don’t give a ****” ******* and treasure the people who matter to you.
15) Soulmates does not necessarily mean romantic partners. It could be your best friend, your sibling, or your parent. This is the person who knows you inside and out and vice versa.
16) Stop hating on others and instead notice the nice things about people. Like you think someone’s haircut looks great, tell ‘em. Makes them happier and it makes you happier.
17) Find your passion, pursue it, but make sure you can make a living out of it. If you’re an artist, learn to market yourself. It is as an occupation just as much as being an accountant.
18) Live in the moment. It’s hard not to dwell into the past or be excited for the future, but you should also focus on the now. You will never be as young or as old as you are right now.”

I have done it again.
One year in every ten
I manage it----

A sort of walking miracle, my skin
Bright as a **** lampshade,
My right foot

A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.

Peel off the napkin
0 my enemy.
Do I terrify?----

The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.

Soon, soon the flesh
The grave cave ate will be
At home on me

And I a smiling woman.
I am only thirty.
And like the cat I have nine times to die.

This is Number Three.
What a trash
To annihilate each decade.

What a million filaments.
The peanut-crunching crowd
Shoves in to see

Them unwrap me hand and foot
The big strip tease.
Gentlemen, ladies

These are my hands
My knees.
I may be skin and bone,

Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.
The first time it happened I was ten.
It was an accident.

The second time I meant
To last it out and not come back at all.
I rocked shut

As a seashell.
They had to call and call
And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.

Dying
Is an art, like everything else,
I do it exceptionally well.

I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I've a call.

It's easy enough to do it in a cell.
It's easy enough to do it and stay put.
It's the theatrical

Comeback in broad day
To the same place, the same face, the same brute
Amused shout:

'A miracle!'
That knocks me out.
There is a charge

For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge
For the hearing of my heart----
It really goes.

And there is a charge, a very large charge
For a word or a touch
Or a bit of blood

Or a piece of my hair or my clothes.
So, so, Herr Doktor.
So, Herr Enemy.

I am your opus,
I am your valuable,
The pure gold baby

That melts to a shriek.
I turn and burn.
Do not think I underestimate your great concern.

Ash, ash ---
You poke and stir.
Flesh, bone, there is nothing there----

A cake of soap,
A wedding ring,
A gold filling.

Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.

Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.

I lost my inner poet
apparently she was last seen
just staring idly into space

She was sitting with her notebook,
gently pondering
in a quiet, tucked away place

I could only see the back of her
she wouldn't turn around
I so wanted to see her face

She was always so quiet
and very often reflective
working at her own steady pace

Not only am I left without poetry
I am also lost for words
she may have taken them all
along with my grace

The search will continue
maybe until the end of my days
as I fear she's left no trace

I think that I shall never see
A leaf as lovely without a tree
When it falls upon the ground
So gently placed to be found.
A child gathers it in her hands
Carefully places it on the sands
Hoping to grow a brand new tree
For all the world new life to see.