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Don't cage me,
Don't chain me,
Don't try and change me,
I am the river,
I am free.

So you can't control me,
You can know me,
But you'll never own me.
Freedom is a human instinct, how come people think they can go without it.
Mays Benatti Jul 2017
Searching for an ear,
Just one.
It's a quest for acceptance,
Or maybe the solace gun.
Hand it over,
Prepare to run.
This poem reflects a moment of deep vulnerability and inner conflict. It’s about searching for someone to truly listen, to provide that sense of acceptance we all crave. But there’s also this edge—this feeling of tension or danger that comes with opening up. The “solace gun” was my way of capturing how heavy those emotions can feel, like you’re carrying something powerful and fragile at the same time.

The line “hand it over, prepare to run” is a mix of fear and urgency, like a warning to myself or others about the risks of being vulnerable. Writing this was a way to process that push-and-pull between needing connection and guarding my own heart.
Mays Benatti Dec 2019
If my beauty was to measured by progress,
Together, we might not feel so hopeless.
Tounge tied, our whispers turned us tone deaf

To the ones we hold closest
What if our progress as a couple had been measured by something deeper than physical attraction? Could we have grown into something more meaningful? This poem captures that bittersweet realization and the complexity of love built on infatuation.
Hawley Anne Jan 2
I'm making a promise to myself, that this year will be different.
No longer will I prioritize those who do not care about my mental health. This year I will learn to put myself first, because self care is NOT selfishness, it's necessary.  
And I deserve it.  
I will love myself MORE than I fear abandonment, and I will NOT shrink myself to fit inside anyone's expectations of who I'm supposed to be.
I make a promise this year to be loud and bold and unapologetically myself. A promise that I will speak my truth, even if some might find it uncomfortable or hard to hear.
I will own every choice I make, and I will never again be controlled or manipulated into forgetting the boundaries I've set.
I promise that this year I will finally implement all the lessons that life has been teaching me.
2024 is gone
But this is not a "New year, new me" post.
Rather this is a
"New year BETTER ME, HEALED ME, HAPPY THRIVING HEALTHY ME" post.

This year I will stop questioning my worth, because I recognize I was searching for it in all the wrong places, mainly in other people.
I will never again forget my worth, because now I remember where it lies. Not outside, but within myself. I am a complete person, and never again will I stay in relationships that harm my mental emotional and spiritual self, just to avoid the loneliness.
I will stop accepting half *** people who only offer breadcrumbs. I promise to be content in myself and who I am. I make this promise to myself that I will remain happily unattached romantically, until someone comes along that does not expect me to complete them, or fix them or baby them, because they too know they are a full, complete person, all on their own.
I will not enter into any relationship unless it is because, as two whole people, we want to share eachothers fully established worlds. Not to complete or fix
eachother but to simply enjoy eachother.

I promise to never forget the hurt, the pain, the loss, and all the lessons from the past few years. But I also swear to myself not to live in those memories any longer. I have allowed my past to spoil
FAR TOO MUCH
of my present already, and I refuse to allow it to take anymore.
I finally learned what life has been trying to teach me. I finally understand why no matter how much of myself I gave away, in hopes it would bring me the love I was desperately searching for, it would have NEVER been enough.
I was giving myself to the all the wrong people, for all the wrong reasons.
I promise to forgive myself for that aswell.
I promise to not allow any unhealed people to hold my heart, because I've learned my lesson about that one. Never again will my heart be trusted to anyone who is not intouch with their own.
And although that means I am going to lose people I had thought were going to be with me forever, I will not let that break me. I will remember the good times with the people that forced me to lose them, but I will also keep the lessons from all the bad times.
I will pick MYSELF up this time, and dust off my past MYSELF.
This is going to be more than just a new chapter in the same old dusty book of me, this is the second volume. Its my part two, where the truth is revealed,  that the HERO
I've been waiting and searching for this entire time, was me, all along.
THIS is my PROMISE  to myself, and always remember, I DONT BREAK MY PROMISES.
Lots of lessons in the past few years, if you have been following me or if you have read some of my previous works, you'll have a bit of an understanding of the toxic relationship I was in. How I was codependent as one could possibly get, and how the end of that relationship nearly killed me, or had me do it myself really. You'll know how even after he left me for someone else, he still tried to use me and keep me gor his convenience, and you'll know how that worked for him for awhile anyways. I have been so weak in the past I took the breadcrumbs and felt blessed to get them. But this poem is my resolution to never again accept the things I did before.  To stand up for myself for once. And start acting as if I was someone who I actually cared about.  Thanks for taking the time to read my stuff. It means the world to me that people all over the world have read my inner most thoughts, and some even liked them. 😅
ARI Jan 1
When I was just 14
I met a girl who looked like me
But there were differences
I truly couldn’t help but see

Like the way that her smile
Never seemed to reach her eyes
The ones of which I swear
Were long since devoid of life

I saw the way her hands
Cradled her own heart
The ones by which I know
Her own thighs were carved

And I could see her fighting
The dire urge to scream
And refusing to give in
To the cry she truly needs

-ARI
Heidi Franke Dec 2024
Engrossed in
Electronic word game
Famed on phone

Ad delay my
Path to next level
Dropping my attention

Sudden rush of
Nothingness in
My blood

No screen time
Felt a bottomless
Bleak pit

I fell until
I measured my breath
Of existence leaving

All defined on
False electric bait
Clips of wins and loss

Almost threw up
In my felt emptiness
Messy messy power grab

Measure me alive
Today and Now
Not then or ever
Playing a number matching game on my phone. Engrossed daily in getting to higher levels. How far can I get? The further I get to the higher number the less I am attached to my self. Losing all definition. Realizing the power of myself I give away to a meaningless device.
Steve Page Dec 2024
When fighting your monsters
- watch yourself
less you become monstrous.

When fighting your monsters
- watch yourself
and arm yourself with virtue.

When fighting your monsters
- watch yourself
and shield your deep innocence.

When fighting your monsters
(and you must fight your monsters
no matter the depth of the abyss)
- watch yourself
and let your true self stand.
"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."
Friedrich Nietzsche
Sarah Richardson Dec 2024
Webs of stories form beliefs,
influencing actions,
creating a concept of me—
until I become myth.

A synthesis of cells,
speaking electric tongues,
a possession of matter
by patterns that think.

Through a brain and a spine
and everything between,
a unity emerges:
scattered fragments
woven whole.

Interactions form bonds,
all the way up, all the way down.
Outside and within:
culture consuming society,
society consuming self.

Self devours body,
body devours mind,
biology consumes chemistry,
chemistry consumes physics,
down to quantum foam.
Arobeum Dec 2024
I am afraid of eyes,
Of thoughts and minds.
Afraid the "me" I see in mirrors
Might not be the "me" in others’ minds.

I fear the opinions, the whispered words,
The voices carving shapes of me.
What if their visions linger,
Ghosts of a face I cannot see?

They haunt me,
Questioning my skin, my bones,
The core of my existence.
Am I enough? Or am I shadows,
Fading in the light of others’ brilliance?

I fear I’ll never be content,
Forever chasing reflections—
Comparing my fragile self
To those I deem better,
Forgetting the beauty
That blooms within my imperfections.
Flea Dec 2024
28 years old
I tried modeling by accident
Thought it would be good
But it was more food for
Thought
As the poses good more ****
The consequences of those poses
We’re too
Where did
                  Your brain
                                     Go to?
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