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Best Poems Written by Alexandra Mcmannis

Below are the all-time best Alexandra Mcmannis poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Alexandra Mcmannis Poem

The Memory Tree

There were times, long ago,

when the young, preteen me

would intertwine herself

with the age-limp branches

of one of the two odd trees out.

But now, five years later,

the new me has reshaped her story,

gazing back on the memory

of a childhood lost forever.

 

The rough, tangled bark,

painted with decade-old blood

and knifepoint carvings

and skin interlaced in its valleys

where her knees had once tread.

I remember it and her tearless eyes;

where has the fearlessness gone?

 

There was once birdsong there,

mingling with my ignorant laughter.

The occasional scream there sounded, too,

when a prepubescent girl saw eight legs

and two beady eyes:

just as scared of her

as she was of it.

 

Most of these things are gone now,

replaced by year-dried leaves

and tripping roots.

But I have left my mark there,

my own memory at its roots:

a pool of purple tinged wax

and a skunkline of ash

halfway up its trunk;

a mirror to the pain

I felt that day.

Now, when I return,

the smoke is still present,

clinging to the hairs of my nostrils.

 

Although, one scent has always lived there,

even before I arrived,

beaming from the skies:

the smell of dew-coated leaves,

the sunrise,

of a child’s first breath.

Here I can find peace,

lost in the memory of my old life.

How I wish to forget it;

and yet each month, I find myself

crying beneath its love-lost leaves.

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Escaping Depression

Where is the light in this dark world?

I can't find it.

Is the trench I've dug really that deep?

So deep that I can't get out?

 

My hands are torn from climbing these walls

My wrists bloodied from stress

My eyes are red from the tears

Will I ever get to the top?

 

You are there

Waiting for me.

Your hand is stretched out,

Waiting for me to accept it.

 

But this hole is too deep;

My arms cannot reach.

If only I could -

I long for your touch.

 

I'll keep trying,

But only for you.

The darkness is my friend,

But I just can't do this anymore.

 

You hate the way I hurt myself,

The way I cut my wrist

To bleed out the pain

And unleash the tears.

 

So I'll keep going.

I hate to see you like this.

My ways are torturing you,

Adding to your stress.

 

I will reach for these ledges

And pull myself up.

I will keep climbing

Until your hand is in mine.

 

Then you'll pull me up

And hold me close -

Washing away all the dirt;

Chasing away the lingering darkness.

 

But I can never let it all go,

It's just not possible.

This darkness is the source of my pain,

But it is also who I am.

 

If I were to let it go,

I would no longer be me.

I'd be nobody -

A whole different person.

Not the one you know.

 

Then what would you think?

Would you still love me?

Or would you push me back into that hole

So that I can be myself again?

 

So I'll keep a little bit of darkness in a jar

And let it out when I need it most.

That way I can be myself

And yet be light once more.

 

So help me out of here.

I'm halfway up already.

I may still have a mile to go,

but I'm trying.

I really am.

 

I'll be with you soon,

so why are you climbing down?

I don't want you to feel my pain.

I don't want you to go through this.

 

Why did you let go?

Why did you fall?

Now you're farther down than me,

And I'm the one with my hand out.

 

But now you understand how I am.

Now you've felt my pain.

But please don't kill yourself,

Like I've tried to do.

 

The pain doesn't leave

It just gets worse.

You're stronger than me,

You can get out.

 

So climb,

You'll reach the top first.

I'll be there when I can.

We'll be together in light.

 

I love you,

So please go.

Leave me in the dark,

and return to the light

So you can help me out of here

And we can be together happily -

Not brought together by pain.

 

I'm sorry to have hurt you so.

I'm sorry you've fallen.

I will help,

But we have to do this together.

Details | Alexandra Mcmannis Poem

The Lonely Road

Soft winter draped with white;
a lonely wand'rer travelling a road.
Rough tracks of a wheel in the snow
trample the earth with a fearsome mirth.

The lonely footprints follow thee
as you travel the long-lost path.
With shovel in hand, the frozen land
beckons you to the end.

I wonder what led you here
after friendship so forlorn.
Have you forgotten me;
left me here to live in fear?

Cannot understand, not in the least,
but you make the trekk seem peaceful.
Acceptance so prevalent - so unlike you -
what has become of the you so young?

I sit here in silence,
thoughtful under the half-sunk moon.
Together we fell into the frozen sea,
yet only you travel the lonely road.

Details | Alexandra Mcmannis Poem

Again the Wind Blows

Against a rafter,
the forlorn curtain sways reversed -
the wrong side of the tracks;
awoken in a death-dream state
and it sighs.  A sigh so shallow, so depressing
that the window with the eye impressions groans
and creaks open to the winter air of summer,
then forgets why it opened
and returns to its place in the cracked frame,
only to drift ajar again
and watch the rain fall indoors.

Details | Alexandra Mcmannis Poem

Beautiful Fire

I thought you knew me

But I guess I was wrong.

 

I handed you my heart

And you returned to me ashes.

Touch like blue fire,

You seared away my soul.

 

In the end I still loved you,

You with no heart and no soul.

You’re the beautiful flames;

So dangerous, but so irresistible to me.

 

That look in your eyes

When you told me it was over.

Your eyes showed hatred,

But your heart still stuttered inside.

 

Your eyes burned away the last of me,

For I couldn’t see within you.

You hid my salvation,

And my heart was lost in the past.

 

It’s still stuck there,

My burned, loving heart.

It’s waiting for you to remember

And to burn me once more.

 

For you are the beautiful fire

That my heart beats for alone.

And I will wait forever

For the return of your flames.

Details | Alexandra Mcmannis Poem

Eyes

Rough

            Flying fast

No obstacles hindering its path

            Except a face

That face of yours

 

Brown eye

            Blue eye

Mismatched irises

            They grow wide

As the rocket comes near

 

It connects

            Snapping the fragile supports

Knocking the pale face aside

            Crimson flying everywhere

The face fallen low

 

Shocked eyes

            Fearful eyes

Confused expression

            You do not understand

What has happened

 

You trusted it

            You trusted me

The one who sent

            The flying death

 

Those eyes

            Your eyes

Now untrusting

            Unforgiving

And yet so beautiful

 

Fearful

            Panicking

I run

            Far away

Retreating

 

My eyes

            Scared eyes

I don not understand

            What I’ve done

 

Will you ever forgive me?

            I have broken you

You’re my angel

            Can I reach you?

 

Sad eyes

            Demon eyes

The tears stream

            My heart aches

I want to be in your arms

 

Your touch

            My body

All I want

            Is to see you again

 

 

Years have passed

            Have you forgiven me?

I destroyed your love

            I destroyed my heart

Why have I done this?

            Why have I killed you?

 

I never meant any harm

            Please forgive me

I loved you

            And I will love you forever more

 

Goodbye


            And sorry.



December 2009

Details | Alexandra Mcmannis Poem

Apocalypse

All hope is lost in the
Pain of the
Open world,
Closing in on us
As day becomes night,
Lifting the veil of death
Your heart has craved, the
Pain that so
Seared your soul,
Ending the existence of everything.

Take the
World into you
Open hand,

Trampling the
Hasting armies of the
Other side, the
Underworld in which
Satan has reign.  Turn your
Attention to the
Nothingness of
Dreams, for in them

Time stands still,
Waiting for the chance to
End everything,
Leaving the
Vultures to
Eat away at us.

	This is the apocalypse.

Details | Alexandra Mcmannis Poem

Behind the Darkened Door

A fire,

alight beside the darkened door

that waits,

shadow over its weathered bones;

the flames envelop

and choke the heart.

A twisting fate winds like a snake:

sliding, hissing,

curling its wicked tongue -

yet it's nothing but an earthworm

when its eyes dig in

and sear their gaze into your screaming mind.

 

The fear;

the fear is all you know now.

 

An old man,

infested with the maggots of his life,

groans in his endless sleep

and blinks away his final tear

as he watches you,

but not the you that is you:

the one that you forgot.

 

Your memory;

your memory was all you had,

but now its gone

as you cower under the devilled eyes of the snake

and fear to even reach for a strand of light.

The unknown has conquered you.

 

So what will you do?

Where will you go?

Can you even bear to move that finger

that seeks out freedom

though it was erradicated long ago?

 

A black-thought tear expands in the gloom

and slithers down your shaken form,

but you can't bear to look at it,

nor the eye that reflects in its sheen.

This is all that's left for you now.

This fate is all your fault.

 

Perhaps, if you'd left that skull-crossed blade

behind the darkened door

with its weathered bones

and its uncoiling snake

and left your boiling anger

in the small cauldron of dark-twisted hate

and tossed the key away,

the sun would still shine upon you

and maybe,

just maybe,

you'd find that smile you left behind.

Details | Alexandra Mcmannis Poem

The Truth of the World

Pillows float by on an endless sky;

watching, waiting for some semblance of life

to come and pass by.

 

The teardrops of angels sing from the heavens

and whisper – ever so gently –

asking for a name.

 

Roses bloom in the blink of an eye

then fade away as fate draws near;

the fear implanted deep inside.

 

Fate is none too kind here.

Fate is not one of the crying angels

or their beds in the sky.

 

No, it is the reason

the tears even fall; the reason

the pillows dare not touch ground.

 

Fate is the plague; the scourge

of corruption in man’s material mind,

full of greed and hate and violence.

 

The old peoples cringe against

this tea-kettle onslaught

that has invaded their world.

 

And soon, the corruption will no longer

be corruption, but only the expectation

of every inhabitant of earth.

Details | Alexandra Mcmannis Poem

Under a Twilit Moon

The night wore on 
under the twilit moon – 
purple, half-sunk, 
half-risen over the flaming sea. 
Thoughts twirl
 and ebb and flow
 and curl up against jagged stones,
clinging to the only safety
the mind has ever known.  A car, 
an infant, a teardrop mother:  
all waiting silently 
for that peace to come. 
But lo, here’s innocence, 
bright-shining under a starless sky; 
purity of youth lost to age.  And thus, 
there find me, cold and broken, 
aged past morning 
and into evening.  Now here I sit, 
under a twilit moon – 
purple, half-sunk, 
and rising into the gloom.