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raahii 7d
A lonely heart yearning for connection,
Wandering soul, searching for purpose,
Conflicted, unsure of whom to listen to—
Mind, body, or the heart.
Scared, yet determined on this hopeful path,
Walking the road one step at a time,
Leaving his trail behind.
The journey is as important as the destination, with each step leaving a lasting imprint
The woman in the wheelchair
still finds you funny although her laugh is silent
it is lost in shadow and smoke
hid beneath the cloak
of her stroke,
you can tell her a joke
she will probably get it
although the speaker may have gone
her sense of humour carries on
Written after my stroke
Patience Egesi Dec 2024
If life bent to our will,  
Would it truly be easier?  

I can't speak for others,  
But I believe everyone craves success.  
Who dreams of failure?  
And yet they say,  
"Destiny is in your hands."  

How true is that?  
Destiny in my hands—  
Really?  

I have cried rivers.  
I have walked through storms.  
Can something be done?  

Just let me live.  
For me, life means:  
Success unshaken,  
Peace unbroken,  
A purpose fulfilled.  

I can't tell for others,  
But I must make it.  
Destiny is in my hands—  
Not because they said it,  
But because I choose it.  

I will leave my mark.  
My legacy.
When destiny and life offers you a plate you hate, you stand up firm choosing another plate. You get what you want from life and destiny.
Sara Barrett Dec 2024
"You made it look easy," they whisper—
A phrase that echoes, hollow and sharp,
Cutting through the quiet of my solitary journey.

Navigating parenthood alone,
A military spouse stretched thin by distance,
Selling dreams as fragile as glass,
Balanced on the edge of every choice.

A diagnosis presses against my chest,
One child in my arms, another learning beside me.
Battles hidden behind closed doors,
Invisible to those who see only the surface.

When I bared the depths of my soul,
Resilience bloomed like wildflowers—
Not a cry, but a roar.

Judgments swirl around me—
A storm of misconceptions,
Echoes of untold stories etching my truth.

Others glimpse my path only when they walk similar roads,
Their perceptions shifting like sand,
Revealing the landscape of unseen struggles.

My journey is not a blueprint,
Nor a promise of simplicity.
Each step a singular rhythm,
Each challenge a raw, unscripted melody.

I didn't make it look easy;
I made it look possible.

Resilience is not a performance,
But a quiet, fierce rebellion.

No shortcuts, no easy roads—
Just forward motion,
Carved from determination,
Etched with survival's raw grace.
This poem gives voice to the unseen struggles that accompany strength. It challenges the idea that resilience is effortless, peeling back the layers of solo journeys, hidden battles, and quiet determination. With striking imagery and a steady rhythm, it speaks to the reality of carrying on—not to make it look easy, but to make it possible. It's a reflection on survival, perseverance, and the unspoken grace of moving forward despite it all.
Amaris Marie Dec 2024
I sit here, posting, writing,
Yearning for attention,
Hoping for hearts I might earn
From the avid reader.

I check, and check, and check again—
Yet nothing takes effect.
My heart grows tender,
Dreaming of climbing stature,
But the steep hill looms impossible to capture.

Still, I post, still I write,
Determined to yearn and fight.
Adrians Nov 2024
What have I got to do?
For this life to become alright.
Sleep, thrive and fight?
Cause blood's all I see within my sight.
As i put up a fight every night,
Without a care if I might die.

So my questions still stands,
What humans are truly made for...
Whether to really start wars?
Leaving behind many scars,
And acting like the justice guards.

The truth is all about the lore,
Nobody needs much anymore,
But I'll rise even if I'm sore,
Without a need for praise,
I'll survive for my own grace,
Thriving in this war to leave a trace,
Even if others do it for a paycheck raise.
Free verse with rhymes
Jack Groundhog Nov 2024
What lies beyond this dour door
that leads to things ahead?
I stand and wonder what’s in store
behind this portal grimy with dread.

Its glass is cracked, its lead paint is chipped
while its brick wall is turning to sand.
Its handle doesn’t invite to be gripped,
nor does it tell me where I’ll land.

I look all up and down the street
and see only more doors that look the same.
Before each one are more: their feet
wish to walk away from these doorframes.

Each one of us is seized by impotent rage
at facing a choice that’s no choice,
to be fixed as if in a steel cage
and finding no cause to rejoice.

But one of us in this bleak boulevard
must be the first to twist the ****
with the will to face the path that’s hard,
to not let our lives by fear be robbed.

Let each of us kick in our doors of fate
and overthrow their grips on our lives,
smash the clock and pass through that gate
with heads held high, fearless of where we arrive.

Spurred by the clarion call: it came to pass
our pent up waters burst the dams.
No captives are we! We struck en masse:
Battering rams forged out of lambs.
Andrew Crawford Oct 2024
Orange
dancing lady slippers
perform uncoordinated
reblooming of dormant orchids;
warm and cordial in
informal candor
but agoraphobic
from misfortune;
mourning and remorseful
over flowers wilting, mortal.

Daybreak aurora
portent of
sunlight to come,
but stuck northward,
scorching corneas
in torrid dysphoria.

Organism born
horticulturally
disproportioned
and poorly formed,
origin in morbid horror;
cerebral cortex
its own torture,
the mortician
orphaning the organs
from the corpus;
stored in morgue,
torched in crematorium,
vivisected immemorial.

Stems and tendrils incorrigible,
disorganized into
deplorable ****
of tangled discord
clumsily running its course,
corsage and bouquet
aborted in accord.

Important shortage
warrants foraging
for resources
hoarded by some
abhorrent lord;
crowning court this
monarch's consort,
sordid and immoral,
keeping score like some
sick and sadistic sport;
reinforcing order of what's normal,
stronghold cordoned to conform.

Pollinating
swarm of hornets,
buzzing orchestra
of wings in chorus
quarreling with silence,
their scorpion stings absorbed;
stabbed, pierced, and gored.

Like a tortoise
slowly inching forward, torpid,
morass forbids;
roots exploring floorboards,
divorcing into a gorge,
fingers blindly implore
contours of the walls
searching for the door.

But drawn and quartered,
blossoms' florid
and ornate frame contorted,
warping its own portrait;
assorted torment transforming
efflorrescent, metamorphic.

Dwarfing, enormous,
and soaring towards orbit,
forty story high
arboreal forest
flourishing before us;
gorgeous morning glory,
thorny laurel adorning.

Forthwith,
storming windows' glass,
bastille, and castle supports;
warring against fortress
though swordless,
never resorting to forfeit until
entire territory terraformed
into floral orchard-
fragrant and vibrant aura
rewarding victoriously.
Wrote this one a few years ago and wasnt sure if i liked it, didnt quite sit right with me. So i rearranged a couple stanzas to transition between thoughts a little better and try to improve readability (though I'm still not so sure about it lol)... but I've always loved the ending 🤷‍♂️

So while I was writing this one i learned a few things about orchids (and a couple other things) which I tried to work into the poem (or use a bit of poetic license lol), so I'll put them here for context:
–Orchids only bloom once a year then go dormant, but can be rebloomed if taken care of properly.
–Dancing Lady and Lady Slipper are two types of orchids, but there are a ton of different types, and people cross pollinate all the time (so using a bit of poetic license here lol), both of these also have an orange variety. Most orchids prefer indirect light.
–Aurora is also a synonym for dawn.
–Hornets *do* pollinate flowers as well (just not as effectively as bees because they arent fuzzy)... calling a bit of poetic license on that one as well lol.
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