poetryfest

Read Poem: Can’t you see?, by Mary V. Saenko

POETRY FESTIVAL. Submit to site for FREE. Submit for actor performance. Submit poem to be made into film.

Title: Can’t you see?
Author: Mary V. Saenko
Genre(s): dark, long, sad, painful, hurt, life

Read Poem: Can’t you see?, by Mary V. Saenko

Title: Can’t you see?
Author: Mary V. Saenko
Genre(s): dark, long, sad, painful, hurt, life

I want to be liked.
When I look at myself in the mirror,
All I feel is shame.
I am ashamed of what I look like,
But more than anything,
I am ashamed of who I’ve always been on the inside.
I am ashamed when I open my mouth,
Why do I have to speak?
Can’t you see?
I, too, don’t want to be this annoying!
I can’t help but say stupid things,
Why can’t I shut up?
Why can’t I just be like everyone else?
I don’t want to be me.
I want to be someone else, somebody just like everyone.
You can tell, can’t you?
That I really want you to like me,
Really want you to like me so I can like me too.
This desperation is pathetic,
Irritating,
Repelling,
Appalling,
Disgusting.
Let’s stick two fingers down my throat,
So that maybe yesterday’s bottled up regrets after yet another failed conversation
Will come out
Along with today’s special course:
18-years-worth-of-self-loathing mucus
Clogging my throat and my ears and my head and you,
Do you gag like me?
My tragic attempt to be friendly and likable
Does nothing but highlight my obnoxiousness.
Its filthy.
Does it make you gag, too?
Just say it already!
You hate me, don’t you?
Your words can’t hurt me.
You see, the overwhelming desire to dissapear
Is already my dearest companion;
Its hobbies are joining clubs
Just to feel like you don’t fit in,
Listening to sad songs
Just to cry,
Attending events
Just to feel unwelcome,
And by far, my favorite,
Talking to people who you hope are your friends,
Who you want to connect to,
Who you wish you were,
Just to feel unwanted,
Just to be unwanted,
Just to be alone.
Just to always approach others to start a conversation.
Just to go home by yourself on the last day of school.
Just to squeeze right in the corner of that group photo.
Just to avert eye contact knowing you will always be picked last for a project.
Just to know that if you weren’t here, everyone would be happier.
You ruin everything.
“Why did you show up?”
Can’t you read the room?
Nobody wants you here.
I don’t want to be here.
I just want to be liked.
Will someone else ever like me
When even I don’t like myself?
I can already tell what you are thinking,
Don’t worry, I won’t make you say it out loud.
But it doesn’t bother me,
I think this is something we can both agree on.
And if you say “I don’t like you,”
I will laugh
“Check mate!”
Because in this game, I always have the high ground.
And if you say “I hate you,”
I will exclaim
“Me too!”
If hating yourself is an art,
Well then call me Picasso,
For nobody can hate me
As much as I hate myself.

Read Poem: Parlors, by John Glass

My neighbor was a member
of a gang, the Latin Kings.
My neighbor sits to my right,
but had lived downstairs.

My neighbor reminds me
of Junior, real country folk,
who attended my great-uncle’s wake
back in Bama, some twenty years.

He wore overalls, Big Country,
to raised eyebrows, even there,
a reunion, though teary
as with this shabby funeral home

that I now attend
a wake for a mutual friend
my neighbor and I, catching up
a good guy, someone said.

But Victor wore a bandana,
and liked to say yo.
It was known that he’d killed someone,
back in Quitó.
He stayed but a few minutes
but his bandana remains with me
just as Junior’s denim
too remains with me.

I crunch-step through frost to the train
in Spanish-soaked Queens,
thinking of tonight’s dusty parlor
and that ancient Southern evening.

I shiver, thinking Victor
is okay, going to make it.
And I wonder if Junior is still alive.

Read Poem: DISPOSAL, by Sahana Arun Kumar

You complete asshole.
I dare you to find another woman
Another who’ll play your games
And pander to your insecurities
And caress your ego
I dare you
To catch another unsuspecting youngling
To flaunt yourself
Another woman’s arm, another woman’s work
Another woman’s brilliant mind and worth
And show her off, like you know best
I dare you
To let her believe it’s her you’re seeking
Let her believe how much you care
Lead her into your heart’s lair
The heart that will ensnare
In the garb of protection
And love
That will promise and seal
That she comes to no harm
That she may never feel lonely
Or needy or unloved or small
That your shield will always remain.

And then when you cannot take
That she also is a burning fire
Drop her and leave.

I dare you
To speak on a forum for her
With her, to her
Your validation is exactly what she’s in search of
Your words of encouragement,
Entrapment
A hole that she has no idea she’ll fall into
I dare you to play the part of her saviour
Her knight in shining armour
Free her from distress
By lauding her learning, the learning you
imparted
And praise her for learning you
That feeds your own malecious ability to teach
I dare you to touch her hand
Hold it close
Let her know you’ll protect her
You’ll make sure she comes to no harm
Strengthen it through the promises
And words and gestures of love.
And when she finally begins to feel safe,
And secure, and free to be herself,
To open her heart to you,
And let her power shine,
Drop her.
Just leave.
You, your shield and all.

I dare you to leave her to ponder
The pieces she cannot put together.
Everything that shattered from her own power
A power that she may never realise
Because you ensured that that very scorch
Was nothing without you.
Nothing.

But that scorch will burn
And burn her blue
She’ll fire and power through
And rise from the ashes
And when she rises,
She’ll know that she alone was capable
Of rising out of it.
You on the other hand
Will remain in the grip of your own neediness,
Loneliness and selfserving satiation.
You will remain
A love that can never love
Or be loved.
Sahana Arun Kumar

POETRY Reading: The Old Man and the Tree, by Andrew Smith — POETRY FESTIVAL. Submit to site for FREE. Submit for actor performance. Submit poem to be made into film.

Peformed by Kat Smiley — Producer/Director: Matthew Toffolo http://www.matthewtoffolo.com Festival Moderators: Matthew Toffolo, Rachel Elder Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne Editors: Kimberly Villarruel, Ryan Haines, John Johnson Festival Directors: Rachel Elder, Natasha Levy Camera Operators: Ryan Haines, Temitope Akinterinwa, Efren Zapata, Zack Arch

via POETRY Reading: The Old Man and the Tree, by Andrew Smith — POETRY FESTIVAL. Submit to site for FREE. Submit for actor performance. Submit poem to be made into film.

POETRY Reading: Almost Homeless, by Perry Terrell — POETRY FESTIVAL. Submit to site for FREE. Submit for actor performance. Submit poem to be made into film.

Performed by Kat Smiley

via POETRY Reading: Almost Homeless, by Perry Terrell — POETRY FESTIVAL. Submit to site for FREE. Submit for actor performance. Submit poem to be made into film.

POETRY Reading: THE DEVIL’S CLUTCH, by Kevin Parish — POETRY FESTIVAL. Submit to site for FREE. Submit for actor performance. Submit poem to be made into film.

Performed by Kat Smiley — Producer/Director: Matthew Toffolo http://www.matthewtoffolo.com Festival Moderators: Matthew Toffolo, Rachel Elder Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne Editors: Kimberly Villarruel, Ryan Haines, John Johnson Festival Directors: Rachel Elder, Natasha Levy Camera Operators: Ryan Haines, Temitope Akinterinwa, Efren Zapata, Zack Arch

via POETRY Reading: THE DEVIL’S CLUTCH, by Kevin Parish — POETRY FESTIVAL. Submit to site for FREE. Submit for actor performance. Submit poem to be made into film.

POETRY Reading: End, by Christine Bolton — POETRY FESTIVAL. Submit to site for FREE. Submit for actor performance. Submit poem to be made into film.

Performed by Kat Smiley — Producer/Director: Matthew Toffolo http://www.matthewtoffolo.com Festival Moderators: Matthew Toffolo, Rachel Elder Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne Editors: Kimberly Villarruel, Ryan Haines, John Johnson Festival Directors: Rachel Elder, Natasha Levy Camera Operators: Ryan Haines, Temitope Akinterinwa, Efren Zapata, Zack Arch

via POETRY Reading: End, by Christine Bolton — POETRY FESTIVAL. Submit to site for FREE. Submit for actor performance. Submit poem to be made into film.

POETRY Reading: Bully, by Travaughn — POETRY FESTIVAL. Submit to site for FREE. Submit for actor performance. Submit poem to be made into film.

Performed by Kat Smiley — Producer/Director: Matthew Toffolo http://www.matthewtoffolo.com Festival Moderators: Matthew Toffolo, Rachel Elder Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne Editors: Kimberly Villarruel, Ryan Haines, John Johnson Festival Directors: Rachel Elder, Natasha Levy Camera Operators: Ryan Haines, Temitope Akinterinwa, Efren Zapata, Zack Arch

via POETRY Reading: Bully, by Travaughn — POETRY FESTIVAL. Submit to site for FREE. Submit for actor performance. Submit poem to be made into film.

Poetry Reading: GENERATION, by A. Brown — POETRY FESTIVAL. Submit to site for FREE. Submit for actor performance. Submit poem to be made into film.

Performed by Carina Cojeen Generation, by A. Brown To have Strength to persevere in a time filled with: peer pressure, envy and hate, is a modern-day miracle. I’ve come to realise, that the greater the blessing, the greater the obstacle. There was a glass ceiling, until it was broken by my, desire not to be, […]

via Poetry Reading: GENERATION, by A. Brown — POETRY FESTIVAL. Submit to site for FREE. Submit for actor performance. Submit poem to be made into film.