#selflessness
We’ve all seen horrors
But they’ve seen worse.
That is the power
of
their
worth.
One step forward
Only to be thrown back.
Blown to bits,
But they stay
on
Track.
With sheer will
And courage put
Forth.
That is the power
of
their
worth.
Red poppies for
the blood
they’ve
spilt.
Losing friends,
sometimes family.
May those poppies
never
wilt.
PTSD if you
know
what I mean.
Flashbacks to
the
bloody
scenes.
Footsteps forward
across scorched
earth.
That is the power
of
their
worth.
Acts of the greatest
love.
Fighting with selfless
courage.
Not for glory or gain
But pushing through
gory pain.
That is the power
of
their
worth.
Oct 31, 2025
Oct 31, 2025 at 6:20 PM UTC
As the skies up high
bloom with dark sea blue,
when the moon forgets
its duty tonight;
Up you fly for
a ballet with the stars;
Glowing every
single black ray
with a golden spark;
When all asleep,
cozy, warm in their beds,
but why?
Why do you
light up the skies,
without keeping
the only left light
to yourself?
Jun 26, 2025
Jun 26, 2025 at 10:11 AM UTC
I care. Really, I do.
I’m a monster and a ******
but I still have a heart,
albeit rather
unfortunately.
I’m trying my best to be
less of a no one and more of a someone,
more of a person.
To care more,
to love more,
to take less
and give more.
I don’t care if it leaves me
broken.
But in some way I still
do.
It’s selfish to put myself before everyone else,
Yes, I know that-
And it’s horrid that I think I should treat myself
to the privilege of wanting something
that isn’t going to go to
someone else.
Yes, I know that too-
And it’s such a pity that I can’t bring myself
to tear my heart out of my chest
or rip my soul out of my body
and give it to you like I desperately want to.
Because I care.
Really,
I do.
May 10, 2025
May 10, 2025 at 5:31 AM UTC
Put on right out of the womb, a crown was placed on her head
5 diamonds are placed to represent each burden
Perfection
Therapist
Extra parent
No remembrance of her childhood
And giving when there's nothing left to give
As the years go on, she will make mistakes
Hers being the hardest to forgive
She will take the pain and burdens of the ones who brought her into this world and others without a second of hesitation and still feel as if she is not enough
She will me extraordinarily mature for her conquest asked of her
But not nearly mature enough for what she wants
She will put every person before her
But when she does something for herself, she's called selfish and lazy
She surrounds herself with books to take her to a place that expects nothing but the flip of a page
Countless times,
She will compare herself to others
She will stay up late working on that paper to get extra points just to please her parents
She will have impossible expectations to meet
Do you know who she is?
She's the eldest daughter
She won't want to have kids for the fear of putting her oldest through the same pain
But most of all, she won't get what she craves the most
Unconditional love
Apr 22, 2025
Apr 22, 2025 at 10:30 PM UTC
The things I do for her,
Their out of character,
She takes me far,
To places I haven't been.
I love her,
Something I don't say much,
If none at all,
But she's got me there.
Her embrace does it for me,
It's her gentle smile,
It's her charisma,
Even when it's night.
She's a proper lady,
She's beautiful that way,
Elegantly enslaved to perfection,
She reminds me of balance.
She's broken with me,
We relate in our sorrows,
And yet I want her out,
Of the two she's to be saved.
I will make sure she does,
One last time,
One last effort,
I will make one last dream come true.
Even at the cost of my happiness,
The cost of my logic screaming,
Saying we have nothing left,
And yet love for me is sacrifice.
Love for me,
Left me empty,
But I didn't it again always,
One last time.
With everything I have left.........
By:Jn
Mar 5, 2025
Mar 5, 2025 at 4:26 PM UTC
I laid my hands upon the altar,
knuckles bruised from silent prayers,
whispers turned to fleeting echoes,
lost among the empty air.
I built you bridges out of marrow,
stitched the stars into your sky,
gave you light when nights were hollow,
yet you never asked me why.
My name fades in nameless hours,
scattered like the autumn leaves,
a monument of quiet labor
built for those who never grieve.
And still, I stand, arms outstretched,
woven from the threads of care.
The world moves on—I disappear,
a ghost who gave, yet none were there.
Feb 21, 2025
Feb 21, 2025 at 9:05 AM UTC
'selfless gratitude' -
not something one inherits;
a skill one acquires.
Dec 4, 2024
Dec 4, 2024 at 12:27 PM UTC
There’s not enough.
I’m more than two handfuls,
I can’t keep it in anymore.
The glass peels off like wax,
and drips onto the floor.
I’m bleeding, I’m bloodied.
I can barely keep myself,
out of the puddle
forming on the floor.
I couldn’t ask for help,
I’d hate to take it all—
I’d need all their hands,
just to hold myself.
Someone with four arms,
I hope they come to save me.
With just two hands,
I can’t help hold
their spilling glass too.
Nov 12, 2024
Nov 12, 2024 at 10:19 PM UTC
Hot fumes evaporate from my ears
You have killed us both
And brought my furnace to tears
Why not abandon me, little moth?
I shall pass on and you shall pass
Honour my sacrifice, honour myself
Look only where the stars reside
Not beneath earth where my soul doth hide.
From now your flesh has the life of two
So do what I'd do, do what you'd do.
Farewell to you, ride through and true
In flesh I died, in spirit with you.
Aug 15, 2024
Aug 15, 2024 at 1:56 AM UTC
When you’re stretched too thin
And you find it hard to breathe
Just wait a little bit for me
So I can teach you to stand still
Even if I can’t do it myself
I will rip both of my eyes off
So you can finally see
I will rip both my legs off
So you can have something to stand with
And when I have nothing else to give
I will hand my heart in
To your calloused hands
That have bled out from trying
And I’ll confine to you my thoughts
The ones that don’t make sense at all
So you can cherish them and remember
All the good memories I have saved of you
So you can see yourself from my eyes
And realize, how perfect you are
How flawless you look, how quickly you talk
How with a single move
you can make a whole new star
All I need for you to know
Is that if you’re in a dead void
And you don’t have anything to hold on to
I will be by your side after only my soul’s left
And even if I’m too broken for you to mimic
Or too lost for you to find me
I’m grateful you have my heart
Because you could’ve never broken it in any pieces
because all the things you touch
Come alive in new raíces.
Mar 5, 2023
Mar 5, 2023 at 6:26 PM UTC
I wanted to be an iceberg
Floating over the mass of water
Hard and cold
A battleground for polar bears and seals
Shining, reflecting the sun
Located in the ends of the earth
Wanting, wary, wintry
And after all of my efforts
The thinking and scheming
All I got was pain
All I received was rejection
Now all I ask is to dissolve
To become one with the water
Warm, waving, wild
A home for precious fishes
Where seals and polar bears swim
To disappear in the ocean
To be the ocean
Spread across the Earth
To be ****** in by clouds
And bring rain to the forests
And after all my efforts
The motions and the serving
Hoping that I find peace
And deep acceptance
Oct 3, 2021
Oct 3, 2021 at 2:54 AM UTC
Although reciprocation would be ideal
it does not have to be all or nothing.
If I can be
as a single flower is to the meadow
then I am content.
Apr 21, 2021
Apr 21, 2021 at 2:11 PM UTC
Flay me, shroud my body
in Saran wrap, for others to see
what you mean to me: a relief
map of live suffering,
writhing organs in a plastic bag,
a human soup to drag
behind you, sensitive to everything you do,
overflowing with formless worship,
pink, raw and dreaming
of a vicious kinship:
Open yourself and slip my parts in,
we can exist, two hideous beasts
within a single beautiful skin.
Oct 22, 2020
Oct 22, 2020 at 5:20 PM UTC
It's a chilly autumn evening,
I sat for dinner with my gorgeous wife, leaning.
She turns of the artificial lights
and fires up a unimpressive wax candle and sighs.
The candle sits majestically on a hand made wooden stand,
My attention switches from her to it, like the seconds hand.
What's the story I wonder? Some of it melts down the stand,
some of it vanishes, ceases to exist, like dreamland.
It burns to give light and warmth
and yet asks nothing in return.
Wish I could be like a candle.
Back to dinner now.
Sep 12, 2020
Sep 12, 2020 at 5:29 AM UTC
Inside of every line there is a meaning hard to find
A moment of the mind
A breath of sacred life
A body not to bind
A sharpness like a knife
Pure attention
Not a weapon, but slicing through each second
Severing summoned notions
With smooth motions
Leaving only seamless being
Flowing like an ocean
Coming and going
The ebb and flow
Of life under the light
No longer lost in night
Now caught in perfect sight
For but a moment
Where the flow went
Before returning to the sea
To effervescent infinity
With equanimity
You are here with me
Flowing
Like the ocean
Aug 15, 2020
Aug 15, 2020 at 10:44 AM UTC
I would travel the whole world on foot, if you were waiting for me at the end of it.
Jul 28, 2020
Jul 28, 2020 at 4:06 PM UTC
She brings sadness and sorrow.
Everything aspiring to bring her down.
Nobody cared when she fought alone.
She doesn't need to be remembered.
She is willing to endure the pains,
To be bound by the chains.
For she doesn't cry,
She just smiles and spreads her arms.
She will protect all she loves.
Willing to sacrifice for everyone.
To her, fame is meaningless.
Even if the battlefield is dyed with blood.
Even if everyone is against her.
She will exist because of tomorrow.
Jul 12, 2020
Jul 12, 2020 at 12:33 AM UTC
Love is not attachment.
It is not affection or passionate desire.
Love is not a longing or a warm feeling of fondness.
Nor is it an intense, wholehearted attraction.
Love cannot be these things.
Love is benevolence.
Love is giving, selfless and complete.
Devotion.
Love cannot be said.
Love may only be done.
Jun 12, 2020
Jun 12, 2020 at 6:07 PM UTC
Selflessness comes from sacrificing
Your time and your best effort
You don't think you just do
And you do because you care
For you care about their well being
So that they might live a little easier
Because life's really hard by ourselves
And It means so much when someone is selfless
May 28, 2020
May 28, 2020 at 5:46 AM UTC
You are welcome to share this poem for noncommercial use and dedicate it to your favorite mother, but please credit the author if you share it on social media or elsewhere on the Internet …
Mother’s Smile
by Michael R. Burch
There never was a fonder smile
than mother’s smile, no softer touch
than mother’s touch. So sleep awhile
and know she loves you more than “much.”
So more than “much,” much more than “all.”
Though tender words, these do not speak
of love at all, nor how we fall
and mother’s there, nor how we reach
from nightmares in the ticking night
and she is there to hold us tight.
There never was a stronger back
than father’s back, that held our weight
and lifted us, when we were small,
and bore us till we reached the gate,
then held our hands that first bright mile
till we could run, and did, then flew.
But, oh, a mother’s tender smile
will leap and follow after you!
I have dedicated this poem to my mother, Christine Ena Burch, and my wife, Elizabeth Harris Burch. Published by TALESetc, Famous Poets and Poems, Poems for Big Kids (anthology), Victorian Violet Press, Better Than Starbucks, Promosaik (Germany), Pour Femme (Italy), Korean Palmers, JIT Jaipur (India), Inspirational Stories and Care2Care; also Penguin Books Valentine’s Day Contest Winner and included in the Children of Gaza song cycle by composer Eduard de Boer. Keywords/Tags: Mother, Mothers, Day, love, compassion, tenderness, encouragement, selflessness, sacrifice, comfort, hugs, kisses, smile, smiles
May 9, 2020
May 9, 2020 at 2:28 AM UTC