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rhyme weaver Dec 2024
He holds my gaze with trembling hands,
A man torn by tides, shifting sands.
He says he wants me—but I know the ache,
The ghost of her still in his wake.

Her name lingers like smoke in the air,
And now his ex—her shadow is there.
Whispered confessions, a flicker of doubt,
A heart that wanders, a love stretched out.

Yet I do not judge; how could I dare?
I see the storm he’s learned to wear.
A mind that battles, a heart that’s bruised,
A tangle of love and paths confused.

I see my soul reflected in his eyes,
A twin flame’s fire, where truth and shadow lie.
I know his hunger, the ache to feel whole,
The battles within, the wars of the soul.
I understand the need, the longing for love,
The self-sabotage, the push, the shove.
For his self-doubt mirrors my own scars—
Two hearts aligned, yet torn apart by stars.

I’m hopeful for us, yet I’ll tread with care;
His patterns linger, my heart’s aware.
Yet I won’t worry, I won’t let the anxious thoughts win.
I’ll trust the journey, let the healing begin.
For love is a path both fragile and strong,
And what’s truly meant for us won’t steer us wrong.

Yet I can’t help it; my chest now tightens as I dream of us:
Will his promises hold, or crumble like dust?
Will I be the anchor, or just another shore?
Will he seek solace where he’s been before?

Still, I’ll stay and never judge, for I know his pain—
The weight of loss, the ache of shame.
I understand the wounds, the scars unspoken,
Our fragile hearts, so easily broken.

I’ll let time flow, let it all unfold,
For fate has a way of taking hold.
What’s meant to be will find its way,
Through light or shadow, come what may.

For if he can choose me, leave the past behind,
I know we’ll find peace in love redefined.
But I’ll still tread lightly, for love is a thread,
And trust is a bridge I’ll build with my dread.
12.29.24
rhyme weaver Dec 2024
He stands where the shadows meet,
A choice that dances, bittersweet.
In his gaze, a world untold,
A flicker of warmth, a whisper of cold.

He’s the pull of tides, the hush of the moon,
A fleeting note in a haunting tune.
Caught between what could and can’t,
A lover’s dream, a life’s restraint.

I trace his words, like lines of fate,
In echoes of love, in shadows of hate.
His touch—a storm, both soft and fierce,
A balm for wounds he didn’t pierce.

Yet still, I stand on shifting ground,
In silence, where his name resounds.
He’s not just a soul, but a choice to be,
A mirror reflecting the depths of me.

Though fear lingers, I know what’s true—
A future bright, shaped by me and you.
We’re bound by threads no hand can sever,
Our love a promise: someday, forever.

But anxious thoughts begin to creep,
A fear that runs so dark, so deep.
What if one of us breaks apart,
And shatters this love before it can start?

Our inner children cry for care,
For love we’ve sought, but found so rare.
Yet fear looms large, and we both know,
The pain if this ends will scar and grow.

I see the weight he quietly bears,
The scars of hurt, the fragile air.
We’ve both been lost, unloved, unseen,
Yet in each other, we’ll finally be clean.

No ex could hold what we now hold,
No fleeting love, no story told.
We are the shelter, the sacred place,
The love that time could not erase.

With him, I know we’re meant to be,
Our paths by stars and fate decree.
In his heart, I’ve found my home,
With him, I’ll never feel alone.

So here I linger, heart in hand,
No longer caught between sea and land.
We are the love we searched to find,
Two broken hearts, now intertwined.
12.29.24
Kiernan Norman Dec 2024
The train didn’t leave the station—
it just waited for me to give up chasing it,
its engine a wolf panting in the dark,
smoke curling into the air
like the echo of a laugh,
a smirk I couldn’t outrun.

I ran because stopping felt like failure.
I ran like if I reached it, I’d finally be enough.
I ran until my lungs screamed,
until the soles of my shoes
wore whispers into the gravel.
I swore I heard it call my name,
but maybe it was just the wind,
mocking the way I mistook movement
for meaning.

For a moment, it slowed—
just enough to make me believe
I could catch it,
just enough to make me think
it wanted me there.

The train didn’t leave.
It sat there,
watching me unspool myself,
mile by mile,
breaking like an old clock
that refused to tick.

I thought if I ran fast enough,
I could earn its departure—
prove I was worthy of being left behind.
But it was never about speed.
It was about surrender,
about learning that some things
stay still just to watch you fall apart.

The train never moved.
It stayed quiet,
its shadow stretching long,
swallowing me whole,
burying me in forgetting.

I stopped running.
And that’s when I realized—
the train was never waiting for me.
It was waiting to remind me
that some things linger like shadows,
stretching long enough
to teach you how to let go.
Steve Page Dec 2024
Poetry is a painting
The poet the painter
The reader the beholder

Poetry is a riddle
The poet the riddler
The reader the solver

Oh, poet.
You choose the metaphor.
i hear some poets speak with pride how they hide behind their words while others talk of painting pictures.  I know there's a place for both, but I know which I prefer.
datura Dec 2024
Dutch white lace draped over the ivory long table in a seraphic quilting,
A Gawain teacup, embellished with gossamer Eustoma, sat, awaiting,

Diaphanous beads of the chandelier glistened above the lone, ceramic plate in quietude,
A tender marigold light gorged the room, as a sweet ambrosia replaced the solitude,

The Lush curtains lapped, picking up dusks gentle zephyr from behind me,
Opened oak and a soft wheeling dusting away my momentary reverie.

Trays of glimmering cloches, were carefully escorted into the room,
All adorned with silken pink ribbons, delicate as spring bloom.

I pulled out the cotton sewn chair, settling atop its the feathered doily pillow,
And rested upon the cushion, the double doors shut with a slam and a billow.

Before me, sat one of the decorated cloches, sliver like a frozen over nebulous,
I removed the reflective veil with the careful touch of folding an origami pond lotus.

Painted over in a mellow coddle of buttercream, was a layered strawberry cake,
Smiling flash at the saccharine smell, I cut into it, only to hear a trickling sibilance like a snake,

Once warm light had begun to frantically holler and splash around the room in a bleary dim haze,
Like a lagoon's catharsis, the chandelier rung out and submerged the dining hall in a flickering glaze,

During the jolting flashes, I raise the fork to my lips,
The cutlery quivering slightly under the padding of my fingertips,

Cradled by my tongue, the sponge decompounded bitterly in my jaw,
I couldn't place it, but it just tasted so overwhelmingly metallic and raw,

Shadows and honey glows, rebounding, back and fourth, playing like hungry hounds,
Staining the walls like crushed stars, over and over like a vehement clever without bounds,

As the night fed, and the chandelier flickered, I kept gulfing coppery forkfuls of food,
Sludge in my throat, wet and warm liquid slathered my gums, thickened and crude,

The rhythmic pulsing of the room, betrothed to the flavour swelling inside me,
It's taste fossilised between my gums, still, I parted my lips, welcoming it, voluntarily,

I don't know how long had passed, but the lights convulsions ceased,
Leaving the ripe gleam of the chandelier quiet and leashed,

Now before me, I could see the latter of my impulsive, gluttonous panic,
Sprawled like a burning body, a bloodied matter of fondant was slumped over the ceramic,

Like a gored lambs underbelly the feast was rich with innards and breathing with blackened bile,
Trickling down, wallowing on my chin was a stewed crimson trail, dying a patchy smile,

So I just sat there, a cup spilled at my side, spewing a tristful poison,
In quiet reflection, just me, me and the vestige of what I have done.
Hi, I've written this poem as sort of an allegory for stress eating or over indulging. But you can interpret it how you please, I'd especially love feedback because this has been one of my hardest projects and longest poetry projects, thank you for reading  <3
dead poet Dec 2024
i could tell the time at an early age;
yet, i could never tell the misery
of the hour hand of the clock -
that lies in wait...
for what i imagine,
must feel like an eternity,
at the mercy of the minute hand
to finish a full round -
as it is, in turn,
at the mercy of the second hand;
only to move but a
fraction of an inch on its axis:  
so it can be worthy of its name.

surely, it’s the loneliest of
the three hands;
yet, perhaps, also the wisest -
for it knows what’d happen
if it ceases to move -
even for an hour, as it were.
you see, the illusion of a moving clock
is maintained only by the hour hand.
the minute hand could stop for a minute -
and we wouldn’t mind much;
the second hand could stop for a second -
no harm done;
but if the hour hand stops for an hour -
well, we’d notice.

i can never really tell the time now;
just the hour in which i exist.
Cyndi Allens Dec 2024
To love is to paint
delicately dragging your brush across a canvas
being deliberate with every flick of your wrist
every stroke gentle and planned
and when you make a mistake, you don't throw away the whole canvas
no, you pick up your brush and paint a happier picture over it

I've been afraid to paint for some time now.
I always jump into a painting with a happy picture in mind
but my end result is always the same
groggy. messy. not good enough.
maybe I'm just not destined to be a painter
rhyme weaver Dec 2024
When will the mornings feel different?
When your name doesn’t linger in my first thought,
When the light through the blinds doesn’t whisper your face,
And I rise without the weight of your absence?

When will the nights turn soft with forgetting?
When the pillow cradles only sleep—
Not the ghost of your laughter, your voice in my ear,
Not the echo of all that could never be?

When will the music play untainted,
A melody not stitched with your shadow?
When will I stop wondering if you’d love this song,
If its rhythm might stir something deep in you,
And silence the urge to send it your way?

When will the sight of your favorite team
Be just a score, a game, a fleeting moment—
Not a trigger pulling me back
To the sidelines of my unspoken longing?

When will the world stop speaking your name
In everything, in everyone, in places unknown?
When will my heart stop aching for answers
That it knows will never come?

Maybe the day will come.
Or maybe it never will.

It’s not that I want you gone from my head—
But I want you closer, real, mine.
I love you, I miss you,
And I know I always will.
12.16.24
rhyme weaver Dec 2024
I had forgotten the language of fire,
How words could burn and rise, inspire.
For years, my heart lay cold and still,
A hushed and empty, barren hill.

But then he came, with a quiet spark,
A light in the void, a song in the dark.
His presence a key, unlocking the door,
To parts of myself I’d lost before.

He stirred the ashes, he fanned the flame,
Awakening passions I could not name.
Poems poured forth, creativity bloomed,
A garden of love where shadows loomed.

Not since sixteen had I loved this way,
So fiercely alive, so willing to stay.
He reminded me of what it could be,
To love without fear, to simply be free.

But now he is gone, his light withdrawn,
And the fire he lit flickers at dawn.
My pen grows heavy, my heart turns cold,
As the warmth he gave begins to fold.

He was my muse, my radiant sun,
The source of the art my soul had spun.
Now every verse feels brittle and thin,
A hollow echo of what might have been.

Still, I thank him for the time he gave,
For waking the parts I couldn’t save.
Though the flame may fade, the embers remain,
A whisper of love, a trace of pain.
12.13.24
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