Poetry Appreciation (do NOT post your own poetry)

Not In Vain


If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain:
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

-Emily Dickenson​

 

I Refuse to be Discouraged

I refuse to be discouraged,
To be sad, or to cry;
I refuse to be downhearted,
and here's the reason why:

I have a God who's mighty,
Who's sovereign and supreme;
I have a God who loves me,
and I am on His team.

He is all-wise and powerful.
God is His name;
Though everything is changeable,
My God remains the same.

My God knows all that's happening;
Beginning to the end;
His presence is my comfort;
He is my dearest Friend.

When sickness comes to weaken me,
To bring my head down low,
I call upon my mighty God;
Into His arms I go.

When circumstances threaten
to rob me of my peace;
He draws me close unto His breast,
Where all my striving cease.

When my heart melts within me,
and weakness takes control;
He gathers me into His arms,
He soothes my heart and soul.

The great "I AM" is with me.
My life is in His hand;
The "Son of the Lord" is my hope,
It's in His strength I stand.

I refuse to be defeated,
My eyes are on my God;
He has promised to be with me,
as through this life I trod.

I'm looking past all my circumstances,
To Heaven's throne above;
My prayers have reached the heart of God
I'm resting in His love.

I give God thanks in everything.
My eyes are on His face;
The battle's His, the victory mine;
He'll help me win the race.

-Shero Shayari

 

23 Ways
Written by Omari Hardwick

It's 23 minutes past pain
23 minutes ago
23 faces that looked like these 23 got beaten again.
The alarm clock just rang
Every morning the time be the same.
Another meeting with a school board in 22 minutes
My rhyme be the same.
New school, but same fool
Bullies classmate with a board
Cuz the bully decided the classmate was a tool...
Dear Lord, this poet left mourning in the morning
Rain pouring
Inside my soul,
Even though the sun is out...
My smile got storms inside its hole
Every time another son is left to shout...
"Leave me alone...I'm just trying to get home!"
Even though you see no tears
I'm crying through this poem...
Dear America, 21 students started the year
With the other 23, and now the 21st is gone
And she was my dear friend
She got jumped by girls she thought were hers,
Said she got fat...only liked her when she was thin
Alarm ringing... hear it again...
Wake up it's 2010
23 days from the shake up!
2011 and two thousand and eleven 7th & 8th graders will break up
Before two thousand and eleven high school sweethearts will make up
Nine hundred and eleven will take up
With darkness in their view
Like 911 planes - the crash is bigger than we ever knew...
20 beautiful future Barack Obama's
Are 20 miles from here considering sayin' goodbye to their single mamas
Because they can't be with the beautiful girl they want to.
Dear parents we at ground zero
At 19; Was at college, bullied by my football teammate
Cuz he said he could tell I'd one day be Fahrenheits' Ronnie Brown hero
& I often wonder where he is & what he does...
He's probably the father of someone your age
Getting beaten up for being as smart as he was,
Sitting in some assembly like you
Listening to someone like me
Say his daddy's prediction of me was true.
Dear Lord, help me to see
That those who claim to hate me
Really actually love me
And want to be like me too
Or at least 18 of them do.
Like my shadow...
Like my twin tower...
Children will lead our revolution
But men will determine their power
Dear fathers, it's 17 minutes past the hour
Omari Hardwick - 23 Ways poem
And we still rhythmless and dead beat
So our son's and daughters showing up dead and beat
Never had your hand to apply the heat
So when the bully makes it too hot in the kitchen,
Our sons retreat
Never had a man to ask why or teach
So when the bully is on his mission
Our children's self esteem is shot
And left bleeding in the streets...
Call 911 now!
Another confidence that coulda been more is down on the floor
& Dear Mothers, the Ref is on the 9 count lookin for you to call the fight.
Sure there's cooking to do but our daughters' losing their appetite.
So this poem...perhaps a piece of food for thought...if I mite
Cuz every 16 minutes 16 of our students are surrounded by 16 dark souls
Do the math...thas 32 that need some light
Our seeds are scared
Our creed of love another as you would yourself is SMEARED
Like Jesus bullied by 15 soldiers who cheered
While they spit on his face,
14 bullied Gandhi for running the same kind of RACE
Like 13 spraying Dr. King with water hoses cuz of his RACE.
This day is a Challenge I pose
I suppose...Of sorts
That we as leaders lead this fight against our children battering each other for sport
Instead of participating in real sport
We forced to watch Bryant Gumbel reports on Real Sports
Bout some high school ball players who beat their 12-year-old teammate cuz he's gay,
Leaving his 11-year-old back up who's confused about who he is, just as scared to play.
Dear Words, sometimes I don't know which ones of you to say.
I just know the underage hatred has to be driven away
23 students in 23 states are no longer livin today...
Thas an entire 7th grade class
(drunkenly pushed off the chip on some classmate's shoulder who didn't like their looks
Who didn't like that they were into their books.)
The next Holden can yield...10 minutes is all it took
To become the 9th wonder of his home room caught in the Rhye...
And back at his home there's no room for his fears
And his bad dreams to get by
So he stuffs the pain he's dying to get out
Deep into the crevices of the broken down couch
Sat on daily by his 8-year-old sister Haley
Who was seven the 1st time she was hit in the chin
Cuz like Eminem she not the same color as an M&M
So a misguided princess picked up five rocks
And began to stone little Haley with them.
Forrest Gump said it best
But what is life when chocolate kids live in a box
Where the school uniform should be bullet proof vests???
Four Elton Johns will be bullied in the next 3 minutes of this poem being read
Cuz they don't fit what the bullies parents once said.
Dear Hope, what are we teaching our kids
When there’s 2 left on this earth
And even then 1 named Derrion Albert is "pummeled" by the other
On a Chicago sidewalk until he’s pronounced DEAD...?
And answers go unspoken because we're plagued by a deaf world
So silence has spread...
So today we pledge
To save our boys and girls
With Ronnie Brown's 23 Ways to Stop Youth Violence instead.

 

Untitled

it's valentine and i'm clementine alone in shreveport
my poem is my retort
pilgrimaging my way through the door
scratching the paint and sniffing the perfume just once more
wondering....
the woman's hand on the other side of the knob
and if her fingers match the clasp of mine
anticipating the mutual throb-the pulse of potential passion
wondering if i should give her my all in small rations
holding the door like simon holding jesus
i lay crucified at the thought of giving my family tree a new limb
suspended in time
defended by my rhymes
i wanna get out of the bathroom line and skip to the front
i wanna move inside and skip to what i want.....
....to find permanent residency in a woman's mind and live as the victim to her crime
one she becomes guilty of committing everytime i'm home
they say "when in rome.."
i say .... when in poem....anything's possible.

-Omari Hardwick

Untitled

The clouds look like perfectly nestled kids
sprawled across a floor ALL in white fluffy sleeping bags
@ a sleepover with full disco ball strobe lite moon
hanging them with a rainbow haloing it.
And as i stared in awe,
i thot..mmm...they must be kids in a nice area
cuz if that were the hood..
the clouds woulda' been all over the damn place
with holes all in the sleeping bags!
They wouldn't be all lined up so perfect and shit.
And the sleeping bags definitely would not have been all white,
and they wouldn't have had so much fluff if any
and they woulda' had holes all in em.
There wouldn't be no halo!
The moon woulda' jus been rockin a wave cap.
I stared thinking..
man demographics are so different in our world...
even in the sky at night..
on a midnite ride home from work...
3,000 miles away from the sky above my family.

Untitled

I lament the green eyes of a queen never before seen..
yet i saw 1000 times..
maybe only God hears my dream..
i'm awake now to finish her scene.
&...action.
I know ur daughter named after me (amari)
and my son (chance) are playing up there..
staying up way past their bedtime

-Omari Hardwick


Untitled

I'm runnin outta time. I'm runnin outta space.
Feel like I'm runnin round but i'm runnin in place.
We all in a race. I'm just another sprinter.
If there go the finish line, then who's the real winner?

-Omari Hardwick

 

Restless Night
by Carole Mathys


Colors drained from the day first

then blackness ate from the edges

to the enter

shutting down my vision

but not my thoughts



Restlessly tossing

letting my mind pull me

into the surreal

then wandering lost

through slippery landscapes

made entirely of illusions



The sun began pushing

the night from the sky

and my thoughts kept chasing around

in smaller and smaller circles

seeking answers

that fit like a faithful

denim shadow



Hearing from the wind

ghostly exhalations

shadows escaping

and blending into dawn

Answers appear and vanish

only to reappear

covering the illusions

believed to be truths

with clarity​

 

A Song Unheard

by Sarat sonowal

Sued with vengeance in eyes
beaten with every beat being played
seen and ignored
heard and unheard was his voice
a boy with a smile
was disposed off with disgust
languishing and strugglin to stay afloat
he sings a song so silent
every ear heard his voice
but unheard was his song
he died of singing for his life
to survive
was such his song​

 

Silent Goodbyes

by Kristian Bisig

Silent goodbyes,
You were silent the whole time
Except when you felt the need...
To torture my soul.

I don't regret...
That's a mystery.
I don't regret,
For reasons known
But...
This hell is agony.

A tortured soul
Is disturbed forever,
Engraved with scars
Along with lonely stars.

Darkness has captured you
And it's where I lie
Waiting to be executed.

Death awaits
But you hold me back
With your dark grasp,
In an angry hole.

A tortured soul is lost forever,
And I cry inside
Fighting the pain.

Silent goodbyes,
You were silent the whole time!
Except when you feel the need...
Your sick, twisted, dark pleasure,
To torture my soul.​

 

I Love Thee by Eliza Acton

"I love thee as I love the first
Young violet of the spring;
Or the pale lily, April-nurs'd,
To scented blossoming.
I love thee, as I love the full,
Clear gushings of the song,
Which lonely--sad--and beautiful--
At night-fall floats along,
Pour'd by the bul-bul forth to greet
The hours of rest and dew;
When melody and moonlight meet
To blend their charm, and hue.
I love thee, as the glad bird loves
The freedom of its wing,
On which delightedly it moves
In wildest wandering." ​

 

[HDYT]m-TdPUUXySg[/HDYT]

Omari Hardwick is a good poet, & you can find more of his work here:

http://www.omarihardwick.com/bluapple.php

 

Insomnia 2
by C. Nichols


Sometimes my thoughts are too loud

I cannot sleep so I lay awake staring upwards

With too much to reflect on

But never the perfect words to seep

Out onto the pages the clutter that collects

Here in my messy head

That yearns for peaceful silence

In broad warm lands of my bed

 

Insomnia
by Kristie Smith

Darkness, the blackness of a starless night
Surrounds me as I long for you, wait for you
To come upon me quietly and overtake me entirely
Lying here in this dead limp colorless flesh
Only my eyes darting back and forth occasionally
Taking in the view of the night
Each night I pray for you to come swiftly to me
But you continue to evade me, ignore me, betray me
And I wonder at moments like this
Will I ever sleep again?

 

Sleepless
by Kristie Smith

Stalking the night,
Has become my day
No more can I sleep
It’s not supposed to be this way
Awake for days, without a dream
Unfortunately, they become mixed with reality
Not knowing anymore, what is real or not
My brain feels like a tornado
It just won’t stop
Hopping from here, to there, back again
When will this mania come to its end?
Begging God for so long, praying for sleep, bruised knees
You don’t know about me
Not the way you think you do
Thinking my life is all sunshine and happiness
Oh no, it is a waking nightmare of which I seem to never be released
Praying for something better once I am deceased

 

Unwanted
by Kristie Smith

I’m feeling it again
Dreaded, oh, how I do dread thee
Without warning you come
Showing up at my door, the unwanted guest that you are
Hiding from you in my pajamas, the covers pulled up to my eyeballs
Hoping, praying you won’t find me
It is inevitable, happens every time
I resist the pressure you lay upon my fragile shoulders
But they are not strong enough to withstand your force,
I am not strong enough

Over the years, you have worn down my strength
Like the water passing over a smoothed out river rock
Just when I think, things are going well
You're back in my face again
Your grim mask ready to take possession
Why do you always beat me?
Miserable depression…

 

Alone
by Kristie Smith

Chaos has invaded my mind
I cannot think straight and my life is jumbled
Where is peace
Will there ever be happiness for me
Anything worth living
I am tired of being all alone
Wondering if I will ever be loved

I sit by myself and contemplate
And I am dissatisfied with my life
Things won’t change or seem like they can’t
I just want to feel better than this

Better than always wanting to die
Wishing for a release or a good hard cry
Nothing but numbness has invaded me
I cut through my skin and watch myself bleed

Wow! I am a real person as the blood pools on the floor
I sit on the floor with my back against the door
Wish I could feel anything something at all
Life keeps pressing in on my skull

When will this pain ever recede?
When will happiness become part of me?
Why do I always do these same things?
No one and nothing to blame but me

 

Survivor


I feel your eyes upon me,
Searching for something, you will not find.
I feel violated as you slip into my fragile mind.

Violating my body wasn’t good enough for you,
You worked your way inside my head to cause mental trauma too,

The cuts and bruises will slowly heal,
You abused my mind with your forceful will.
My crystal brain has cracked,
Just like my porcelain body, you beat blue and black.

Torturing my spirit over and over with,
Lashings I withstood until I no longer feared them,
Growing dependent upon your inflicted pain,
Makes me sick in my mind thinking of all the misery again.

Evil wears a mask it is said,
Behind the mask was every pretend kind thing you ever did,

As I lay on the cotton, soft as your packed punch,
I heal on the outside, but re-live the mental abuse,
Like a child who doesn’t understand it’s not their fault.

Striving to damage me was the main point in your wicked plot.
Even though you are transparent, I see you in my dreams,
Scaring my entire family at night when I wake up in sweaty screams.

A survivor is what I am,
Though you hurt me,
I will never be a victim again.

 

No Requirement ​

My love
does not
require
you to change.
It simply
invites you
to come
as you are.

-Susie Clevenger


My Heart Crashed Against the Stars

My heart crashed
against the stars
when you
looked into
my eyes
and saw the
poetry written there

I am all smile and humor
to a world that doesn’t
care to look inside,
but you saw past my façade
into the sonnet I had
written with my tears.

Love had once come
whispering a promise
to leave telling a lie.
My heart became a recluse
penning lines of sorrow.

Can I trust the hope
that wants to erase
yesterday’s anguish?
You stand there
reading my verses
with your eyes asking
me to let you inside.

I am not made of stone
but of passion.
I want to love again.
I feel your heart wanting mine.
Tiny steps is all I can take,
I will take my first with you.

-Susie Clevenger


Melancholy's Sea

imagination breathes
moonlight into a poem
to resuscitate the spirit
pulled from melancholy’s sea

-Susie Clevenger


My Grief Sleeps With Me

My grief sleeps with me,
rustling the sheets to keep me awake.
There is no formula to say
when sorrow should not consume.

Tears are the sheep I count.
I toss and turn in my memories,
my hand reaching to touch your face
only to feel air dancing on my fingertips.

If tomorrow I will hurt less,
then please end this night.
Even the moon outside my window
has hidden its face from me.

-Susie Clevenger​

 

Sing Soul

Sing soul
My spirit
Has lost
Its melody
My words
Are quiet
There is
No music
My muted
Heart
Sits silent
In my chest
Sing soul
That my
Poetry
Will dance
Again

-Susie Clevenger​

 

Chemistry 101

In a room stripped clean of furnishings
And the two of us stripped clean
Of clothes and caution
Pour cool drinks and mix in good music
Then like Gerbils in a wheel
Let us power the world
With the lemon sharp electricity
Crackling in the heavy air -
Sparking between us like
Fireflies in flight.

A single kiss and I’ll fall into you
My head dizzy with desire
In this solitary room built for two
Blood surges through our veins,
Throbbing in a shared rhythm.
Your eyes that paralyze
Set my heavenly body in motion.
In an instant, like the flip of a switch
The hunger ignites us
And then reunites us
Once again in its fiery dance.

A searching glance recalls this memory
Of your lingering touch not yet felt,
So lightly landed, with shivers afire
Exploding and exploring the raw voltage of our dance.
And, we have danced this volcanic tango
Many times before, haven’t we, love?
Yet time after time, all is newly familiar.

Cool air on our skin and the sweat of
Cool cocktails on our palms
Cooling our fingers and cooling our tongues
Cool music floating through the air,
Adding melodic punctuation to our freefall ballet.

In this world with electricity enough
For the many worlds beyond us
There are no glaciers near or large enough
To quench or quell the intensity of this inferno.
Face it my pet, there is just simply no way
To cool the heat
That lives in this world
Between us.

-Bobbi Baker

 

Death, I think, is really life,
The living, I'd call dead;
To leave this human, mortal strife
And in new paths be led.
Death, I think, is beautiful,
A new and happy home,
To live then with the Father
And away you'll never roam.
Death, I know, brings sorrow,
And often drops a tear;
Then you think your end has come,
But it's only life that's near.
----by Ted Hagstrom age 10,

He was killed at age 13 in an auto accident.