Trap my body, can't trap my mind.
Glad you checked on me, but I'm doing just fine.
I pray for my kid and please protect my mom.
Grateful for what I have, don't worry about what I don't.
I know that He will, even when it felt like He wont.
So every night I pray before I hit that bunk.
My celly smoking kay talking about its skunk.
I'm gonna be gone for a little bit, gotta do some time.
Was tryna do right at the same time doing crime.
Will not shed a tear, this is no place for crying.
Said I would change, this time I ain't lying.
God please correct me, I don't want to hurt no more.
I know the life I want, this time I'm sure.
We was never meant to be, that is a fact.
Walked out that door & I'm never coming back.
Threw away my phone and got a new number.
You couldnt see it coming cause you was in a slumber.
All about you, you was really self centered.
Now you sleep alone, ya summers cold like the winter.
Don't wanna work it out, somethings we cant mend.
Wont pass you on, wont tell a friend.
0 out of 10, I don't recommend.
Round of applause, this is the end.
Missed my shot with you is a crime
Now I'm all grown-up, still in my prime
I dropped the ball, gone catch it next time
To say I ain't nerves, I would be lying
Fell on my face a few times, I ain't do no crying
Bettering myself I swear I been trying
I wrote down my thought, I picked up a book
I made my bed, I learned how to cook
I face my fears, even when I was shook
I SAID I PICKED UP A BOOK, I WRONG DOWN MY THOUGHTS
I APPLIED WHAT I LEARNED, EXECUTED WHAT I WAS TAUGHT
WORKED ON MY FLAWS AND CHARACTER DEFAULTS
Some days been easy, some days have been hard
No one sent me a letter not even a card
But I still move along, never retard
GRANNY SAID IT WOULD BE HARD, BUT I TRIED TO GO EASY
Got me some waves I use to be peezy
Stack some cheddar now I'm extra cheesy
Practice all the time so I get it right
Working my ass off day in and night
I know I'm gone make it this ain't no might
So I hit my knees before I go to bed
I pray for what I want, a wife and some kids
No more sorrows an no more bids
I pressed my bunk but still cant sleep
I ask for forgiveness and my soul to keep
then it all goes silent not even a peep
ONE HIT OF ME AND YOUR FOREVER CHASING THAT
SOLD YOUR SOUL FOR A FEELING, NOW YOU WANNA BUY IT BACK
HERE'S A LONG STORY SHORT BOUT A DRUG NAMED CRACK
SEE THAT SOUL YOU SOLD WASN'T YOURS TO SELL
GOOD THING FOR YOU GOD ALWAYS PREVAILS
BUT YOU WONT GET OFF THAT EASY, YOU MUST STILL PAY A PRICE.
IT DON'T COST MONEY BUT YOU HAVE TO GIVE YOUR LIFE
ITS DOUBLE WHAT YOU SOLD
AND YOU MUST REAP WHAT YOU SOWED
PAY YOUR DEBT TO SOCIETY AND SETTLE ALL YOUR DRAMA
AIN'T NO DODGING THIS SOME CALL HER KARMA.
NOW HIT YOUR KNEES, TIME TO REPENT
PRAYERS GO UP BLESSINGS GET SENT.
REPLACE THE THOUGHT WITH LOVE, THAT'S MENTAL EQUIVALENT
FINALLY YOUR FREE AND AIN'T NO COMING BACK
REMEMBER GOD IS THE STRONGEST AND AFTER HIM IS CRACK
I hope the day death comes and takes me,
it embraces me, holds me right,
and soothes the child in me, who's still crying.
I hope the day death embraces me,
it rains hard
and washes all the hate for myself in my heart
I hope the day death embraces me I
Don't see dead kids inside adults
I hope death embraces me
Because I know a no truer dead corpse than me
I hope the day death embraces
It washes the hate before taking me
I hope the day death embraces me
It makes a false promise
You will be loved unconditionally
favorite
preferred, esteemed
prizing, revering, adoring
blanket, color, wasp, pain
hating, dooming, damning
scorned, despised
nuisance
We look up and see the sky and wonder how many stars there are.
We ponder life and death, and hope for all of the best.
We play and laugh each day, not knowing the true meaning of life.
We love and hate, making us have good and bad days.
We live and learn, like each storm we come through with new ways to think.
We are here, but can go anywhere within a blink, changing us forever.
We are who we are, yet we are nothing, but what we create.
The emerald fire burns within her breast,
As wandering eyes betray the vows he made;
By bitter poison is her heart possessed,
A sharpened steel within the silent shade.
To hear his final words above the deep;
A gentle push—the faithless lover dies,
A broken promise he no more shall keep.
She turns her back upon the hungry depths,
Now silence reigns within her lonely hall,
Where phantom stains upon the fabric spread;
She won the war but lost the soul of all.
Though vengeance offered up a sweet release,
It left a hollow and a craggy peace.
The hollow echoes drift through empty rooms,
Where every shadow wears a face she knew.
The garden of her heart no longer blooms,
Choked by the bitter seeds of strife she threw.
A heavy iron settles in her chest,
The cold remains of bridges burned to ash;
She sought a triumph in a too cruel test,
And left a ruin in a sudden flash.
She’d give the very breath within her soul,
To mend the broken glass on the floor,
To take the parts and make the vessel whole,
And silence every slamming door.
The salt of tears now poisons every spring,
Where once the ghost of hope had tried to sing.
Salty sweat upon cheeks,
The burning heat is scorching my sensitive tongue,
Now it shrieks.
Deep tides rock me,
Now you seek public attention,
Just be.
Love beams,
No I'm sinking,
Fear.
Salty sweat upon cheeks,
Now you seek public attention,
Fear.
The blades of grass cut through my fingers,
scraping like bone on a chalkboard.
Long days grow longer,
like a Keats sonnet come to life
in the summertime’s furious heat.
Delirious and deliberate, I circle in the sun,
arms outstretched, my head tilted to the ombré sky.
I spin in circles of changing proportions
until my shadow is swallowed by the shade
of the Sycamore trees.
The leaves crunch beneath my feet,
creating a desiccated and delicious aroma
that only comes once a year—
unwavering, unlike your love,
which fluctuates with the tide.
Am I a circle in the sand?
Will I be washed away in time?
Never whole again, as I was in the beginning—
a blank slate lying in wait
until my stars align again.
You took your wife, Omar,
my friend, away from me
because I am not Arabic
and I cannot love her
deeply and appropriately.
I hate your
narcissism,
religion,
and misogyny.
I would walk, no
run over you
if you were a sea of faces
in hell,
caught in your own web of
self-agony.
Sometimes hate
takes a lot more
energy and passion
than continuous loving
ever meant to be.
There are plenty
of great soccer players,
and you are not one of them.
No one will remember you.
You can’t swing a dead cat
without hitting
a good-looking man.
There are billions of men
on this crowded planet
of infedelity.
But a man of character
and integrity,
is a diamond
formed under pressure,
that’s not me.
I married a diamond,
and I am free.
I am the least of
your faceless,
socialite fans:
this petite
silly and eccentric,
tarot reading,
un-Arabic me.
Would you like to meet my lover,
Hades?
I am his Persephone.
Can the works of love
Live in the fog of fascism?
In the boiling vapours of hate
Which seep into the fabric of harmony
Where no green hills nor panoramic views
Can compete with the symmetry of Hitler’s plazas
And the waving bands of swastikas
I am bad at hate
Forgiveness is key to love
I love you, my friend
Borrowed words, Borrowed Time
They used to carry weight,
A point in time they gave me purpose
Now your tongue is sharp as David’s sword
And every syllable now hurts us
Why us, a question you might ask?
Aren’t they directed just for me?
Vulnerability used as ammo
love has me blind I cannot see
“ All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
Should we hold it dear or let it fly
In previous lives I did without
Both companionship and trust
We must, or I must at least
Work hard if this get better
Broken words, on borrowed time
Fill all the lines that form this letter
The sand it the travels slowly,
Yet it travels with intent
Each pebble as it passes thru
Another moment that’s now spent
Borrowed time or is it?
If tomorrow may not come
The end of us its sketched in stone
This isn’t something to make me run
I’ll embrace your quirky smile
Hold back tears that nearly burst
Borrowed words, on borrowed time
Perhaps the lies are what hurt worst
So first, before we carry on
Know I know, your words aren’t true
Borrowed words, on borrowed time
And I’m all done with loving you.
Joshua E.Murphy
S/He walks in bias
As s/he thinks not of himself.
S/He has many a vice
By which s/he does more to others than to himself
As s/he feels his/her disservice to others
Makes him/her nearer to Himself/Herself.
The Modern (Wo)Man.
Full of knowledge
Sans wisdom
Lacking the tryst of self image
For s/he nourishes the advanced sciencedom
Which brought Moscow, Mumbai and Madrid nearer
But a cleavage, so dearer of minds.
So comes the external prejudice
Which reins the seminal minds
With a little or no vision.
Today has all to say
Not anything for tomorrow
The Modern (Wo)Man,
The most civilized and
The most savaged to protect
Her/Him and the burden which
S/He has promised to be obliged,
Is the confluence of
The venomous Chemistry of the mind
And
The meanest mundane of Biology
Short of Historicity and Epistemology of Time.
Sub Categories
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.