Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
 
 Jan 2014 Steven Martin
Julia
"Something along those lines, yes."
& that's just it, that's what I am--
something that can never quite walk the line;
shy-girl, watching-girl,
always-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-girl,
dancing around the main idea,
the true center of the words.
I am along the lines,
between the notes,
& you are the greatest symphony.
 Jan 2014 Steven Martin
R Saba
i couldn't wait to go outside today
you see, i woke up
needing a challenge
and the weather forecast had predicted
a warm shower of water
and then a quick freezing of the road
leaving the cement covered
with a sheet of clear ice
and i couldn't wait to try my hand
at staying upright
you see, i got up today
wanting more
wanting a reason to try harder
hoping the forecast would be right
and it was
and i laced up my boots
ready for the challenge
sure, some small feat
just two or three minutes
spent trying my hardest, perhaps
it seems like nothing
but to me, one challenge overcome
no matter how small
predicts the next victory
coming my way
and i need that knowledge
that certainty
so i can wake up
tomorrow
and face the challenge again
gotta love those Canadian winters
 Jan 2014 Steven Martin
Elise
If I looked down on myself from above
I would look like a feverish dream
gold bleeding out of my eyes like a cracked open door
and cheeks stained crimson as if being out in the wind too long
rushing breath stumbling
down my lips
I am running
while laying in a mess of heat
heart beating just a little too fast
to make me
"normal"

you bring me down to earth with breaths you whispered into my mouth
maybe you're telling me secrets with your eyes
while I am desperately trying to regulate my heart rate
beautiful doesn't even capture
your hushed voice
tell me again
how to cut off my wings
and be human
you look like a dream
a feverish dream
I don't feel alive
but perhaps
oblivion isn't so bad

I'll throw my head up to the sky
attempting to break the separation
trying to stop running
while standing still
on the edge
of where I could be
and where I am
take my face in your hands
and convince me

I'm not dreaming
 Jan 2014 Steven Martin
JenChi
This is love
never will it be
but we are it
through the ground
and the trees.

Our roots meet water
that once was the sea
flowing like loves floating
in a comfortable breeze.

The ocean is where my soul needs to be
but just a taste teases me.
Leaves me in wondering captivity.

These branches reach out far and wide
not enough, needs more skies.

Waiting, waiting, anticipating.
Designating, waiting waiting.....
 Jan 2014 Steven Martin
Mikaila
It's gonna get colder when you leave.
The ground will harden
And the trees will sleep
And the world
Will wait.
Underneath the snow,
Life
Will wait.
The wind will search for you in every face
Biting and frantic
But find nothing,
And in despair crack across the ground like a whip
Stirring up little ghostly eddies of ice crystals.
The snow will catch the branches and drag them down
Asking
Why the silence,
This year?
None of that summertime laughter
To light up the ice and make it sparkle.
The days will pull darkness around them like a thick coat
And slink by
In a hurry to be elsewhere,
Still too long, and too strange.

And then
Just when we've all almost given up,
Winter will soften, just a bit.
The rains will come, like a good cry you've been holding your breath against
For months,
And the snow will wash away
And the ground will be ugly and scarred,
But bare at last,
And the land will begin
Slowly
To bloom
In anticipation of your footsteps there.

The sun will hold its line in the battle against the night
For just a sliver longer every day.
The first flowers will shoot up through
The last little patches of snow,
Light green and fragile.
The world will wake
Yawn and stretch,
Is she back yet?
Is she here?
The cherry blossoms on the tree in my backyard will unfurl
White and delicate and frothy on tough, leathery branches
And we will all see that maybe
Everything is going to be alright
After all.

Is she back yet?
Is she here?
And summer will stroll in, laughing,
The moment you set foot on this soil again.
 Jan 2014 Steven Martin
Mikaila
Rise
 Jan 2014 Steven Martin
Mikaila
I've never been one for burning books
But this is life
And these words char the paper they're printed on
And I think you need to burn your fingers to realize
You better turn the page.
Life is short.
Strike a spark inside your chest
And let it go off like a firecracker.
You might be arson in the morning, honey,
But you'll never be ashes.
Life is short.
Sometimes you've got to torch the house to find the foundation,
And sometimes the world's gotta burn you down to your backbone
For you to realize you've got one.
 Jan 2014 Steven Martin
Mikaila
I envy those who
Know the timbre of your voice
Just by memory.
You stop to point at the moon in the sky,
but the finger's blind unless the moon is shining.

One moon, one careless finger pointing --
are these two things or one?

The question is a pointer guiding
a novice from ignorance thick as fog.

Look deeper. The mystery calls and calls:
No moon, no finger -- nothing there at all.
My legacy --
What will it be?
Flowers in spring,
The cuckoo in summer,
And the crimson maples
Of autumn...
Next page