The words "once upon a time"
Begin a fantacy story
Who's seemingly shallow rhyme
Creates a deep allegory

The princess traped, endangered
Our deepest fears are revealed
Yet, saved by the kind stranger
Our wishes are to be appealed

The prince fighting, enthralling
Our search for love is now released
Always hopes for belonging
Our strong courage not so repressed

Then "happily ever after"
Soon ends our magnificent tale
But what is happy hereafter,
Far beyond this twisting trail?

sleep, I need you dearly
                                  why
                    ­            do
                          you
                   hold
            back
      from
me?
my eyes are sluggish and
          
             I am overbearingly weary
                                                   why
                                                 do
                                           you
                                     hide
                             away
                    from
             me?
             oh, how can you not see me
                            
                          in this pale haze, I'm dreary
                                                          ­         why
                                                             ­    do
                                                          you
  ­                                                   lie
                                          awake
           ­                         with
                            me?
   ­                      you drown me, I am dying...

the gentle showers
bring soft and quiet hours
and water flowers

Foot tapping
Hand shaking
Mind racing
Walls breaking
Strength taking
Nail biting
Head throbbing
Knees clattering
Life shattering

*Leave me,
Anxiety!

Why do I like poetry?
The answer isn't easy.
I've never been good at explaining.
To me, it always seemed so draining.

Well, you see,
Poetry is good to me.
I've never been good at conversation.
I always have too many hesitations.

I can express how I feel.
I am free to be real.
I've never been good at opening up.
My walls are far too thick to touch.

But somehow rhyme,
Puts a hold on time.
And I feel so liberated
And a little less frustrated.

Since I'm impaired in verbal communication,
It seems that poetry has been a useful innovation.
These words are easily writable,
Yet make me feel so much less vulnerable.

Poetry is a passionate way to express emotion,
Without causing chaos and commotion.
You can interpret poetry whatever way,
You feel most like this particular day.

Poetry is liberation
Free from condemnation
Poetry rids life
Of all its strife

I always wondered why people frowned at me
Without reason or apparent controversy
Until I was told, against all odds
That supposedly my face is the cause.

"Resting ***** face" is what they call it
They say my eyes glare out of their sockets
And honestly this makes no sense
I have to come to my own defence.

Are you mad?
Are you sad?
Are you okay?
I thought she hated me...

Yes, it's true, I've heard it all
Somehow I'm the one who takes the fall
For any petty issue that's produced
From your misreading! It's no abuse!

What? No, I'm fine. I was just thinking.
Why are you always pick, pick, picking?
Just leave me alone. I've done no wrong!
What do you want? Me to burst into song?

Do you know how much effort it takes to keep
A smile on my face while I'm falling asleep?
If it bothers you, don't look at me.
I'm really not trying to mislead.

Look, I'm sorry if you're offeneded.
I just think it's time that this has ended.
I don't want to lose any more friends
Because the way my face naturally bends.

Please understand that I don't mean
The expression my resting ***** face puts on for me.

He thumps in your chest
Never stops to rest
Beat and beat
From head to feet
Keeps you going
Keeps blood flowing
Pumps life in you
'Til your life is through

Despite his cause
He recieves no applause
For he's to blame
For all our pain
But is that true
If only we knew
The anatomical heart
Isn't the one tearing us apart

He does his job
Doesn't blab his gob
And yet we gloat
On our scapegoat
We point our flaws
Against all laws
And he is the defendant
Still we are so dependant

He says, "I'm full of reason.
I've comitted no treason.
If you feel drained,
Accuse the brain.
She always gets away with it.
It makes me want to have a fit.
She toys with your emotions.
I've created no commotion."

Feeling comes from our mind
So next time try to be kind
Because the atomical heart
Is an important body part
And you wouldn't want to beat it down
Then one day find that it has drowned
In your false accusations
Made by your frustrations

As I close my drooping eyes
I slip into a world
Where time has come to a halt
And everything is still

I was in a room that had three walls
All stretching to the sky
The walls didn't have a color
Visible to the eye

On two walls there were windows
On one wall there was a door
At my feet a doormat
Was resting on the floor

It gave no “welcome” greeting
It sent no sweet “goodbye”
The rug gripping my trembling feet
Only made me sigh

The two windows seemed so silent
Until I carefully approached
I quietly reminded myself
That I shouldn't dare encroach

As I look into these windows
The timeline stretches on
There were visions of things to be
And things that were forgone

I looked over my left shoulder
To the window at my side
The glass was tinted as a rose
On the things I saw, I bide

Sights of memories long since past
Flood into my aching mind
Feelings of nostalgia
I’m always trying to find

I liked what I saw so very much
But I was very curious to see
What was in the other one
But when I looked to my right, I saw me

It’s true this was a mirror
But it wasn't what I thought
When I looked at my reflection
I saw all the things I’m not

My age had increased plenty
I seemed rather fat and old
My face was sagging and sluggish
I didn't fit the mold
I wasn't all that happy
This made me feel so grey
This mirror from a fun house
Wasn't meant for play

Well I turned around again to see
The window I had left
To find a blank and empty wall
Now surely this was theft

I looked again back to my right
Into another wall
Of all the feelings in this room
There were none left at all

I panicked for a while thinking
Where am I going to go?
There’s no way to escape from here
Nothing to guide me home

But then a thought so very vague
Crossed my confused mind
I turned around and saw the door
And realized I’d been blind

I gave the **** a quiet rattle
And the door opened with ease
And once again when I looked through
What I saw was me

But this was not like the mirror
That filled my reflection with dread
I saw myself quietly sleeping
In my warm and cozy bed

The windows had disappeared
They were not what they seemed
For it was then I realized
That this was just a dream

Through the door in front of me
Was the me I am right now
This door was the only option
That was to be allowed

So I stepped over the threshold
To be united as one
By my mind and body together
This battle had been won

**I viewed the past as beauty
And looked to the future with fear
But always lived in the present
For that was what was near

The smallest flakes of hope
That shine like little stars
Are floating from the heavens.
As they land on my pale skin
They begin to melt away
Back into their liquid form.
I am so cold, but so are they.
How can they melt on me?
It's odd how such fragile crystals
Can create such a deadly storm.

She was in love
With old books.
She was in love with
The way they smelled
As she flipped the pages
And felt the air hit her face.
She was in love with
The rough texture
Of the paper worn over time.
She was in love with
The yellowed tint of the pages
And the crumple of water spots.
She was in love with
The broken and tattered
Binding that crinkled
When you touched it.
But most of all,
She was in love with
The stories that not only
The words written in them held
But the stories behind each
Coffee stain and torn corner.
The idea that this book
Had connected with
So many other people
Enchanted her,
And she wondered if
Maybe she wasn't as
Strange and odd
As people told her.
And she thought that just
Maybe she wasn't as
Alone as she felt.

on this earth
in this place
things are used
as strings
for the puppet
of the population
the dancing marionettes
to not think
for themselves
they believe what
they are told to
and do not question
but questions
are important
they are a necessity
to our very survival
they want diversity
yet persecute
the truly diverse
what thought is this
that they believe
they call for logic
but do not use it
they call for peace
but start wars
they plead for love
but harbor hatred
they demand equality
and equal understanding
for different opinions
yet they do not accept
those of the people who
don't agree with them
they call for rights
then elect restrictions
and immobilities
into the office
what is this thought
what is this day
that we must live in?

His eyes are galaxies
abounding with stars
shining so brightly
the blind can see them.

His breath ***** the oxygen
out of my lungs
suffocating so slowly
I forget that it's happening.

His heart is an ocean
the water after a storm
flowing with such beauty
the birds wish they had fins.

My love is a hurricane
falling from control
swirling with madness
lost in the darkness.

Silent waves, sparkling sea,
Happiness and plunder,
It all turns to gloom and doom,
As I realize: we're going under.

Overboard! Overboard!
Try and learn to swim!
Sharks and fish,
Make a wish,
As you're slapped by fins.

Crying, praying,
Trying, fraying,
Way to take a chance.
Up 'til now you had no clue,
Life was so precious.

Now it grows dark and dreary,
Farther that you sink.
Until now, you've held your breath,
But you let it go and wonder:
Should I have given up just now,
Or tried a little harder?

While others dream sweetly
in the comfort of their minds,
you scream in the hurricane of your own.
Your mind is a knot
and when you try to untie it,
it just gets more tangled.
All your faults and mistakes
throw themselves further into you.
They are a tidal wave
and when you try to swim,
you just get pulled in
deeper below the surface,
into the sea of thoughts, emotions, and dreams.
You keep wishing on the stars
but when you reach out to touch them
they just fly farther away
from the reach of your hand
which slowly retreats back
to its guarding position
shielding your ears
so that the voices will stop;
the silent whispers that are so loud
they make the walls cave in
and as they fall you are buried alive
by everyone and everything.
And once you dig deep enough into yourself,
it all goes quiet as an eerie silence
covers your entire body and you are still;
paralyzed with feeling as you try to block it all out
because it’s all too much.
And you remain frozen until the sun rises
and saves you from your mind.

His voice is the wind in the trees
It is the ocean crashing on the soft sand
His voice is the sweet, sweet breeze
Brushing up against my cold hand.

His life is a shining star
It breathes the life into my lungs all day long
His life keeps my hear in a jar
Holding all my dearest tears.

My love is a hurricane
It keeps me held down out of the fear of shame
My love brings me only pain
For my lover does not feel the same.

What am I to tell my soul,
When the stars are out of reach?
What am I to tell my heart,
When they don’t want my touch?
What am I to tell my mind,
When I can’t understand what’s wrong with me?
What am I to tell my body,
When I can’t feel anything anymore?
What am I to tell you,
When you ask me what’s wrong?
What am I to tell the world,
When they expect achievements?
What am I to tell my soul.
When the stars are out of reach?

She was a volcano waiting to erupt;
She was a hurricane barely kept off the shore.
And when she fell to the ground,
And shattered into a thousand shards of hurt,
They did not understand why
Because she had become so good at hiding.
They told her to keep it together
And she followed their orders well.
She kept her feelings hidden from the world.
And after a while, it became too hard,
So she started to keep her feelings from herself.
And after a while, she became confused.
She didn’t remember how to feel anything;
She didn’t remember if she could.
And everyone else thought she was fine.
They applauded how well they thought she was doing.
But they did not know what they had done.
They trapped her in a cage and bolted the gate,
Not caring if the rusty bars tore her flesh,
And she sank along the wall as she tried to catch
A gulp of air polluted by the words of others.
She listened as they chanted their rhymes
About stick and stones as she thought about
All her broken bones.
They didn’t understand why she was lonely
When a swarm of people came at her
From every side of her body.
But she felt like a whale in a school of clown fish.
They told her to be herself
But she knew deep down that
That was the last thing they wanted her to be.
She let them pour her into a mold
That they wanted everyone to fill,
But when she got worn out of being numb
She couldn’t remember how to feel.
She tried to feel something, anything,
Even if it was pain,
But she couldn’t remember how.
It had become too late.