Feel them in my tendons
Hear them in the quiet
See them in the wind
Smell their fragrance
A constant in my life
Like a steel manacle
Arrested and limited
I must pay the price
Sins from lives past
Karmic justice served
Grow I must or else
Be trapped hereafter
So I speak the truth
I am compassionate
Eschewing victimhood
Pleasing higher beings
People Pleasing
An excessive willingness to serve or
Please others.
The Charlatan routinely is pretentious
In one's face.
One can't try to please everyone is a
Recipe for misery and disappointment.
Don't self sacrifice yourself its not
Selfish to say No oftentimes.
Some people are never pleased.
People Pleasing drains one's energy
Without being aware.
The receiver continously take, take
One's kindness for weakness.
pleasing is fearful loving is truthful
(“Tapestry”, 2025, original encaustic)
I like the stories I tell myself about myself.
As cliche’ as it sounds,
They are the story of my life,
But yet, not the actual life.
They are instead the mythology of a life
Of actual moments
Woven from birth by family, friends, and self.
Firstly as a warm, soft, comforting blanket
Then as a home secure and sound
Finally as a world vibrant and vast
Giving us everything we need,
A psycho-spiritual whole to contain
And explain it all.
At some point though we reach the limit
Of our story, our hopes and fears,
As vast as they may eventually grow to be,
And the crack in our cosmic egg
Reveals something completely different
Beyond us, beyond our world and story.
Of course we just add this to our story
But it will never really be the same.
Once the truth is seen
The lie can never fully be unseen.
But lie is a harsh term
For the comforting half truths a child needs
As it prepares to know Life
Outside a blanket, or home, or even world,
A life that weaves and leaves stories in its wake,
Of Self as friend, lover and mate
Or trickster, seducer, adversary and foe,
But as the creator
Always something more.
(12/4/25)
Dry stacked
the walls arched
We're a window quadruple
Paned stood statuesed
Risened and marbled
the counter top
the unfinished mastering
the beams, the beams
She spoke
As we on the unfinished floor
had in reproduction
Created our first child
Months later I sat there
With a bottle of wine
Smoking a cigar
Smiling in happiness
Knowing some foolish truffle
Would challenge our happiness
Some unexpected frivle would
try to undermine our togetherness
Which word to speak might God
Protect us
Then again what words to speak
Might we again be as one
They shall oppose all things
to have me shake my fist at the
Angred by the frustration of not belonging
So that my efforts of failing her and him
Would be in vain
Might they hiss like snakes
to speak us in tenses
The suns of each tomorrow
Be days of us together
Easy Pleasing Title Please
So Simple,
I Own This:
I Remain At The Fringes
Of Wherever I'm At.
I Adapt...
Like A Squirrel
Chasing A Cat.
-Gray Squirrel
05-09-2025
Televised is the burden of my heart cries;
Lovely is the often awesome struck guise;
We soul, hearts mind envisions together;
Rise in us darling, please the covenant of God
~
For Him in Him His glory and honor:
Energies combine electric triumph;
I dear heart love you more there’s no less;
This coupling is soar heavenly bless;
2/11/25
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2025©
From today onwards, I have the right to write my own life
I don’t want my future to be shaped by the opinions of others anymore
I will reject anything I don’t want
and I refuse to be gaslit as I have been before
I hate prejudice and injustice
and refuse to sacrifice my needs for others
who wouldn’t give anything in return
I have the right to be happy
I have the right to get what I want
I have the right to make the people I love happy
and I will pursue this mindset forever
In my life, I am the director
the main actor
and from now on, the scriptwriter
I won’t let others change my fate, I will be me, and I will be free!
A battle that rages in our world every day is love versus hate
Which side you choose to be on I think will ultimately determine your fate
Hate stokes the fire of stress, which rakes havoc on our well-being
Love on the other hand has the opposite effect, a sense of calm that can be so pleasing
When you were born, I sense love would have ruled the day
So why is it with some people it has become replaced with hate along the way
Dogs are a great example of showing love as they will show affection no matter what you do
Think positively and love will always come shining through
A negative attitude creates the perfect breeding space for hate to grow
We must all stand together to fight it if we want it to go
Love will keep us together whereas hate will tear us apart
If you haven't spread love lately maybe it might be time to start
In all my young life
there's always someone to please
around each corner
what I want to do
is to write many more poems
which will be pleasing
Pleasing Self
Haiku: Miracle Man
5/16/2023
One of my big flaws
A perfectionist I am
always hard to please
Holly’s been hung
Jolly are some
Visions of debt
And sugar plums
Food on the table
For those who are able
It’s a wonderful life
Marathon on cable
Children are screaming
Disrupting the dreaming
Of poor Santa clause
Who keeps them believing
Too busy to think
Mrs. Clause needs a drink
So much preparation
Lasts only a blink
Candy high babes
Jingle bells plays
Dad got new socks
Instead of a raise
Full trash cans
Granted demands
Drained accounts
Overpriced brands
This is the season
Despite the reason
A holiday full
Of pleasing heathens
A quiet room
Darkened shades
My own cocoon
The chatter fades
The questions cease
The guilt subsides
The need to please
And pacify
The ebb and flow
Are in my court
Too soon, they’ll go
It’s just a sport
I’ll find myself
Back in bright lights
In poorer health
Fight or flight
Though short and sweet
This is my time
To regain strength
I’ll be just fine
is the teenth of june
found face painted on balloon
looked like a racoon
bitten by chigger
sores are bigger and bigger
once were on trigger
poems complicated
which were initiated
then replicated
did contain despair
records were beyond compare
them up trump did tare
there are those who delves
into books that are on shelves
wrote by tiny elves
not very pleasing
when I had started freezing
ended up sneezing
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.