#growingup poems on Hello Poetry

lua Apr 2020

16

the fear of growing up
the days have passed, too fast
the years swirl around me like leaves in the afternoon breeze
maybe it isnt so bad
but growing up means to see things as it is
to know things as it is
and to feel things as it is
maybe im too young
maybe im not young enough
to understand
but im afraid of growing up.

i turned sixteen back in late march. it was the loneliest sweet sixteen because of the quarantine but i dont mind. it gave me time to think of things.

#growingup #growingolder #sixteen #fear #young

Overthinking it all Apr 2020

The grass is always greener on the other side

I am from comfort
from the green side
but then I am double
Comfort is gone
I’m from the other side now
I’m caught in the wind
of a lost train
I am from despair
because it is worthless
I am in a place of regret
but in the eyes there is no change

Now I am from the green side again
I know it won’t last
I am going back
Now because I no longer want
The eyes don’t like change
The eyes want me to regret
Want me to hate
Want to compare
I don’t feel comfort
now I’m from distance
where I am fine
but never really loved

#growingup #iam

Liv Apr 2020

About harsh truths, what they don't tell us, and my friend Ash

This is the poem.

The one about
growing up,
moving out,
and getting older
You'll come to learn that
heartache is only but
a scratch and that jubilation
is a thing of the past,
found on the second star to the right.
How its possible to be as cold as ice,
even in the summer months
And how welcoming
rock bottom (the depths of hell)
can truly be when salvation
feels unattainable
I wish that I could wrap
your tender soul in the clouds
of yesterday to protect you
from the winters to come
They say that diamonds are best
created under pressure
But I say,
diamonds are overrated

wash your hands and take care! - This is about a dear friend of mine whose courage mimics 1000 lives lived.

#growingup #hardtruth #strength

Glenn Currier Mar 2020

Small Sufferings

The life of parents is gauged in teaspoons
of sweat, vinegar, blood and tears
in early mornings and tire of late afternoons
all collected in a cup of salvation for years.

Small sufferings and moments of pain
become sacrifice for a child’s little sins
so the youth won’t suffer the blame,
cost of loss, but the joy of life’s wins.

All these payments made without wrath
may never be repaid to them in their time
but lessons taught will etch a path
for a child to grow up into its prime.

Anyone who loves the unkind
or selfish or one who has spurned
virtue or left goodness behind
pays debts the errant don’t earn.

Dedicated to Kevin Williford in honor of his forthcoming work: Serving in the Lord’s Blackberry Patch.

#suffering #sacrifice #atonement #love #youth #growingup #unpaiddebts

Thomas W Case Mar 2020

Festus

When I was a boy on the farm in
Missouri slaying dragons and
making swords out of sticks,
my Dad got me a coonhound pup.
He named him Festus.
Dad was a real Gunsmoke fan.
Festus grew, as I did, and we
traveled every inch of
that 120 acres.
There were two streams that
ran through our land,
and a pond south of the house.
We had 60 head of cattle and
several calves. Festus would
help me chase them.
When I went to bed for
the night, I heard crickets and cicadas,
and always Festus, way off in
the distance howling and barking.
He didn't mind touring the
farm with me, but he
did his best work on his own,
late at night.
Now that I'm an adult, and
Festus is long gone,
I wonder if anybody can
hear me howl in the
darkness.

#hounddog #growingup #farmlife #boy #man

nitelite Mar 2020

waking up, growing up

half-feigning a convenient drowsiness,
half-closed eyes and half words shot at
a bedroom wall illuminated by early sunshine,
and it happens to be quite bright.

happened again, redoing, recurring,
an ordinary oration, a silent sermon
the same words again, a slightly different version
every morning, inside out in eversion

the wrong things again, waking up
getting out of bed, out of my head, growing up,
getting old, aging fast, coming to terms with the fact that
one’s life is only as long as one’s past

all this future-talk’s got it feeling a lot longer
And vacancy is at least not my mistake
Filling in a bubble blindly of multiple choices
Splaying multiple regrets for something’s sake.

I will wake up and grow up
But if childhood is living in the sun’s light
then what’s staying up all night to watch its rise?

watching the lives of people change around me while mine stagnates made me wonder if my youth was being wasted, only to realize that that way of thinking never had a chance of being youthful, to begin with. part of growing up is growing up properly, giving yourself chances to be happy and young regardless of the world around you.

#wakingup #growingup #future #youth #sunlight

Michael Stefan Mar 2020

[bring me: childhood divine]

The man in the uniform smoked a cigarette.
"Oh, how they beat against
the rubber walls. Stuffed fists
battering with urgency.
It made my heart sad,
as we closed the lid on this one.
My eyes caught the dinosaur boy.
A small stuffy lad, with cracking eyes.
His "mama" was wrapped around him
I suppose
that's what you do
when you are a snake.
Despite the frayed fur, he still had a smile
I could hear her voice in my mind.
[bring him]
A tear welled up as this was the end for them.
I knew it, and they knew it too.
Brains like mashed potatoes,
but still full of common sense.
[bring me]
His furry flesh was used but soft.
I really wish that I could
rewind the clock on this.
I remember that lad on the swingset.
He fell and got *****.
I took him in the bath with me."
[bring me]
The man puffed on his cigarette as he closed the toy box
"I wish I could bring you, Rex.
But I'm a grown-up now.
And grown-ups don't bring toys to work with them."

[bring us]

I remember the day that I looked around my room and realized that I no longer really played with toys. I still had all my stuffed animals and action figures in a box in my closet. It felt so wrong to leave them there. They stayed in that box for several years until I gave them a deserving child. This is almost my monologue/poetry version of Toy Story 3 lol. I hope you like it and take a minute to remember the toys of our childhood and what they meant to us.

#childhood #toys #growingup

Anonymous Freak Mar 2020

Stop

It’s time to stop
Pressing my face against mirrors
And judging each and every pore.

It’s time to stop
******* in my pulpy cheeks
Like I did when I was a young teen
To see what my round face would look like
If they shrank.

It’s time to stop
Doing exercises I find
On the Internet
That falsely promise to make
My ******* the same size.

It’s time to stop
Holding my stomach fat
In my hands
And picturing my body without it.

It’s time to stop
Sitting on the edge of my bed
And looking down at my thighs,
And moving them
To watch the disappointing jiggle.

It’s time to stop
Wearing men’s clothes
In order to hide as many curves
In my body
As I can.

It’s time to stop
Trying to change
Because I want to earn love.

It’s time to stop
Hurting myself
Trying to become beautiful,
Because I’m the only person
Who I can count on
To be truly kind to my body.

It’s time to stop
Doing things
I know are bad for me.

#growingup #beauty