Category: new poetry

Read Poem: ADDICTION by J. A. Allison

Been long since I have felt a peace of mind 
A ceaseless struggle is all I ever find
Too much temptation everywhere I see
What could this world possibly want from me?

Dreams, goals, any potential I had
Are lost in a crevasse, no longer manned
All that’s left are holes and scars 
Piercing my soul, not just my arms 

I knocked on the door of agony and fire
To be strung-out and get a little higher
It’s not only the drug that has me in chains
But the needle, the ritual, are all to blame

My chariot awaits for the devil has come
To take me away while my angel is gone
My last burnt bridge that cannot be undone
In hell I remain, no longer God’s son.

Read Poem: Rapture of the Mind by Kelly Loraine Stearns

Chaos flows
weaving logical assumptions
calculating moments
lost in the questionable silence.
The eye sees what the heart does not know
emotionless rapture of the mind.
This deteriorating vessel
carries a lifeless soul
dragging my emotions
while wasting recyclable thoughts.
I drift alone in a land of confusion
searching for answers
yet there are no conclusions
in my world of seclusion.
The clock ticks by,
where is the time?
As I sit and wonder
Who
What
When
Where
Why and how it is
I let thirty years pass me by.

©elektric_timewarp
KLS
Kelly Loraine Stearns

Read Poem: Phoenix by S. Michal Haaf

We cross the wounded warriors sea..
To distance ourselves from eternity.
As fate would have it-
The dessert rose…
Up from the ashes, and into the throes.
We clash our shields in defiant woes,
Naked and intolerant-
We fall to our foes.
How shameful are we…
Ignorant as can be…
For the perpetuity weakens thee.
As a phoenix, we must climb-
To wash away yester’s grime.

Fly to me, Phoenix of Flee.
Render yourself, hear my plea.

Read Poem: Ending by Jill Munro

Henry sits discretely outside Fleur’s house –
well, as discretely as an antique
Frogeye Sprite permits – wiping
the dials on his dash display,
polishing chrome with a lace-trimmed
hankie that once was hers.

He’s thinking of the days when,
just like this, he waited for her
outside work for stolen hours
of open-topped rides through
Surrey countryside, walks in fields
when kissing gates meant a stop

near every stile, when every tree
became a hugging point, when those
days’ skies seemed brighter blue
than any other and faces
pressed so close they fitted
like puzzle pieces without gaps.

As he waits again for Fleur to emerge ─
Henry holds a rose he will never place.
The Daimler pulls away, its hearse filled
with flower-covered willow, yet empty
in the absence of his single bloom.

Genres applicable: Affairs, Love, funeral, life, relationships, romantic

Read Poem: Aliens by Neetu Malik

Wind-blown seeds
land in unknown soil

in hopes that they will grow
into trees
strong and dense with leaves
heavy with fruit
in fertile ground
where rivers do not
run dry

they do not yet know
what winds and snows
await them
in seasons to come

how frost might freeze
tender sprouts.
© Neetu Malik

Read Poem: LILAC SOUL by Marie Marchand

I breathed rumors of its fragrance
even before the purple bough
was shaken free and cut.
Beauty is effusive.
It travels like dust in a shaft of light
noticeable only in stillness.

Beauty floats, it swirls,
it slides under locked doors
to the other side
going undetected until we rest
then we see.
We are called. Not loudly.
Just a whisper is the invitation
to be free.

What holds us back?
Are we brave enough
to step out of our castles, jails,
porches, fallout shelters,
our cocoons, coffins,
our frayed and wearied selves?
And if we manage that, then what?
Will we be brave enough to Dance?

Like Aspen leaves applauding in the sun
caught in the sweep of unbound joy
our old selves put to rest in shadow and ash.
Our hair, clothing, everything will be
scented lilac; we become new (again).
The edge of life is the end of fear
and the beginning of everything good.

The white flag washes over us
like angels’ wings.
We are left holding the sunburst.
Empty. Open. Gorgeous in the light.

Read Poem: FIRST CONTACT by Lauren White

I’ve always been a sucker

For a lanky blue-eyed boy

But when first we met

And I looked into your brown eyes

I saw magic in them

I saw promise

Like that of a starry violet sky

Or a perfect pink dawn

When you held my hand

I melted into you

I loved your pale skin

Entwined with the milk chocolate of mine

We were a Hershey’s bar

Cookies and cream

You brought me out of the black

Filled me with resplendent yellows

With tame rosy reds

Like the color your ears turn

When you’re embarrassed,

Nervous, or inebriated

You’re such a lightweight, babe

But the clear blue horizon deceived us

The clouds came

Hid the stars from us

The dawn brought a day of rain

Now everything is shades of grey

When I look in your eyes

I cannot see the end of the story

You look sickly green

Out of fear of loving me

Yet, in me glows an ember

A faint, orange hope

That will extinguish the grey

You are my Havana Banana

I am your Choco Taco

I have been yours since First Contact

I will bring shades of yellow

Back into your hidden, black heart

Read Poem: BLACK by Supriya

You will always love black when it is contained in a thing not a person.
Like a black dress, a black car, a black shoe, a black sofa.

When I speak about a black person,
An inferiority always pops up.
Isn’t it?
He is dirty, he is bad.
He is anti-national, he is a threat.
He must be aggresive, he must be bossy.
Stay away from him
Or he will eat you, cheat you.

When I look at anyone,
I always look him as a person.
When some gentleman said,
“There is not a single person who has not taught me.”
He meant it.
And I believed him.

So instead of putting my head up,
I rather put it straight,
To learn how people are trying to make things done,
Or undone, maybe.

And my knees bent to believe that racism and gender-biasing are just concepts,
I follow the trail of belief that if only two colors would exist then,
Black is black and white is white.

-Supriya

Read Poem: CHILD BRAIN SURGEON by Tracy Déchaux

It’s a daily occurrence
Attach the electrodes for torment
When really everything will be just fine
I’m just playing around with your mind

You lie there so trusting
When its me that has you cussing
If you wake up with a headache
Don’t worry, it’s just your sanity that I take

When I ask you to relax as I linger
And put on my surgical gloves with floppy fingers
Don’t be nervous and hyper ventilate
I’ll be checking your eyes if they dilate

After the surgery get plenty of rest
It’s true but its for the best
My home is hell in a dim lit room
It could be worse, you could be stuck in a tomb

Don’t forget, you will want to see me first
As I am so careful with my thirst
But as time moves on that knowledge is forgotten
I am Hell’s Child Brain Surgeon

https://www.iheart.com/artist/-32140995/albums/hells-child-brain-surgeon-56637790/

Read Poem: We Live Here by Jacqueline Jewell

Let us try to understand what we do not,

Let us try to see what we cannot see,

A different footstep, a different life,

An exchange of perspective of he and she, you to me, them to we, and they to us.

This is another unjust walk back in history.

Why we really hate remains a mystery, but nevertheless,

We are overzealous about war,

Quick to shut our doors,

To the hijab-wearing women,

To the Allah-praying beings,

Denying refuge to those who are fleeting.

The underdog is the abandoned dog, stripped of human kindness,

What’s left?

The headstones of the graves that bear the Jewish names?

To oppress that notion that we are all the same?

The Margaret Fullers who did’t live fuller because that sex was assumed inferior.

The interior of a country predicated on the idea we could be free,

he free to love him,

she free to love her,

her free to be a him,

him free to be a her,

Their characters free to be judged,

Not their religion,

Not their decisions,

Not their sex,

Preferences,

Ethnicity,

Family complexities,

Not based on where they’re from.

Haven’t we’ve always known all along,

that hatred is wrong?

Walk in his bare feet,

that drag amongst the cold concrete,

Amongst the homeless who don’t feed,

Amongst the servents of tyranny who bleed,

Those in need but cannot get ahead no matter what they do.

Opportunities are limited,

People look at you different,

Fear what they cannot envision,

Peace, peace within us all,

To be White and love a Black man like a brother,

To be a man and love a woman like his mother,

To walk the footsteps of the other,

To join hands and claim our land,

To stand together,

Forever and ever…

Let us try to understand.