As I lay in bed
while I go to sleep,
My thoughts start to swirl ‘round my head.
To quiet my mind, I try to unwind,
Take comfort in my little bed.
Good night to my eyes,
I flutter them closed.
The wonders that they help me see.
The sun and the stars, I think I’ve seen Mars,
The dance of the wild honey bee.
Good night to my ears,
I tune out the sounds,
The wonders that they help me hear.
Like haunting loon calls, and thunderous falls,
The crunch from a family of deer.
Good night to my nose,
I breathe in the air,
The wondrous scents I can smell.
Baked bread, and earth’s dirt, my dad’s favourite shirt,
Inside of a seaside seashell.
Good night to my mouth
My lips barely touch.
The wonderful things it can do.
Like taste juicy fruit, and play on my flute,
And utter the words ‘I love you’.
Good night to my arms,
They lay by my side,
The wonders that they help me hold.
My books and my cat, who wouldn’t love that,
My mom when I’m shivering cold.
Good night to my hands,
My palms face the sky,
The wonders that they help me feel.
There’s velvet and lace, my grandmothers face,
My orange’s rough and smooth peel.
Good night to my legs,
I try to keep still,
The wondrous places we’ve walked.
On pathways and shores, and all the outdoors,
Where mountains and canyons have talked.
Good night to my feet,
My toes tingle too.
The wonderful balance they bring.
They help me climb rocks, I wear fancy socks,
I twirl on my toes when I sing.
Good night to my heart,
It rises and falls,
My wondrous life hears its call.
It gives and receives, it heals and believes,
There’s plenty of
Room,
Hope,
Love,
for us all.
Copyright © Sarah Jane Conklin | Year Posted 2020
on this wonderful earth
from our birth to the death
unfortunately,
we are travelling with worthless faith on the path,
we are moving quite crazy by being lazy,
omitting the truth,
that is hiding beneath our breath
changing wonders to squanders,
going and glowing without actual growing
with a sound war between the health and the wealth
struggling for happiness
searching the sign and rhyme of fullfillness to full illness,
congesting for the longest quest of life with many surprising twists,
turned the life mystical test with the absence of rest.
Copyright © Rohit bejjala | Year Posted 2020
My love
I will not ask you
to be a pigeon or a dove
cooing your pleasures away
in our liquid moments of love.
I will not ask you to be tender
or to be a timid voice,
suspended in song.
If you must be anything, my Eve
please be thunder,
and shake the foundation of our union
with the audacity of your desire.
Unleash a cry from within
with a purity that vibrates glass.
Do not let your touch become ordinary
like words uttered without meaning or intent.
Do not be
a sapphire sky filled with birds in flight.
If you choose to be anything, my love,
let it be lightning.
Yes, be lightning,
and write your name across my chest
in fluorescent text.
Show me what it means
to be electrocuted by your nails.
Copyright © Valentine Okolo | Year Posted 2020
They take me through grasslands
Of the sunny flat lands of home
Dotted by baobabs
Young ones running up and down
Elders , to and from farm
Changing tunes low and high
As they sing them
In turns
To suit their situation
Yao songs
Sometimes they bring to life memories
That strengthen bonds of blood
Making turning backs on each other forbidden
When you remember lullabies
Sang by them to you
When you were a toddler
A yao toddler.
Happiness is better expressed
The rythms hold sorrow captive
And to anger exactly the same happen
As hunger politely walks out
To give room
For people to dance
To the on spot composed tunes
Yao tunes
Copyright © Wilson Lemani | Year Posted 2020
I was shattered on shore
Beaten by the tide
Eaten by grief,
I wanna shut my eyes
So i pull my hands
But i can’t
I am shaking so my hands,
My hands crippled down to my thighs
And take rest there
For forever
I kneel and see around;
That's what i bound to do
There was no life no sense
Then a ray tackled my eyes
Refracted from sea
Depicting the vast sky
Gives me hope
To cope the grief
I get up Still shaking;
I came across fauna and flora
Of ground,
Can see clear
Menace of my eye is freed
I revolved,
Re-evolve, and reform my self
And see the life around
Copyright © prakhar sinha | Year Posted 2020
I was broken and walking the world without purpose.
I didn't know which way to go,
And I felt like I was worthless.
I felt like I would never change, like Saul before he became Paul, so long ago.
I wasn't giving God all of me,
I was afraid to give up control.
But God saved me, He was the rescue boat when I was lost at sea.
And now I love Him, with my whole heart and soul.
Now I live every day, surrounded by God's love.
I've been made new, the old is gone.
Jesus loved me so much, He came down from above.
When times get tough, I have someone to lean on.
God is my everything, He changed my life around.
He forgave me and set my feet solidly on the ground.
Copyright © Lexi Lee | Year Posted 2020
Seeing years past brings question about what might be,
We wonder, how will this play over -
How will this decision affect me?
Wondering if you will travel to places yonder -
Seeing and doing things that are beyond the simple mind's capabilities.
Maybe you will accomplish inspiring things,
Perhaps you will live a life void of all responsibility.
When young, it is easy to imagine that no harm may come upon you,
That your youthfulness will never fade,
But when you are in the long-awaited destiny,
You will wish for those times, for they seem to be ages away.
You will remember the times when you looked forward to life so zestily,
So when you're young, appreciate the good times while you can
So when you are old and grey you can sit back and relive life from where it began.
Copyright © Ashley Bland | Year Posted 2020
Just as life moves along,
We empty our selves as a bucket with a hole.
Moving forever onward,
Until me reach an emptiness,
One that cannot be known by those who are full.
The love of another,
Just as the fluid in a bucket,
Fills us with purpose.
Without ones purpose what does one have,
But an empty shell moving every onward to a grim end.
Let oneself find themselves a friend who like a patch will cover you,
Allowing you to fill once more and continue ever onwards.
A friend can help you persevere,
A trustworthy companion wouldn't forsake a friend.
Copyright © anthony wooldridge | Year Posted 2020
Today I went to the store for some grape juice,
It was very rainy indeed,
The hardest part, came forth by the car that hit me at the light,
And my right eye bled like a newspaper riddle,
Black and white and red all over.
So I needed to go to the doctor,
All for some grape juice that I never got.
In the end it wasn’t a loss,
For the sacred grape juice was never tossed;
It was still in the store just as it was,
Waiting… wanting… to be restored.
And then I realized I can't even afford,
I am poor and have no money, and want to die.
And that’s what I got when I looked in the Doctors eye.
Copyright © Owen Burke | Year Posted 2020
The autumn leaves, like a fiery blaze
Blows across the forest in the fall breeze
Leaves on the ground, the woods is like a maze.
Birds glide from tree to tree with ease,
Gathering sticks and leaves to build their nest
The rattle of the leaves and song of the birds,
Makes this forest the perfect place to rest.
The beauty of this place can hardly be put into words
As I wander through these woods, I can hear it call me.
There is something special about the creatures here,
All of them live side by side in harmony.
There are no predators or hunters for the animals to fear.
And as the curtain of night fell upon the woodlands
I went back home to the warm embrace of loving hands
Copyright © eli petrey | Year Posted 2020
The world is chaotic, everything around me feels like it's a dream,
But in reality it's just all about how we perceive.
Some don't see the full picture, I see the future,
Maybe they need to sit back and get more exposure.
The world is a ticking time bomb;
Make the most of your time while being calm,
Life is like a roller coaster, with its ups and downs,
This is something true that I have found.
God is my Rock, he is my light
He helps me know what's right.
He leads a path before me,
He guides me so I can see.
So throughout our life and our time on earth,
May God be with us, for he is our worth.
Copyright © Zach Scott | Year Posted 2020
Do not stretch out your hand for everything you see
For evil is the eye that makes your tongue seek
A delicious, diverse platter better left untouched
To allow you peaceful slumber and a tummy unclutched.
Let not your tongue hang out for the tasty display
And have you elbowing diners out of the way
For a little bit of honey is enough to nourish the soul
Than have you sleepless and vomiting the consumed bowl.
Look at all that food, says the glutton to himself
As he serves the variety on the large dish spread
Doesn’t the glutton know that wakefulness over food
Would do him greater harm than the food consumed?
For nobody is fond of the greedy man’s eye
Nor do they long for the tongue that cries
For the platter of delicacies laid for a king
Unless he is mindful, women will take wings.
Copyright © CECILE RISCHMANN | Year Posted 2020
Unbutton your lips, let your voice sing out.
Stand strong in its music, it is your own.
Shout your convictions, let all hear your tone
Declare
Proclaim
Condemn
Speak up. Speak out. Speak.
Don’t ignore your sisters’ cry
Don’t sit silent while your brothers die
Use your voice as an instrument of change
Do not be shushed, do not be shamed
Silence is not golden, it’s invisible.
Copyright © Bren Deliantoni | Year Posted 2020
Our God is Bountiful because
His Might spreads throughout
The Chasm of the Unknown.
He pours His heart throughout every inch of the universe—
Drenching creation in
Love.
Grace.
Mercy.
How blessed are We
Who shall be called Redeemed?
Filled with His Goodness,
Abiding in His Immensity—
Just because He is He.
Our God is bountiful because He. Is. He.
Copyright © Makaylee Randolph | Year Posted 2020
When you travel deep down in your memory lane,
You glance at the sombre shadows of the past
With hidden scars that tear you apart
Innocent tears in dark nights flood your eyes
The mistakes you made
The raw desires you didn’t give a chance
Are the two sides of the coin of regret
We regret the words that we said
The actions that misled
Overthinking them in our heads
But the wheel of life has moved on
You see, the feeling of regret
Is like an invisible dose of pain that you can’t abstain
Piercing your heart
With echoing sounds of silence choking you
Turning you from feeling hopeful to hopeless
The indecent fumes of regret
Proliferate your insecurities
And surround you by past mistakes
It’s like a maze you can’t escape
Because when everyone's asleep at night
It’s the feeling of regret that keeps you wide awake
But regret is more than just sorrow and shame
And having ourselves to blame
Because we also regret the missed opportunities
Like the passions, we desired to pursue
And no matter how guilty we feel
Saying to ourselves that we’ll heal
We continue to deal with it
Having missed the memories we wished existed
We perceive it as the end of the world
It’s like a road full of foggy air
As it’s pathway begins to disappear
Because regrets blind us
And hold us back
From reaching new horizons
And discovering what’s out there
You see, once you let your soul free,
You will witness a life beyond regrets
Because the past shouldn’t define or confine your future
And your rusted regrets shouldn’t consume your happiness
And rather than you absorbing the wounds that regrets create
Unleash the agony and defeat the pain
The next time you travel, deep down in your memory lane.
Copyright © Divena Raina | Year Posted 2020
..............Baby Steps Out..
..........There's a waiting world
.......Doctors nurses eager staff
......A doting father, mother in pain
.....It is said that we chose our birth
....An act of free will, desired destiny
....The paths are all charted by our will
....This birthday I decided to recall..loll
......A memory jog, back to time of birth
.........An unborn peeping into his future
..............The little steps on roads ahead
.................Unfolding destiny milestones
.....................Cherished moments in wait
.....................Some vivid some smudged
.....................Hand drawn on masterprint
..................Paths to travel people to meet
................The resting places n thirst stops
...............Careful leaps on stepping stones
...........The journeys that were yet to unfold
.........All vivid in storehouse before take-off
.....In the sojourn I was told: Precious is birth
...In baby steps or our giant strides a purpose
.The joys or sufferings are like passing screens
There is an axis a polestar guiding & connecting
A constant the unchanging in all that is changing
Distracted get our senses by colors cacophonies
.Not difficult to lose the picture in such a journey
...Precious is birth- holds many a promise....es ....
......like many seeds...finding ground.. ..yes !!
.........pods germinate ..stored... ..loved ..
...............friends near far ...unmet :)
......................thank you.....<3.....
.................................Fam ....frnds
.........................................................for remembering
.............................................................flowing wishes
Copyright © Amitabh Divakar | Year Posted 2020