Tag: Poetry Festival

WE CAN DO BETTER, by Gladys Muturi

Genre: Social Commentary, Equality

We Can Do Better

Why is this happening to us?

All of the fights and disagreements

Why are we acting like this?

We’re not animals, We’re human beings

Let’s stop this

All of this is ancient history

Buried and Forgotten

Why we can’t work together?

We can fix things together

We can change together

Without fights or disagreements

No consequences

No warzones

Settle this like we have common sense

No more bordered walls or barbed fence

Just bridges and togetherness

We can stand together

Together we can do better

Blacks and whites

Religious and non-religious

Be better

Show the world how we can do better

Be better human beings

Do you think we can do better?

I know we can do better

Together we can do better

TEMPTATIONS, by Denisse Perez

Feel I need you , I can’t lie

But the morals don’t apply

But I can’t fight what’s inside

I can’t get you off my mind

Thinking I should let you know

That it’s you I want to show

All the places we can go

It won’t hurt if they don’t know

Think of all that we can be

They don’t know what they can’t see

It’ll just be you and me

It’ll feel like ecstasy

We can keep it on the low

I can love you nice and slow

From the bed onto the floor

Lose my mind while I lose yours

Can’t resist, I need a taste

Everytime I see your face

Want to take you to a place

Where your body I’ll embrace

Wanna feel what’s in between

As I watch you watching me

It’ll be so magically

We could do it secretly

Really want to let you know

But afraid that you’ll say no

Run away with me, let’s go

Take my hand and I’ll take yours

Wanna love you endlessly

Want your body under me

Make a dream reality

I’ll fulfill your every need

I’m not scared to fall

For you I’ll risk it all

Feels right although it’s wrong

Temptations I can’t stall

A CLUE, by Dushica Labovich

A CLUE
When you learn to read without the letters,
because hearts’s letter is written without them;
You’ll learn to listen without superstition,
you’ll understand the wisdom of the one who is silent.

When you help those who did not help you,
And you do not create a rival game
forgive the one who has not repented,
because forgiveness is a matter of your morality

When you praise the one who can not praise the other
and for this you have no some ambiguous goal
do not talk about the worst
so you could raise your self-confidence

When you kiss the leper and you do not feel bad,
because so his wound will become painless
Hug the homeless and let them all marvel
regretness is weak people’s dark side

When you cheat to help those who is deceived,
Do not be ashamed yourself
Give what you’ve been collecting for years
but do not looking for the benefit in that.

when you lose the most important in your life
Do not surrender to death as a sceptic
bless the one who stole from you
No one can steal what is itended.

Trust in more when you fall the lowest,
because it builds high from the low;
Achieve but keep dreaming,
because the birth is just a new beginning.

When you’ll swimm in gold, don’t measure yourself with others,
because the measure is the virtue of envy;
Do not boast in your deeds,
in modesty is their strength.

When the Oscars and Nobel prisez will be important to you,
golden palms, lions and globes;
Do not let that confessions, delights and applause
means everything to you.

When you supported all armless that they could swim,
and sing with deaf people in front of all world.
when you prove to lords that thay can love too
and give them word in vow.

When you protect the sun shadow with a shade
give light to the brightness and darkness to the night
Treat everyone equally,
you’ll know you left a clue on the earth!

Today I Walked In The Rain, by Kaya Nicole

Today I walked in the rain

Felt the cool water hit me as I released all the worries of the days before

I let go and didn’t have a care in the world.

In that moment I was free to be myself in the purest form possible.

What a blessing it was to walk down the streets unnoticed by all.

Smelling the flowers that are for sale at the little flower shop on the corner.

Seeing all the delicious pastries in the display window outside of the bakery that has the best chocolate cake.

And watching all the people rushing to their next destination while letting the beauty of life pass them by

My heart aches for the joy they are missing out on.

As the rain pours over me, the ache decreases as I see my favorite couple.

The old gentleman that looks to be no more than 50, but is really in his 70’s.

He’s holding the umbrella for his wife who just happens to be his high school sweetheart.

They walk unhurriedly up the street for their weekly date at the bistro he proposed to her at all those years ago.

Once again my heart is filled with love.

So much love that I stand there and smile.

Caught in my moment, I missed my name being called.

Your touch on my shoulder brings me back to reality.

The smile on your face says that you already knew I’d be drenched.

You learned years ago my love of the rain and walking in it.

Out of your bag, You produce a towel for me to dry off some

Before pulling me in the crook of your arm ignoring my wet clothes.

We walk home under the umbrella just like the old couple and my spirit is content.

Today I walked in the rain and in the rain I found peace…

When We were Birds, by Chanchal Vyas

Once upon a time when
you and me were birds,
we measured the vast
expanse of skies from
this inch to that corner.
we have seen shifts in
seasons under the gloss
and silhouettes of our wings.
we chirped and tweeted
with other fellow ones
over the clouds
over the mountains
over the course of sea.
we inked paradise
all over our little bodies
so when we flattered
them feathers we effused
the airs with a delightful
music and played on loop
an only track we by-hearted
when we were born

Out of a thousand things
that we would be
Why were we birds only?

Because,
Birds do not cry
They are a happy thing
we deserved to be
of all thousand things.

I RELEASE WHAT I AM RECEIVING WHAT I NEED, by Terry Mulcahy

I release this viral blue funk
sometimes dark thing
in my soul.
It haunts me
from time to time.

Release this loneliness
that feeds my blues.
Not lonely all the time
sometimes it just appears
out of the blue.
Does it feed my blues?
Or
Does that blue funk
feed my loneliness?

I release this obsession
that comes upon me too
obsession
about
what I’ve said or done.

I release this obsession
that comes upon me I release
this obsession that comes
I release this obsession.

I sit too much
at the computer
and watching movies
and reading
or just
wasting time.
I release all that.

Often I want forgiveness
for things I’ve said or done
but
I must give forgiveness
without expectations
of return.

I receive friendship
though
sometimes
it is not easily
given away.

I receive smiles
and those
O
those
I can reciprocate
easily.

I try to understand
how other people feel
put myself in their shoes
feel their perspective
but
sometimes
I get pissed off that they
do not understand.

With all these things
I know
I must lead by example
be open-minded
without expectations.

It is springtime
despite the snow and rain
and today’s cold damp air
hovering around my soul.

Yet it is time for Spring
Spring delayed
Spring postponed
but not canceled.

It will come.

Ghost of You, by Lucia Irvine

Do you want to,
Come over later?
I hear myself say y e s.
It tastes sour in my mouth,
I didn’t like lemons until I met you.
I recount the time you smashed a bottle millimetres from my face,
Maybe my riposte was too smart,
You glunched and I braced.
I imagine gnashing the glass,
Desperately digesting your aggression,
Slurping my bloodied gums, I spit:
‘whatever you are, I am too’.
You are the train and I am the station,
Withdrawn entities and lifeless conversation.
I grin at you with my new veneers,
you recoil at my advance,
We are the clasp and the loop on my favourite necklace:
impossible at times.
And did anyone ever tell you I look for you the same way I look for post on a Sunday?
It’s unexpected, hopeful and
Sincerely yours,
Never There.

Cosmogony, by Iuliana Pașca

I would like to tell you about my birth
but how to start with no beginning?
…
Mother said I was born
ahead of my time;
I don’t remember,
but I know I was there when
I also gave birth to my mother.

I saw when from the heart
the galaxies
gushed streamingly,
suns were smiling on the spine
rasing satellites
from the tireless breath.
Neurons formed stars
in the rainbow hair,
while Mars was preparing
for the fight.

From the fingers of the left hand
it detached,
together with the rings, Saturn
then, as lightning,
Jupiter came out of nowhere,
and to my feet
was lying down
the Earth.

Iuliana Pașca (born on 26th of March, 1991 in Romania), studied Romanian Language and Literature-Chinese Language and Culture at Faculty of Letters (2010-2014), gaining two scholarships to study in China (2012-2014). She got her bachelor in Philology with the thesis Madness in Literature, graduated (2017) the Conflict Management International Master Program with the dissertation paper Mediation System in Mainland China and presented a series of research papers such as Diaoyu Islands-a contemporary dispute between China and Japan at international conferences at Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland (2016).

She participates in literary circles in Romania and overseas. She published in ARTivated Album (2015), anthologies of poetry (2018, 2020), but also in numerous literary magazines from Romania. She made her editorial debut with the trilingual (Romanian-Italian-English) poetry volume Reflectările unei molecule / Riflessioni di una molecola / Reflections of a molecule (Ecreator, Baia Mare, 2020). She teaches English in Barcelona, Spain since September 2019.

„Iuliana Pașca orchestrates the language register in an original and daring way, without prejudice to the reader’s sensibilities, so that, from the beginning of the book one has the impression that the author addresses an exhortation to be more open, more relaxed in front of the text” (Zorin Diaconescu, The challenge to the reader and the pact with poetry).

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Read Poem: Hope To my Green Eyed Gems, by Abbigail Elijah

Another tear travels down my
face And soaks my pillow
Oh what tears must meander down
your cheeks too!. . .
Motherless children, I wish
I could explain,
I wish you knew.

I look at myself, deep beyond
the eyes reflecting in the
mirror, only to see your
green whirlpools, staring back
at me, what a dazzling view.
Emerald forests of splendour,
do they sparkle?
Or are they dull too?

I know the Lord hears me when we
talk heart to heart . . . . .
Creator of those eyes we share,
wiping the tears, whispering
peace to each part.

Healer of souls, Redeemer,
Restorer,
He’ll replenish our days apart
Our future awaits,
a new journey,
our past will become blurred

Clinging to His Garment is MY
way forward,
please come back to me,
Lets build a new future,
a fresh start?
I long for you both,
like me,
I long for you to be freed.

A.E. 14-06-19

Read Poem: Scared, by Michael Jackson

You should be scared

Scared of symmetrical smiles
of mystical eyes
white teeth
breath purified

Of have a nice days
the month of May
Everything okay?
Yeah, everything’s okay

Of positive thinkers
steady blinkers
gnomes in gardens
clean-cut shavers

Of old ragged flags
of I love you shags
of trend-setters
in trendy rags

Of the hopers
the delayers
these slayers
of evildoers

Of I wish you were heres
of the small-talkers
the how’s the family
the licenced stalkers

Of nice tattoos
of blue suede shoes
of decorative punks
with baby cunts

Of happy parents
at children’s parties
of bored housewives
who dreams of hippies

Of A graders
degraded B graders
pissed off C graders
and the maybeers

Of sofa violence
on Mary Jane
comedies
of hobby pain

Of live and let live
it’s all the same
just stay out of my fucking garden
and play the game

Of polished lines that seem to know
that points away towards the foe
Rhymes that time perfectly
Yeah, you should be scared of me

I’m just kidding
have a nice day