Poetry is just as visual As any other form of art.
The punctuation, the spacing, The length and width In the breaking of lines,
Thoughtful Arrangement Of words
Matters.
It matters as I am painting with letters.
It's part of the picture, The texture of poetry Is flowing, flowing.
Do you see? I ask,
D o y o u s e e m e a n i n g?
We speak in tongues The wicked we Me and my anxieties
Losing peace And lost to sleep No sleep tonight for me
My words are jumbled Mumbled sounds Can you find them In the lost and found?
Insane is pain In painful times These chains aren't yours But mine
I can't wish you happy birthday Because we are ghosts now Ghosts who do not linger On the same plane of existence
How abruptly we became memories While our lives were still Flourishing and so full How quickly the two of us vanished
I send you messages into the void Into the echo chamber of my heart Bouncing around in the dark I miss you, miss you, miss you
Sometimes I think I can see you Your face unchanged and wild But you are a wild dream That ripples away at my touch
Can you feel me reaching out Now that we live only in my mind? So many years since you disappeared The two of us remain only in me
Floating on my back Naked in the water I made a promise to The clouds above To never ask about their father
The sky turns gray And I feel cold I give my body to the earth Into her hands to hold One day she may cradle me When I am very old
I see the sun light up Below the horizon Piercing the clouds Warming the land That someday I will die on
Without my clothes I am the planet's creature Flesh and bone And limbs to feature This forest pond is a refuge And the wind's voice my teacher
I grip the windowsill too tightly As the dark clouds pour Heavily over an angry ocean Crashing, spraying, flooding Lightning strikes again, again! It's a storm, it's raging, and it's
Too loud! Too loud! Too loud!
Then you tap on my door You slip into my mind And everything else is on mute
Ashes to ashes I'll get your ashes next week And hold you as dust
Let's not tarnish the sky By throwing money at space races While children who wish upon stars Are starving to death in streets While workers are catching the plague Earning a wage that isn't living Just to pay for your contest
Let's not tarnish the sky Please don't tarnish the sky Leave the stars to those who need them Please just let the stars remain
I felt creation in my mind Maybe as a mother giving birth Horrible, painful, terrifying But oh, what it was worth
I felt creation in my mind As a seedling start to sprout Small at first then suddenly It all came shooting out
I felt creation in my mind When I was cold and numb But it felt wrong and ugly And my voice felt small and dumb
There was creation in my mind When I first made myself And broke away from cogs and wheels To be other, something else
Creation knocked upon my mind And it begged me to be heard When I shoved it away It helped me find the words
I felt creation in my heart When I first looked upon those eyes It was never in my head When I needed to be wise
Ungraceful am I For grieving so publicly Bereaved, forgive me
The red-winged blackbird Clings to the cattail It perches on, Calling out in that Short, piercing chirp
They sway in the Gentle breeze together Like one entity
I wonder how the cattail Feels, if it likes Having talons Wrapped around its stem, To be joined in such a way.
"I can be someone's and still be my own." -- Shel SilversteinSide blog: @a-sign-of-fire
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