The Echoes poetry competition to celebrate Write Out Loud's 20th anniversary is now open.  Judged by Neil Astley.

Competition closes in 8 days, 1 hour. Get details and Enter.

Popular last 30 days

poetry love Trump nature Democracy resistance Life shame History poem

rape (Remove filter)

Recent Comments

Mike McPeek on Running With Dogs
7 hours ago

David RL Moore on Aubade-esque
7 hours ago

Graham Sherwood on Aubade-esque
7 hours ago

David RL Moore on Aubade-esque
7 hours ago

David RL Moore on liberty
8 hours ago

Landi Cruz on liberty
8 hours ago

David RL Moore on Aubade-esque
13 hours ago

David RL Moore on liberty
14 hours ago

AirlogRigsMaria on Psycho
16 hours ago

Simon Zonenblick on Snail Shells - Similes
22 hours ago

Acknowledge me

It reaches further than "please fuck me" or "don’t touch me"

It’s a liminal in-between 

A line we like to call blurry

But I never asked you to undress me

My body abandoned me

My words went slurry

Tongue too thick to go beyond a mumble

Kind sir escorted me to save me from stumble

Four times play on my mind

One of them I even forgot

Until it accosted me during a usual d...

Read and leave comments (2)

🌷(7) 

accept   denial   pain   trauma   acknowledge   assault   rape   attack   accost   rape culture   blurred lines   consent   alcohol   memories   growth   youth   PTSD   survive   mental health   emotion   articulate   communicate   vulnerable   open up

Raping Mother earth

Seeing how mother earth is raped every day

Polluting the air and water with no end

Scraping the oceans for the last bit of fish

 Saving the forests is a joke, they just pretend 

 

While COP 26 trying to make some rules

taking Air and Water for fools

Exposing that 1% of us, more or less

is producing 66% of the mess

 

Now, they want to go to Mars

with no air to bre...

Read and leave comments (1)

🌷(2) 

Rape   pollution   smoke   earth   Mars   water   Air

A crack on the chameleon’s mask

By way of a mockery
You tweeted
β€œAlways truth will take
the upper hand!”
Backing
The sanctimonious
Of your brand
That adore to
Bedraggle mother land
Cooking stories,
In deluding the
Global community,
That served you
A magic wand!

Yes true to
Your words
β€œThe truth
at last prevails,”
Lately, your mask
Has suffered a crack;
The revolting record
Sniffed from your track
Revealed...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(1) 

WHO   TPLF   Twedros   Ethiopia   Eritrea   molestation   rape   embezzlement   treason

The Tide Will Come Out Of Your Mouth

SMASH!

Every time the glass of your skull

Crashes into the fist of another memory

To crush you where you stand

Because another memory has broken you

Because another memory has entered you

Like intruders, they force their way inside

They punch their way into your attention

They invade your heart

Until you must look at them

All so that they can violate you again

They...

Read and leave comments (1)

🌷(9) 

accepting   assault   block   block out   bravery   coping mechanism   dealing   dealing with trauma   difficult   feeling is okay   forget   future   getting better   growing   Living after trauma   memories   mental health   mind   mind protects   moving forwards   moving on   pain   painful   past   rape   recall   relive   self preservation   self protection   supressed   supressed memories   survivor   toxic   trauma   understanding   violence

where is my mind

You stuck your fingers up me and didn’t even know my name

You grabbed my ass and blamed it on the drink in your hand

You kissed my neck and pulled me into you

I was yours for the night---that one night.

 

I was too drunk and you knew. Yet you kept going

You kept going down on me further and further.

My bra somehow came off and you began to suck

I didn’t know what was going ...

Read and leave comments (2)

🌷(3) 

rape   sexual abuse   love   hate   college   depression

Fools Rush In (Inner monologue of a childhood sexual abuse survivor cont'd)

I've been foolish

unguarded and exposed

vulnerable, ripe for the plucking 

how clearly he saw this

how oblivious I must have seemed

totally unheeding

trying to live the dream

 

Ruthlessly he burrowed into me

what he sought I do not know

one swift move, a hand, a pillow

I was no more

fear and shame soared

 

Rushing into everything 

brings forth nothing

...

Read and leave comments (2)

🌷(9) 

fear of attachments   rape   therapy

Bare Minimum

I sat before him 

Crumpling in onto myself     

Lost in my head   

Wishing I was dead

It's over now

Why are we still here                         

He got what he wanted                     

Why does he sit there and stare       

My body limp                                     

Folding over in submission               

My head on his knee                        

...

Read and leave comments (1)

🌷(2) 

Inner Struggle   Rape

Afraid Of the Dark

How many times must I rinse off the moon

And unpeel the stars from my skin?

Have someone ask what were you drinking?

How many times must I try clinging to lamp lights?

Try configuring keys into shining beacons?

I cannot see in the dark

Yes, blackouts steal my sight

But when finished,

I wake up feeling feverish

And fear ferments and festers

The night can be sticky

H...

Read and leave comments (7)

🌷(9) 

rape   rape culture   exhausted   coping   denial   mental health   confrontation   struggle   galaxy   stars   moon   metaphor   fear   scarred   trauma   drinking   issues   Internal

New Sheets (TRIGGER WARNING)

The lights dim and a curtain's drawn,
A quiet theater as the show begins.
It's the same reel playing on repeat,
A shattered heartbroken from sin.

He lies next to her as he'd always done,
Reliving his day through adventurous stories.
But something about him had changed that night,
The girl became something he had to seize.

A kiss of the lips catches her off guard,
"I'm sorry" escapes f...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(1) 

Molestation   Rape   Trauma   PTSD   Stepdad

The Fight

Pink, Red, and orange

fade to black

and I take cover

hiding under the bed.

 

Laying with the demons roaring

screaming attack

I thought he was a lover

but he just needed to be fed.

 

Bigger than this body,

stronger than these bones

Crack

echos as the bones snap.

 

My ears ring with bawdy

words of meancing tones.

Wack

as he finishes his tap

 

...

Read and leave comments (2)

🌷(5) 

Sexual abuse   Rape   rape culture   rhyme

Who are the real Monsters?

Isn't imprisonment enough?
Without the guards being too rough
And forever being cuffed
Prisoners  are abused and raped
Every damn single day
As if they haven't already paid
By being held captive and afraid.

 

Isn't imprisonment enough?
Without being forced to confess
To somebody else's mess
Being stripped and undressed
Every damn single day
As if they haven't already paid
By bein...

Read and leave comments (11)

🌷(4) 

abuse   abuse behind bars   abuse by guards   afraid   alreasy paying their debts   captive   crime   criminal   criminals are still humans   crkminals still have rights   dont lose your humanity   extortion   Imprisonment   jail   locked up   no escape   not everyone behind bars is guilty   paid   pain   prison   prisons   rape   set ups happen

When Will You Stop?

When you crept in me the first time 
Taking my innocence away
Did you hear me begging and pleading for you to STOP...
When you felt that you had enough of me the fifth time when you spat on Me... laughed and walked away... 
Did that make you feel better...
Or when you held me down by a knife threatening you would kill me if I Told a single soul...
When you see the tears flowing down my face....

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(1) 

Rape   trauma   hate   Tears   stop it

Genesis- Ch1 (TW and CW: rape, partying, self harm)

Last Night

 

…(gemma)...Gemma…

    β€œGemma!”  She snapped into consciousness, only partly.  Her head was pounding and her fingers felt swollen.

    β€œWhat time is it?” she murmured.  Her eyelids remained heavy still, but they opened wide enough to notice the thin rays of light streaming through the dorm room’s blinds.  Gemma shifted her body to face Alex.  He looked almost as groggy as s...

Read and leave comments (1)

🌷(1) 

College   university   party   rape   assault   relationships   mental illness   BPD   therapy

Bloody Showers

Bloody Showers

One time in a waking hour
I decided to take a long hot shower.
and to my suprise as i scrubbed,
I saw my knees, were red with blood.

Being dizzy from the night before
I couldnt recall the time i last snored,

"what happened last night?"
I dont remember..
Why my breast was bruised,
and my nails were shattered.

I only saw the day before,
because nighttime whistles, ...

Read and leave comments (2)

🌷(2) 

blood   showers   pain   rape   sexual assault   hurt   hurtful poems

A letter to my Demon

For a long time after,

I didn't think I would ever find the words to describe what you took from me or what you did,

It became my biggest shame,

 Like every thrust you took added a 20 pound weight that I had to carry around with me after. I kept it hidden from everyone;

I worked so hard to keep it a secret because you made me feel like I deserved it.

I felt like you'd taken my fire,

...

Read and leave comments (1)

🌷(2) 

bravery   survival   Demons   Rape

Work Sets You Free

Proud fathers of progress, eagerly name their successes strong manly names like:

     George or Honest John.

     Joe or Tsar Bomba.

     Red Beard or Fat Man.

 

β€œOur sons will pierce the sky and deliver peace,” their shouts ring in the ears of any who dare question the creation of this phallic emancipation.

 

The patriarchs preach science from their pulpits constructed of:

...

Read and leave comments (0)

bomb   rape

Do you hear me now?

You look at me and forget

I was strong before I was pretty 

 

You disregard my mind in hopes that my heart is a path leading you to my body and briefly

I regret to have met you, you see my eyes before you hear my voice

 

For you have already forgotten the first rule; I am strong 

 

So when I love, I love strongly

And when I hurt, I hurt badly 

 

But when I scream, ...

Read and leave comments (0)

🌷(3) 

feminism   fighting   growing   power   Rape   regret   repairing   strength   woman   women

IS IT RAPE?

There are events 

few speak of,

fear it will be indecent

to mention the words 

needed to explain

some types of pain

inflicted on the meek,

actions malevolent

persons seek

to inflict on others.

---

on a cold day

in a dark place

a man of mediocre

skills inflicted his will on her.

she lay naked 

helpless

faint from the horrific

event she just endu...

Read and leave comments (5)

🌷(3) 

poem   rape

Where We Live Today

With so much hurt and hatred prevalent in society,
It seems like crimes such as murder, rape, and kidnapping might be
Everyday cliches surrounding us entirely.
I feel as if no other news is ever happening,
Everywhere I look, murder has become fashion internationally.
Especially in America, 'Land of the free, Home of the brave.'
Technically, just tellin ya, it's the land of the creeps, home o...

Read and leave comments (0)

america   current   realistic   death   rape   sad   crime

Listen

Listen to me,

I know what you’re thinking,

β€œGreat another poem,

Are we done yet?”

But listen to me.

 

You have a voice,

Right?

Well, use it.

Because unlike you,

Some don't.

 

But listen to me,

I don't know what you’re going through

And I can't tell your story,

Only you can.

So listen to me.

 

I want you to look around.

You are in a room with...

Read and leave comments (0)

rape   story   rape culture   listen   noose   violence

This site uses only functional cookies that are essential to the operation of the site. We do not use cookies related to advertising or tracking. By continuing to browse, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Find out more Hide this message