Read Poem: 5 minutes close to death

I have loved and lost someone

But that someone found love in someone else

I tried to move on

But my heart keeps sticking with him

I loved too hard for him

Damn I want to die

Time to say Goodbye

7 in the morning I wake up

I think of ways to die

To end my life

Leave a suicide note or say my last goodbyes to my mom

No rope in the basement for me to hang around my neck

Tried to pop some pills to ease me down

Dear Devil drag me down with you!

My life is already drowned

There’s a razor in mom’s bedroom

Time to cut the skin open

One slice, cut

Let it bleed

Bleed and Bleed More

Am I there?

I was so close

Almost made it there

I’m not scared

I don’t really care

I was close to the final destination of my life

I only have 5 minutes

Am I there?

Did I make it?

Not even close

I’m still alive

Why? Am I still here

My moms is in tears

She is screaming at me, “Why! Why!”

Time’s up! It’s too late

I had only 5 minutes

I’m not dead

Read Poem: WARRIOR OF THE LIGHT, by Aashish Rego

The soldier waged a lonely war,
as all around him fell,
The corpses of his friends and foes,
shielding him like a shell.

Neither guns nor bombs, or weaponry,
could save him from his fate,
His time had come, or so he felt,
It was now just too late!

But when he had shut eye in defeat,
and surrendered to what may,
A heavenly voice rang in his ears,
and it had this to say :

“This war is different, o my friend,
you’ve lost your kith and kin,
What you are fighting outside you,
actually lies within!

The foe is clever and unseen,
constantly changing shape,
And if you do not fight with guile,
am afraid there’s no escape!

But there is hope, do not despair,
new weapons you must use.
Those that you already possess,
but never did you choose!

Sit silently and meditate,
fill your own lungs with air,
Let gratitude exhale from you,
and then see how you fare!

Now bathe yourself in rays of light,
let the sun, shine on your face,
Feel all that love encompassing you,
in nature’s own embrace!”

The soldier did as he was told,
till he felt as whole once more,
His body, once a battlefield,
now a new look wore.
Opening his eyes, what did he see,
but a sea of white,
Those that spread most selflessly,
the gifts of love and light.

He then resolved, no more to be,
a soldier of the night,
Transformed, he set forth and became,
A warrior of the light!

——- The End ——–

Read Poem: The Chair, Father’s Day, by Robert L. Giron

So here we are, Dad,
your worse fear came to pass,
now you’re in the chair.

How you pushed yourself
to walk again after the fall—
we all rallied around you.

Then reality settled in:
baby steps, even if with
one leg dragging a bit.

You recall that
trek through France
watching truck after truck
drive by with bodies
of young and not so young
stacked like toothpicks.

Keep looking forward,
wanting the best.

A bit of happiness
when you saw Louie
near Luxembourg—
wondering if it
would be your last
time to see each
other but glad to hug,
praying brother Ernie
in Italy was okay.

Back to your troop,
filled with cheer,
you joined the march
to the battle—
then shrap metal hit your
back and buttocks—you
pulled through—others didn’t.

Wounded for life—
ignore the pain—
I’m strong—
yea, you are.

Then two years before
your 100th a simple turn,
a stray cane—
life changed in a flash.

A bolt of light
hit and poof,
the knight fell.

Now, you curse the chair.
Slowly, daily life has
dwindled to meals, short walks
and opening mail.

Wanting more with mind
sharp, you inhale,
exhaling exasperation,
recalling the trek
through England,
France, Luxembourg and
back to England for recovery.

They presented a Purple Heart—
you earned it.

Then seventy years
later with the help
of many, they gave
you the Bronze Star.

Proud of you, family
applauded once pinned.

Through the years, you kept
a distance, never sharing much.

Now that you’re bound
by the chair, we all have
seen the good and the bad.

The bad we’re all
capable of in despair.

Gently your body
fails, yet your mind
is sharp as glass.

A thought
flitters, captured
in space precious
as Mom all these years.

Though far and near,
we hold you
dear.

Read Poem: I’m floating on a memory, by Loren Gonzales

Soaring to my destiny
And it’s nice to know that
All at once you are with me
And you’re the only one I’m thanking
For all the love in my heart

Orange souls
Rosetta stones
And desert roses on a melting road
Spirits fly over head and hold me forever and ever

Nothing hurts more than a love that never began
When you lose more than just being friends
A sad clown can weep for a fool
Who gives away so foolishly
A heart that hasn’t earned the right to bleed

If I’m led and melt in the cold
As our breath preaches the lies we sold
I shout away at the dark of the moon
And weep into an empty room

Don’t leave me unless you really mean it
Don’t touch me unless you need it
Dont love me just to beat it
Don’t hate me just to feel it

Read Poem: tennessee crossroads, by Alejandro Lalinde

crossing the tracks
among blue limecitylights and their skinny
cracked brick buildings still testing
time. I
noticed the railroad steam
doesn’t blow anymore, or their anvil
hammers shutter
less with their past echoes, but
with Sassy Ann’s at the
corner
I know Miss Sara will belt out her voice above
the late train’s blowhorn anyday. And

I still am mesmerized past the Tennessee line.

So, we
smoked
to ease our minds – a while, and let
Labron scream & fly
shaving his callused fingertips
along those thin-metal strands of
silver sheath,

to let us waltz on our bare
bended knees —
crawling
to end up on our hands:
dirty.
who cares
for I want to sleep
on these drunken blue streets.

Read Poem: Blue Haired Baby, by Rich Courage

Let me tell you about my blue haired baby
How her pink leathers drive me crazy
How she wears a diamond death’s head stud upon her tongue
How the Metal band she leads
Has a drummer nicknamed BLEED
And her left thigh tattoo reads, I eat my young

Orange lipstick, neon hair
Spiked green leather underwear
Some folks may find her tastes a trifle strange
Blood red eyes, all wild and scary
Complexion like a dead canary
Underweight, on the run, bumming change

My baby rolls her blades or skates her board
To score free donuts “THANK THE LORD!”
Every Sunday midnight mass in Tompkins Square
Tabbouleh hot dogs, that’s her trip
Oreos with a salsa dip
And nothing beats a chocolate egg cream flavored beer

When we make love, sometimes my baby goes away
Huddles up deep, deep inside herself, but that’s okay
Cause we don’t just “do it” that’s not a song within our dance
And whatever scars she bears from her father’s loving touch
I try with kisses, whispers and embraces to heal as much
Cause my blue haired baby deserves a true romance

Her life’s a fall without the crash
So much time, so little cash
Her punkadelic soul burns dark to light
And with her slam dancing by my side
Life’s just a Harley barley ride
Our hearts ablaze up, up and out
Into the sweet and bitter Lower East Side night

Read Poem: Touches of craft, by Laura Sansom

A creative mind, a creative feel.
A touch of crafting and creating.
Stitched with a silk thread embroidered.
Boxes made of tin, stashed on shelves
Containing a mixture of contents rich.
There is the shine of card, newly gleaming
All with a glow of a mirrored sheen.
The stamps inked and marred with designs,
Celebrating and honouring something great!
Be blessed this gifting and for their receiving.
Be thankful for the wonderous touches of craft.

Read Poem: DEAR GAELENE, by Mercedes Webb-Pullman

I’m pitching a script about a journey
discovering new lands. A clever captain
but he’s shipwrecked. A remarkable
love-and-murder story illustrated
by the captain and his new navigator;
he is English, and she Polynesian.

(Quick back-story about a Polynesian
woman who sets out on a journey
inspired by dreamed maps, a navigator
who steers to a fame-hungry captain.)
Same old love story, easily illustrated.
His insanity makes this one remarkable.

Native canoes are truly remarkable;
trees thanked before use, Polynesian
design, local rangatira illustrated –
leaf, tree, thicket. This new journey
worries the shipwrecked captain.
Can he really trust his navigator?

He’s lost his heart to his navigator.
She steers by stars through remarkably
open seas, subverting his role of captain.
In his mind history shifts, Polynesian
society beams him visions; a journey
through death, through fire, to life, illustrated.

His designs hatch into life, illustrated
dreams lie, show him his navigator
on a dangerous, double-crossing journey.
In a cataclysmic shift of passion, remarkable,
the once-beloved, once-worshipped Polynesian
is seized and tortured by her captain.

He’s no longer sane, her captain.
He kills her. And he eats her. Illustrated,
shocking. A woman, native Polynesian
in an alien world, brave navigator
of life, her way of death remarkable.
Imagine a movie of the whole troubled journey;

a lovely Polynesian navigator, wooed
by the shipwrecked captain; their remarkable,
sad, and morally illustrated journey.

—
http://www.amazon.com/author/mercedeswebbpullman