Author: poetryfest

Submit your Poetry to the Festival. Three Options: 1) To post. 2) To have performed by an actor 3) To be made into a film.

“Only the refusal to listen guarantees one against being ensnared by the truth.” — Art of Quotation

“Only the refusal to listen guarantees one against being ensnared by the truth.” Robert Nozick, writer, book quote from “Anarchy, State, and Utopia”, 1974

via “Only the refusal to listen guarantees one against being ensnared by the truth.” — Art of Quotation

“I’m a ghost living in a ghost town / I’m going nowhere shut up all alone… If I want a party It’s a party of one“ — Art of Quotation

Ain’t having any fun If I want a party It’s a party of one Song quote from Living in a Ghost Town, songwriters – Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, performed by The Rolling Stones, 2020 “Living In A Ghost Town” I’m a ghost Living in a ghost town I’m a ghost Living in a ghost […]

via “I’m a ghost living in a ghost town / I’m going nowhere shut up all alone… If I want a party It’s a party of one“ — Art of Quotation

“I live in an apartment on the ninety-ninth floor of my block / And I sit at home looking out the window Imagining the world has stopped” — Art of Quotation

I was sick and tired, fed up with this And decided to take a drive downtown It was so very quiet and peaceful There was nobody, not a soul around Song quote from Get Off My Cloud, 1965, performed by the Rolling Stones, songwriters: Keith Richards and Mick Jagger “Get Off Of My Cloud” […]

via “I live in an apartment on the ninety-ninth floor of my block / And I sit at home looking out the window Imagining the world has stopped” — Art of Quotation

“Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.” — Art of Quotation

“Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.” -Walt Whitman

via “Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.” — Art of Quotation

“When this is over, I don’t want the traffic to come back. I want all this extra time with my family. I want to hold on to this quietness.” — Art of Quotation

When this is over, I don’t want the traffic to come back. I want all this extra time with my family. I want to hold on to this quietness. Geoff McFetridge, artist

via “When this is over, I don’t want the traffic to come back. I want all this extra time with my family. I want to hold on to this quietness.” — Art of Quotation

“Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.” — Art of Quotation

“Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children’s children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.” —Theodore Roosevelt

via “Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.” — Art of Quotation

“I no longer have a relationship with my calendar.” — Art of Quotation

We closed Parnassus Books, the bookstore I co-own in Nashville, on the same day all the stores around us closed. I can’t tell you when that was because I no longer have a relationship with my calendar. All the days are now officially the same. My business partner Karen and I talked to the staff […]

via “I no longer have a relationship with my calendar.” — Art of Quotation

SOLAR PROBE, by Muhammad Zaheer

Thy Corona Heat can render and ignite
Yonder placed;
Carbon-Carbon-Composite sheath
And every cocoon placed at yon
Farther at Six n two million
O’Helios!

To Subdue the Sun; in this fun
One should not spun.
I do importune and the rest must learn
What we require is nothing!
But a real
Refractory.

My NASA dons!
Don’t be forlorn.
Do act upon my humble song.
I keep the all we need at all
Come and take that metallum mine!
That is to say, my heart along!

Ben-Hur: From Here to Eternity, by Lampropoulou Athanasia

Cleft in twain now looking for my M(ark)
launching of my Odyssey but there awaits the narc!
“Be a goodfella now,” he said
“not a raging bull” in a titanic set.
Lost in translation and bearing my se7en sins
I’ve been searching for my dolce vita ever since.
Being a pariah among parasites
I now count 12 years a slave in wuthering heights.
And although I try hard to be the artist that they seek,
I only get identified with Zorba the Greek.
Pan’s labyrinth lies ahead
But I’ve got the gladiator with me my friend.
Stepping upon a shape of water
A desert flower emerged.
“Be braveheart my dear when you get discharged.”
The best years of our lives are yet to come
but I only long for the silence of the lamb.
The sting is deeply rooted in the skin I live in,
The English patient they call me, the nonliving.
I once heard that one flew over the cuckoo’s nest
but he was left all stranded in the west;
not even a streetcar named desire to save his soul
just the right scapegoat to pigeonhole.
So there he was, commissioned to kill a mockingbird
a walking carmagnole with no safe bet.
He tossed three coins in the fountain-his ex machina appeared.
“Will you help me my fair lady?” he said afeared.
“This west side story is your destiny
but beware on the waterfront of the upcoming mutiny!”
The Occident is no place for a godfather.
He will rise, he will thrive, he will fall-like any other.
His empire – gone with the wind now
looking for his Gigi, his eternal vow.

Comfort Me, by Saar Arreola

I hav a body
I hav a soul
But I’m not of this world
I don’t belong
People are tainted
And mislead
I’m always gonna be wronged
Where’s the love and compassion
Where’s the kindness and joy
Theres jus death and destruction
Unfairness, corruption, and pain
Why not end my life
And reclaim it for my own
I can’t even see what’s in store for me
I can’t get past this mess
That I continuously see on the TV
With all the assholes that cause the fuckery
My mind gambles with
Who’s gonna be next
Will it be me?
Or my trans friend next to me
Who’s life will be stolen
By the hands of another human
Being human disgusts me
This is not my kind
Humankind is being both
Condescending at the most
I don’t get it
It hurts me everyday
Why the hate?
WHY THE HATE??
So I transcend myself
And make my body my own
Agender and proud
To call my body my soul’s home
But I hav to confess
I’m a mess
Why live
Wen I’m going to die anyway
Why go thru this pain
Jus to get thru another day?
Why not jus take my own life
Turn off my lights
So I can go to a peaceful place
N let all the pain fade away
This is selfish
So they say
But in the end
All I hav is myself
So y can’t I do this?
I’m scared
Regardless of my death wish
Wat would happen after I die?
I don’t want God or my family
To think I’m selfish
Or a failure
I don’t want to go to “hell”
But what does the pain n sadness in my heart suggest?
Why live with a mind full of distress
Idk
I can’t see what’s in front of me
I can’t think clearly
I don’t know how to do life correctly
I’m aging day by day
Slowly wasting away
Is this wat u call being grown up?
So why do I wait and procrastinate?
Why can’t I do and say things right?
I feel like a waste of space
I feel like why even try
Wen everything I do turns out wrong
I can’t predict the future
I can’t see the end result
How can I go from point A to B wen the path is unknown to me
Take it day by day they say
But procrastination takes place
Then what?
Priorities are a must
It’s hard to make up my mind
Idk what I really want in life
I feel dead inside
N all the bad things I c
Increases this feeling I hav in me
I’m weak
I’m weak
I don’t know how to go about life with this feeling
I know
I need help
But even with help
I can’t see how it’s going to work out for me
How do I change my way of being?
How do I change my thinking?
How can I be more than who I am now?
How can I make my family proud?
For the first time in my life
I need God to comfort me.

Genre: LGBT, Hate, Dark, Sad, Death, Purpose, Life, God