Determination in Morrisania
kids can feel it
are real with it
the future’s
in their eyes
so we’re careful
with the lies
chains of causation
waves of confusion we ride
causing all this
dissonance
we help them
with the lifting
their hope
is our own
we pass it on
so it grows
their determination
the oxygen
that makes
the glow
Saturday 30th September 2023 10:46 pm
Also by Robert C Gaulke:
After the Pause |.....as blue as robins' eggs
though time’s chasm opens before my very sight,
and the vertigo returns with the Lapis Lazuli.
of the Byzantimes, Persians, Armenians, Assyrians.
each civilization alloted supreme value to the blue of lapis lazuli.
Saturday 30th September 2023 6:55 pm
Also by John E Marks:
.......early onset | AN OPAL LUMINOSITY | Wisława Szymborska Polish poet | WE, THE ENGLISH | SHEER LUNACY | 16th June, 1904 | BLUE REMEMBERED HILLS | ELOQUENT GRAFFITI | Indian summer | Haiku | Testament | Mem û Zîn | ELEGY for ANNA |Trying
I tried
Acceptance is the key
To the lock on the door
The one painted red
On the house down the street
It's a key understanding
Why the door is shut
Closing off the world
And everybody else
It's the key to you
So you said to look for it
And I tried and tried
Really I did
I looked in my heart
And my head
And my soul
But you had taken it
And lied
...Saturday 30th September 2023 4:43 pm
The river of life flows
Like Achilles, we're headfirst into the river of life
Slowly floating downstream towards death, irrevocably
Circumstances may speed many through whitewater rapids,
To an untimely end, somewhat unbenevolently
Those less fortunate perish in cascading waterfalls
While others simply meander aimlessly in shallows
Egotists, ignorant of the plight of their own drowning
Unaware t...
Saturday 30th September 2023 4:18 pm
Also by JD Russell:
Residential Dementia | The Globaticus | 77, 78, PUNKed | Celebrations | What happens in the hot tub, stays in the hot tub | Waste No Time |My...
Were you there before me,
I don't know,
Yet, I've felt your eyes on me,
Since I was born,
You are so beautiful,
Shining through the dark,
They say you steal His light,
Something about,
Reflection?
Huh, Let them say!
'Cause for me,
You are Brighter than the Brightest Star.
Me?
In your eyes,
Do I shine?
Leave it,
Let me just talk about you,
You are...
Saturday 30th September 2023 4:01 pm
Also by Nitika Prabhakar:
Blah Blah!!! | My Life... | Trust... | Everything... | Be Who You Are!!! | Being Perfect!!! |blood off my nails
carve the cloth off my skin,
wipe the polish off my nails,
scrape the itch off my flesh;
i can’t help it,
i won’t stand it again.
strawberry dressing on vanilla ice cream;
paint spilled over the notebook’s page
i feel the ink in my fingerprints,
it’s staining my hands.
i don’t know that i’ll ever get it out again
rip the skin off my bones,
pry my nails of...
Saturday 30th September 2023 3:46 pm
An Undying Poet
The heaven's eye becomes tired
With rage,
Water endless in the sea.
Winter deflowers the tree,
Spring fills the fissures-
The process constant all year round.
Clouds take off the canopy-
Vapours make a sail
Occuring in cycles.
Leaves green and alive
Develops gray hue,
A tree never stops dreaming.
Saturday 30th September 2023 3:22 pm
Also by Ujjal Mandal:
The Bard of the Rydal Mount and Tagore |Heavy heart with smiling face !
pink rose cheeks with sweet smile,
crushed heart with seamless soul,
hopping and humming along the aisle,
peace roaming on the burning coal.
Saturday 30th September 2023 3:05 pm
Also by shan shan:
POEM ! | A SILLY GIRL and THE IMAGINARY PRINCE ! | For my beloved Muhibbi ! |Sometimes Life Is Funny, Isn't It?
Hey, did you get the memo on the cosmic joke?
Yes, there really is one.
It's entitled "Life."
We don't know what the punch line is, though.
Apparently this becomes apparent when one dies.
But, hey, it's okay to start laughing now (with kindness of course)
because, why not?
it makes Life a bit more fun.
Saturday 30th September 2023 11:10 am
Also by Hélène:
Meditations on Love | Rhythm of the Day | A Rainbow at Dusk | Mental Meandering | Late At Night | Thoughts on Poetry | Shadows | This, Now | Song of Life | Pondering | Old Tree | Watering the Garden with Rain | Blue Umbrella | Life is a Delicious Apple | Song of Your Soul |Apple Trees
"Sweet Apple Tree that pleasantly grows,
Whose fruit I once stole to please a fair maiden
When, with sword on my thigh, stout shield on my shoulder,
Alone I slept in the woods of Calydon.
Beneath its branches I began softly to fade,
Dreaming that around its' trunk I quickly played
With a sweet enchantress of most splendid form.
And since then for ten and forty years
I becam...
Saturday 30th September 2023 10:34 am
Also by leonidas kazantheos:
The Month of October | Oh Hidden God | The Month of September, A Rural Almanack | Lu Chi's (Wen Fu) The Art of Writing |Transition
The air fluctuates in tone on the windowsill as October grips the seasons consuming the fading light shaking the remnants of the summer curling its fingers around your neck before finally resting upon your chinbone.
You become part of the dusk no matter where you stand, facing the changes in front of you whether standing against an imaginary plague filling up the newspapers again or looking dow...
Saturday 30th September 2023 7:22 am
Also by Gray Nicholls:
Taking on the light II | Taking on the light | Thresholds of Surrender | Sculpting Absence | Cascaded 2 |Here Not There
If love was kind, why is it often misunderstood
If love was easy, why do we suffer
We give it away, but sometimes it's not return
We hold onto love, but others may pretend
It is hard for one to believe
running to love, running from love
love hides here not there
Saturday 30th September 2023 2:30 am
Chronic pain
Waking up to being riddled in pain feeling like every day different but it really remains the same . Another person telling you your mental health declining , feeling you’re trying to tell the world but the world thinks you’re just whining . Rocking up to work with a smile on your face , doing what you have to do because it’s not the time or place . Seeing others in a worst positi...
Friday 29th September 2023 7:51 pm
feet on stones
how curious this life of now
my shoulders rounded over
from all this time on the computer
my feet are on stones
my hands on a keyboard
Fred meows to his friend upstairs
*said in meow complaining voice* COME PLAY
how curious this life of now
Friday 29th September 2023 2:51 pm
Also by Jaya Papaya:
smaller | (untitled) |Tess’s What Ifs
Tess’s What Ifs
Twice he said to me up there on the rick
that I’d never mentioned my husband’s name.
What if I had, told him he was the son
of Parson Clare, so instrumental in his ‘conversion’?
What if I’d told Angel that the man who
seduced me was the one his father ran into?
It’s as good as asking how it would have been
had Tringham held his tongue, or if Prin...
Friday 29th September 2023 10:53 am
Also by Peter J Donnelly:
Why I'd Never Go To Holland | Wild Raspberries in Harrogate |SICK AND MORE!
The hand and mind that would fell a tree
That has stood for so long for all to see
Like a beacon of enduring hope so that we
Might marvel at something so fine and free
Could never be worth a damn to me
The heart and hand that took a saw
And did the deed makes me sick and more!
(Written in response to the timely poem by Stephen W Atkinson)
......................................
Friday 29th September 2023 12:54 am
Also by M.C. Newberry:
CHRISTMAS SNOW-ORCHESTRAL | DISPARITY | MIKE YARWOOD | TIME AND TIDINGS | YOUTH AND TRUTH | NEW AGE | THE MAN IN BLACK - remembering Johnny Cash |Information
There're things you can share
With everyone around you
And many an important information
You shy off from telling anybody
Matters that's general can be discussed
But one's that's personal can't be
Face to face conversations are valuable
But those that are talked about in groups needs sorting up
So choose wisely what's meant to be shared
And those that concerns none but o...
Thursday 28th September 2023 11:35 pm
Also by Sunshine:
Uncertainty is the only Certainty |Sycamore Gap
The Sycamore Gap
Is just 'The gap'
Its body tumbled, bleeding sap
For 200 years its leafy hair
Ruffled to whispers in swirling air
O! What it heard in ages past!
Now, sadly lost
It's heard its last…
Thursday 28th September 2023 6:22 pm
Also by Stephen W Atkinson:
John's Cafe | A song of time | Painted sky |MY MUMMY
It's my mummy's birthday today
a hundred and fifteen to be precise
but now she's passed away.
Nineteen years have gone and time is moving on
but I can see her as sharp as a pin
I know she must be looking in.
She never wanted to let me go
but had no option that much is clear,
that was the future I suppose
but today the clouds have parted and like the crescent moon
...Thursday 28th September 2023 4:49 pm
Also by ray pool:
WHITE WORLD |GONE MR ZINFANDEL
Promise Fun
Promise Freedom
Promise Release
Promise Happiness
Promise Relaxation
TWISTED MR ZINFANDEL
Brings anxiety
Brings isolation
Brings lonliness
Brings misery
Brings darkness
GONE MR ZINFANDEL
FREEDOM
Thursday 28th September 2023 11:56 am
The Hidden Essence
At the time I was somewhat cold,
A child doing as it was told,
Sitting in the hut Dad just built,
Not so solid, a bit of tilt,
The rain dripping onto my head,
Family there, us being fed,
Avoiding spiders seen about,
Waiting until we could run out,
Back inside into our home warm,
Before drizzle turned into storm,
Yet now all I...
Thursday 28th September 2023 10:16 am
Also by Dalia Sophia Jayes:
The Hidden Essence |Slackers, or The View from Washington
Get out there and win the war, you slackers!
You’ve had tons of weapons from your backers.
They’re no excuse: defences, mines and tanks;
You’ve all you need to break enemy ranks.
Casualties? That’s just collateral stuff;
You mean you don’t know that war will be rough?
You know what they say: you can’t take the heat?
Vacate the kitchen and stare at defeat.
We’ve stumped up t...
Thursday 28th September 2023 7:53 am
Also by Stephen Gospage:
Young Man, Dancing | Square Root | Lexicon | Crossword Clue | The Long Haul | Colossus | Daft as a Brush |Haiku Foundations
Relationships are very much like houses
Unless they’re built on a strong foundation
They will soon come tumbling down
Wednesday 27th September 2023 11:29 pm
Also by Rick Varden:
Shards of broken glass | Haiku Faith | Haiku Curtains | Haiku Footbal | Haiku Music | HAIKU FEELINGS | Haiku Parenthood | The Supporter | The Barista | Climate Change | Hey what’s up? | On the Road Again |21st birthday
it's my birthday on OCTOBER 3RD.
i will be 21.
i've lived a little more than i ever did before.
i saw the inside of my head from a first persons perspective.
i know who i am, but i am extremely scared to lose her.
my sister is my soulmate and my friends are my angels.
my throat hurts more than last year from the cigarettes and the screaming.
my heart hurts alot more than ...
Wednesday 27th September 2023 8:30 pm
Inner Child
I was sinking to the ocean floor,
We were with two
Me and a child, surrounded by blue.
Connected with a thread,
I was swimming us both to the surface,
Then somehow,
The thread broke
And I watched as the child choked,
Sinking to the bottom
I was pushed above.
Wednesday 27th September 2023 7:51 pm
Also by Yasoda:
Enough | To Love Is To Die | Alone? | Anger's Embrace | Whispers From Death | Your Unknown Friend |Burying the Dragonfly
It lie there near our planted flowers,
where it passed. Done with all the insect things
a dragonfly must attend to in the brief time it has.
And those wings! Like stained glass panels
still shimmering in the early Fall light!
Our dogs were curious too, but maybe
more interested in the motionless creature’s value
as a snack, or possibly something to play with – ewww!
...Wednesday 27th September 2023 4:55 pm
Also by Mike McPeek:
Family Reunion | How I Learned to Dislike Fishing - For Anything! | A Few Things I Like | Seeing Red |Viva La Vida
Greetings from Menton!
A town emerges, gently, house by house,
Out of my misty morning memory.
Terracotta rooftops naively painted,
Against the feeling of a bright blue sky,
Where outbound and incoming tourists fly.
Menton, where pale consumptives came to die,
Entombed in the hill-top cemetery,
Where, out of breath, I decided to sit,
By William Webb Ellis who, ...
Wednesday 27th September 2023 12:23 pm
Also by John Botterill:
Broken Biscuit Company | Lambs to the Slaughter |Her Final Solution
You can’t afford to pay your heating bills?
Well, here’s some hate to keep you nice and warm.
Aim it at them, and them; they’ve caused your ills.
With love from me to you; a firestorm.
Wednesday 27th September 2023 12:05 pm
Blackened Blew
Before the night was frightened,
where the shine of a star meets the gaze of your eyes,
innocence is ever-closer.
My life pauses when you blink, as waves roll on.
A trumpet wails out a cry of hunger
drowning out the siren songs.
I fall from the clouds:
a helpless hurricane-vortex,
into a thunderous, freezing splash.
Absolved by her salt,
I drift under her surface.
...Wednesday 27th September 2023 11:52 am
Also by Ferris Ty Taylor:
One Small step Forwards and one Giant Leap Backwards | Lazy Bones | One too many hits to the Head | Sugar |We're All of Us - 'The Puzzle!'
We’re All of Us – ‘The Puzzle.’
It is not, a police state but;-
a state of ignorance where peoples
become a desperate for warmth,
I look to the rings around an invisible -
knowing the extraction to a vacant stone
is near.
Again, it is the coldness now
upheld in people that has the white lighter
a rarity needing save,
surrounde...
Wednesday 27th September 2023 9:48 am
Also by ZTK Space:
In Rothiemay 'They' Still Children |Happiness by a primary school child
"I feel so very happy when I go to school,
Life for me is wonderful,my teachers are so cool.
Their teaching makes me happy,their words make me smile,
Coming to school and learning,is preciously worthwhile.
Teachers stand by us in bad times and keep us safe from harm,
You are our Guardian Angels and our lucky charm.
You are much older and every day are there,
You bring us ...
Tuesday 26th September 2023 10:01 am
Also by hugh:
A shock to my system !! | Patient distress | Lucy Letby,sweet innocent faced |Their First Song
Night-time is my enemy, loneliness to blame.
Every single night, I always feel the same.
I walk into empty rooms, for something to do.
I listen to traffic, wishing I was in traffic too.
Up and down 3 flights of stairs I often climb.
For no other reason but just to kill time.
An empty house, void of laughter and cheer.
I shout out loud as it breaks the silence I ...
Monday 25th September 2023 2:21 pm
Also by Mike Bartram:
A Different World | Demons | The Spirit World |Encouragement
I can go miles
with someone believing in me.
So, speak into existence,
those words I need.
I’m not kidding,
or play acting a pose,
this isn’t a hobby,
it’s me you see, exposed.
My time is here, and
I don’t want to stop.
Give me that shout,
dissolve my doubts.
Monday 25th September 2023 12:44 pm
Also by John Gilbert Ellis:
I Know You | Minimalist to the Max | All Part of the Art of Falling Apart | Best a Poet Can Get | There Was Talk |Spread your wings
Spread your wings they say.
Follow your dreams they encourage.
Light up the world they say.
Give it your best shot they want.
Lovely sentiments, strong words,
designed to help us succeed.
Form a life for ourselves
and be the best we can be.
but what about the people
who are struggling to be seen?
Not because of their academic ability
but because o...
Monday 25th September 2023 12:39 pm
ACHING ALL OVER
Memories of the time some years ago when I did yoga. (Old gits may remember Johnny Kidd and the Pirates' "Shakin' All Over")
Our Leader had not an ounce of fat on her
So found it easy holding Shavasana
She started us with words “Just touch your toes.
Now you can try to hold the Lotus Pose”
But I am just an old crone
I let out a low moan
Tremors down my backbone
Aching...
Monday 25th September 2023 9:54 am
Also by John Coopey:
SLIMMING WORLD | 208 | I CAN PEE FOR MILES | THE DEVIL'S FOOD | YER "CASTLEFORD" BLACKBERRY CRUMBLE | "5-a-Day" | CROSSROADS MOTEL |Ancient Ruin
The hour is slim!
the time to entwine
with her and
with advantage inhale
the heavy offering
from between the jaws
of her open thighs.
Persephone's tasty flesh
renders her cleft
of wet truth-
she can slake this thirst-
can assuage my ache
when enthralled against
the serpent earth,
with legs knotted,
we lay tangled
in ancient ruin.
words a...
Monday 25th September 2023 6:58 am
Americano
A handful of heat, coffee tastes sweet in the bottom of the mug
Splayed out, dissected human bug, body chopped and tugged
Catalogue my suffering, patch me together with hemp twine
Ignoring every sign and warning, falling is soaring interrupted
A life defined as loveless, a body bled out bloodless
This mud is sticking to my brain again, no way to win
Don't you hate it when it don'...
Monday 25th September 2023 12:12 am
Happy daze
Happy days I’m by the sea
My four legged friends and me
Splashing in and out the surf
more exciting than boring turf
Who cares if it rains or shine
This sandy beach is now all mine
Buckets and spades they’ve all gone home
Leaving us playing all alone
Thundering waves with walls of foam
Come on throw another stone
It’s here somewhere in the sand
I thought...
Saturday 23rd September 2023 8:39 pm
Also by Edbreathe:
The Giiirl in the Orange dress | The Giiiirl in the Orange Dress |The Invisible
The Invisible
I believe in what is unseen,
as a gentle summer's breeze
does rustle the leaves of sundry trees.
When a ship is leaving port,
it is soon out of sight
over the horizon or into the night.
Emotions are not readily visible,
a kiss, a caress are symbols only
of a feeling so often unsaid and lonely.
Our thoughts, desires and ideas
are manifest in deeds...
Saturday 23rd September 2023 5:59 pm
Also by keith jeffries:
Youth | Autumn | Holding Fast to Life |the teacher, wife, mother, elderly lady, stranger
we met on the upper deck on opposite sides, at the front of the bus,
she said it was her first time, after a long time.
the old lady was at that fine wine age that made her look twenty years younger,
an elegant and fashionably dressed woman with a pink leather bag,
but still seemed quite sad.
a reminicial expression on her face,
as this was her moment to emotionally embra...
Friday 22nd September 2023 10:52 pm
Also by Sophie H:
universe | them vs self |Sweet Home
We were sitting by the fire.
Healing our wounded memories
By sharing what we all remembered.
Laughing at what was serious, now funny.
We were whole and home. Home sweet home.
Friday 22nd September 2023 6:45 pm
Addictive family's parts 1,2&3 recording
Friday 22nd September 2023 2:05 pm
Also by Luke:
Sometimes |Heavy and Tired
I brace myself against the wind
I hold tight to the blades of grass
But the wind is too strong
And I am too heavy
I bury my feet in the ground
I find the roots and don't let go
But the soil is loose
And the tree is dying
I lock eyes with the sun
I sing my praises to the moon
But it's too bright
And the moon is tired
Friday 22nd September 2023 2:19 am
Also by purplemoon:
Open Tides | Will You? | Blurry |Periscope (with poetry performance film)
https://youtu.be/S7p8S0RsJKU?si=VPnTuCWx6OajMUdn
Climb aboard the 704 to Windsor
Great Grandad Ronald James is at the wheel
He drove the same Green Line bus every day in the Forties and Forties
Smog and chimneys gradually replacing the Kent and Sussex countryside
Walked home alone at 1am from where he left his bus at Woodbury Park Road in Tunbridge Wells
only to return a few...
Thursday 21st September 2023 7:16 pm
Also by Lee Campbell:
Chariots | Beards and Bananas (Hands All Over Mr Grover) | Hunk in Trunks | Disgusted |Highly noted
When a pure note breaks into true rhythm
When a song is sung for the wisdom
A high refrain makes a claim
Too beautiful for this world to sustain
Thursday 21st September 2023 7:12 pm
Also by Jed:
Time to get it on with silicon |"Mondegreen"
Thursday 21st September 2023 6:50 am
Cat
stop throwing baseballs
for my neighbour's cat
his swing just isn't in it
and besides, I'm a little
worried for his fragility
he, being just porcelain
Wednesday 20th September 2023 8:02 am
Sewn To The Page
Out on the balcony, they stood together
wind wild and rummaging through the trees
She wore nothing but the moonlight
So many wishes she could have made that night
As he wondered how she’d like it here
sewn to the pages of this brittle story
A character in a poem
timeless in a way
with him when he reads
but gone
when he closes that book again
One last act before their stories parted
...
Tuesday 19th September 2023 5:26 pm
Also by Tom:
Afternoon Café |seaside dreaming
You bring turmoil and chaos
to my sea of tranquillity
deaths of many courageous sailors
who battle hostile waves
and brave the angry tides
the memory of your face makes me blush
all the more because I dreamt it drowning
in between my thighs.
Monday 18th September 2023 4:52 pm
September 2023 Collage Poem: Hallways of Life
Sharp eyes gleam from yeasty bread
Suspenseful stars trick savage horses
Sephardic interlopers run thru the hallways of life;
tears are driving their day
creating my own judgement day again
All the world is weeping for the broken dreams
A distant ghost wandering the wilds
closing down behind us
Thinking grim thoughts on dark grim nights
Folding the piece ...
Friday 15th September 2023 10:47 am
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