Best Self Reflection Poems
The shattered mirror is all that remains of her past life
Symbolizing the broken spirit of her battered soul
Yet, so reflective of light and visual interpretation
She can see where she was and where she is now
It holds not her spirit within the confine of the looking glass
As she had escaped upon the day she broke it apart
She is strong now as she looks upon it, she even smiles
Realizing, she is not the reflection of life, but the self before it
I'm laying in bed and it's daylight now.
Thanksgiving, a week away.
Always hopeful slumber will eventually fade to dreams,
I finally give up and get up. I'm tired but wide awake.
The window is slightly cracked open.
I feel the humidity in the air.
I deeply inhale the moisture smelling of decay.
The cold makes me cough.
A morning caffeine induced mania has my attention.
I'm wired, tightly held in it's seduction but loving the effect.
Later I will crash in the depths of my medical marijuana edibles.
Happy to be and happy to share.
Distracted from my thoughts, I sense no pain.
I go about my day, sitting at my keyboard typing senseless lines.
It's poetry.
I remind myself it's art, even if it makes no sense.
Music plays softly in the background.
I receive inspiration from the singers who came before me.
I love music.
I love the lyrics.
So listen when I tell you I find solace in the words I write.
They are filled with spirit, love and life.
Dare to read them if you will, maybe you will find some solace as well.
Perhaps they will calm you and keep you still, set you free.
Come walk with me through a forest of timber.
Let’s watch chipmunks gather acorns and chatter at us.
We’ll just sit and be quiet under the dark canopy.
When the time is right we’ll move along.
See how easy it is?
Look to your imagination.
Read some more words and see where they take you.
There are no borders.
i was a frog who wanted to be king
until i realized i couldn't even sing
a songbird shrilled
"you're only a croaker out of tune"
still i stood on my stump with a tortured smile
croaking my heart out all the while
i dreamed of being a stand-up crooner
a swamp-side sinatra maybe a little sooner
the crickets laughed
the herons one-legged stared
every fragile dream i swallowed
sat inside me
broken and unprepared
the wart-filled toad spat from his lily pad
"you’re stretching your skin boy
settle into the scum"
i carried an empty pond inside
where a thousand thorny dreams went to die
the audience left
the moon went home
a cold blue screen spit its light onto the scum
unthinking
no one returned my croak
i died a little every time i tried
my face looked back from the pond
mud-covered
wart-covered
ugly
my reflection looked away
all it could do was cry
today the water settled
the mud claimed the surface
when i looked down
there wasn’t even a frog
left to die
I rarely ponder who I am or why.
I’ve just accepted God made me this way -
a woman who -but if she tried – might fly,
yet still I’m crawling to this very day!
I fall into routines. The things I do
are things that bring me comfort – nothing more
and nothing less, for I don’t aspire to
great lofty goals; I’m simply asking for
some answers which I pray that God would give
to me, but maybe I’m unworthy of
the help I seek though I sure love to live!
How would it be to feel God’s warming love
to buoy me up? I’m grateful, after all,
yet sometimes I cannot help feeling small.
Oct. 29, 2020
for Chantelle Anne Cooke's Inward Reflections Poetry Contest
Whispers in my head I hear it all so clearly
Negativity in my brain bordering on weary
Enemy caught me when I was very weak
Tortured me for the treasure that they sought to seek
Vigil I remained though I admit that they were close
To destroying what I had that was saving me the most
Then I remember in that moment that I am stronger than I think
So I started focusing on the other side of the chain link
It keeps me strong it keeps me sane
It keeps me going it keeps me trained
And so the enemy caught me but I got out of their trap
Now I know where they're hiding I got them marked on my map
You'd think that I'd call out the troops and take them by seige
Arrest them detain them and make them my liege
Treat them like dirt torture and maim
Paybacks a and all for my pain
But thats not how I roll for if I did I'd be them
Blood on my hands brazen in sin.
I could sell my house but then I would not have it,
so why would I do that?
I could shave my head, but I already look ridiculous
so what would be the point?
I could rent out my art studio, but the only thing I would get is money though,
I already work, right?
I could part with my dog, if I was dead, and if all my relatives were dead too.
Maybe not.
Twirling, whirling, swirling into myself
I listen to my ready soul
I take blank canvas off a shelf
Twirling, whirling, swirling into myself
My muse becomes my happy elf.
As I begin, I feel whole
Twirling, whirling, swirling into myself
I listen to my ready soul
treasures of beauty
positive thoughts inspired
like sun's rays at dawn
~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~
© Joseph S. Spence, Sr., (Epulaeryu Master) 5/18/09
All Rights Reserved, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Senior Advisor, to Founder of Motivational Strips
Ambassador De Literature
Noble Star of Literature 2018
Living Legend of the 21st Century
Pentasiv B World Friendship Poetry Featured Poet 2019
~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~
Joseph S. Spence, Sr., is the author of "The Awakened One Poetics" (2009), which is
published in seven different languages. He invented the Epulaeryu poetry form, which
focuses on succulent cuisines and drinks. He is published in various forums, including the
World Haiku Association; Poetinis Druskininku, Milwaukee Area College, Phoenix Magazine;
Möbius Poetry, and Taj Mahal Review to name a few. Joseph is a Goodwill Ambassador for
the state of Arkansas, USA, a college faculty, and a military veteran.
~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~
Forsooth blessed be the very first breath,
Life - quoth a preparation thought far brief.
O we fade as being kissed by death;
Hath thy day been seized therein a dream brief?
Illuminated
mountain peak frozen with snow
reflecting in lake
Damn you Narcissus,
You've locked her in this cage
A cage so empty from blindness
She sees what I deny
Cause lonely is the mirror
She sees your soul
Your loves your fears
And your mind as glycerol
My blindness is creeping behind
My blindness is growing inside
I'm blind to my disguise
But she is not
She is not
For lonely is the mirror
She sees you soul
Your loves your fears
And your mind as glycerol
If a mirror could speak
What might they say?
A mirror might cry
But I wish it would sing
It would sound like all the people
Without their cares of the listening
But lonely is the mirror
She sees your soul
Your loves your fears
And your mind as glycerol
A reflection so wise
But its lost on far away eyes
She weeps with rust
And in her tears are lost answers
Answers for fear
For lust for love
And disguise
And the truths to all of your lies!
When i first kissed her, verses were beating in my heart.
I was like a bee on a sunflower.
The numbness you feel
running through my ink,
Is nothing but that nectar spill-over.
When you walk into my world
You test your own love
By your own self!
If you want to stay, stay!
If you want to go, go!
My waters will not ripple…!
But should you decide to stay!
I will tell you what love means,
I will show you what love is,
I will teach you, how to walk on water!
Michael
The House I Fear Most Lives Within My Shoe,
Contains recordings of my utmost gaffes,
The other, mocks! (Thank God that there are Two!)
Within the front room (where Critics, cuds chew)
Are played the scenes where everybody LAUGHS!
The House I Fear Most Lives Within My Shoe.
And next to it, an organ-parlor, too!
Where musical ‘slips’ turn into giraffes!
The other, mocks! (Thank God that there are Two!)
The Worst: a Hall where all my Words Untrue
Come back at me in spears, spikes, stones and staffs!
The House I Fear Most Lives Within My Shoe.
And Last: a garden sewn only with Rue,
And stones carved with unthankful epitaphs…
The other, mocks! (Thank God that there are Two!)
I’m stuck in them! Though at my feet I hew,
I cannot cut these leather prisons off!
The House I Fear Most Lives Within My Shoe.
The other, mocks! (Thank GOD that there are Two!)
January 8, 2019
Who thought the decoy would lead the king and the queen to safety
And would you go crazy to save your world?
Who’s leading the psychics and poets into dangerous revolutions blindly?
And with my luck can never be exiled because they’ve spent soo many tax dollars
looking for break throughs when no one else was paying attention
So in the future I look crazy
Your saving grace
A madman or a saint they just might ask
They’ll point at me in suspicion of saying the true antichrist
But when the puzzle comes undone and my life goes underground even further
There is a method to my madness
No riddle on this page I laugh
No prediction I can see
We are all actors and the world is a stage
and that’s why those who work for Hollywood cant act
so that when we have to
we can do it good
and survive and that’s something the spies and detective and military
understand but are afraid of as they dance around me in the shadows of
ignorance and knowledge
And I slide from group to group
experiencing bomb threats and untold terrors
If you saw your great grandparents tortured by your country
Then your grandparents
Then your parents
and you were next in line
Do you rise above even if it means with equal force
Or do you lay down and die?
And what do you do when two other countries come in with ignorance
to help the bad guy hunt you down
Just for trying to overcome oppression
and then they wonder why their death toll is high
And in the mental institute where I'm the only one making sense
I cry that they wont come home before someone else gets involved to clean up
the mess
So I go back to self-reflecting of how I can better myself
and now I wonder
If I go to revolutionize my own backyard
are two countries going to come in and hunt me down?
And what ever happened to the days where they used to be exiled?