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JL Smith Aug 2018
How could a smile
So radiant
Write from a place
Of such pain?

This question
You asked me
As you walked
The surface
Without digging
The terrain

For my roots
Have traveled deeply
Around rock--
Through dirt and clay,
But my limbs
Bear fruit of beauty
After the rain
Has washed away

© JL Smith
JL Smith Aug 2018
Where are you?

I read about you in books
And watched you on the silver screen
Society places considerable emphasis
On you sweeping me off my feet

Who are you?

Someone labeled, "Super"
Dressed in boots and a cape?
Or a dubious author
Shredding manuscripts you create?

No matter--

The fairy tale's a myth
No perfect prince charming or princess
Just a worn heart-on-her-sleeve lover
Searching for The One who will accept her mess

© JL Smith
writerReader Jan 2015
i want to
touch
the stars with these reaching
words
of mine
with these shaking
hands
of mine
JL Smith Aug 2018
Ninety-nine percent of the time
The truth is brutal
It'll knock you on your back
You'll lie there positioned fetal
Praying it cuts you slack

As for me,
I continue to bear my soul
While most fear truth
I disclose the untold

My ninety-nine percent
Consists of a night owl
And a midnight snack
Laughing until my gut wrenches
And researching odd facts

My truth
Subsists of stubborness
I blame my dad for that
Tears form when I get angry,
But I forgive, rather than fight back

My reality
Reveals clearly
I'm a dreamer wandering an offbeat path
I've been told my goal's improbable,
But I believe in magic after solving the math

And honestly,
My heart falls swiftly
For the one I can't have
And to the ones who wanted me,
I can't force feelings that I lack

Ninety-nine percent of the time
The truth is brutal
It'll knock you on your back
I've shared my proportion,
And it's worth enduring to reach
My one percent of liberation after that

© JL Smith
JL Smith Aug 2018
At times my memory fails
Yet, your words remain clear
It's ironic how you doubted my writing
Never gave it much thought or adhered

You attempted to break my spirit,
But instead, fueled this fire
You planned to bury me in your dust,
And here I am, sprouting higher

All it took--a little confidence
Commitment to my words
A belief in these syllables
Faith in a few strong verbs

I conjure feelings
I share stories
I bleed truth
I give glory

My poetry reveals this heart
You disrespected both,
But some day you will see
How I now touch the lives of strangers I call friends
And through these words,
They believe more than you did--
They've accepted me

© JL Smith
Tuffy Mutombo Aug 2018
Edger Allan Poe inspired me
Shakespeare educated me
Maya Angelou raised me
These writers created a beast in me
A beast of emotions, words that lack definitions
Only existsting in my expressions

Ideal to the common citizen
I write with a pen full of love, curiosity and pain

Emotions that have gone blind, to common sense, and swallowed a pill full of ego

I realize I am worthless without this pen and this pain

I write of love as if I feel it
I write of Justice as if I need it
I write of human behavior as if I need to fix it

If I am to die let my words live on within your emotions when you read them
Forever and ever I hope you feel them
JL Smith Aug 2018
Please don't wander my way
For I know you're not willing to stay
Your clouded skies once cast shadows,
But now my blue paints over your gray

© JL Smith
anotherdream Aug 2018
though the mountains may scream,
and the ground may crumble,
It has no effect on me.
I am not bound by time or space.

though their words spit fire,
their hands wielding weapons,
they are useless against me.
I have become numb to their insults.

though their hands suffocate,
and their eyes scream of hatred,
I cannot see it within their hearts.
they are burdened from the inside.

though the sky will turn dark,
the lightning to shout infinitely,
it will never strike me,
because we have already met.

though their eyes fill with tears,
their face embracing pain,
It does not compare to my struggle.
Mine is unending and lives in me.

though their lives are well lived,
their bodies are still buried.
I do not die because I am not human.
I live infinitely if you choose to let me.
I've been with you since your existence...
JL Smith Aug 2018
How soothing
The sound of rain
As it trickles across
My rooftop
Reminds me of
The summer day
We danced along
My sidewalk

© JL Smith
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