I was a child with questions, no answers in sight,
Why was love absent, why was home not so bright?
A little girl stood in a storm alone,
Searching for love that she had never known.
But then two hands held me, old yet so strong,
My grandparents whispered, "Child, you belong."
They did not ask about my scars or past,
They gave me love that would forever last.
They taught me to read, to write, to dream,
To find my voice, to proudly scream.
Where mother left shadows, they gave me light,
They turned my darkness into mornings bright.
So no, I am not broken, not lost anymore,
I have found what I was looking for.
I am not the tears my childhood knew,
I am the love my grandparents grew.
MY BOOK IS FREE FOR 5 DAYS! (Sep 1-5)
My dear poetry family,
My first book "My Rules To Win" is now LIVE on Amazon and it is FREE for you from 1st to 5th September!
This is my thank you gift for all your love on my poems.
Please download it today (it's free) - Just search on Amazon:
"My Rules To Win by Koyel Mandal"
You will find it - it's free for 5 days.
If you like it, please leave a small honest review on Amazon - even "Inspiring and beautiful" is enough.
Your one review means the world to me.
With love,
Koyel Mandal
P.S. Link is on my author profile bio!
They circled my desk
I drew flowers on my page
The bell rang; I stayed
Rain strikes her bare face
She plants both feet in the mud
She faces the storm
Poet's Note
Dr. Abdus Salam (1926-1996) was born in Jhang, Pakistan. He became the *first Pakistani and first Muslim to win the Nobel Prize in Science* in 1979. With hope and resilience, he showed the world that greatness can rise from humble beginnings.
Bite Size Contest no 151
Theme*: Hope & Resilience
Chalkboard Dream
Abdus Salam dreamed on a chalkboard
Dust and cracked shoes reached the sky
Storms of doubt, no hand to guide
Still he earned Nobel pride
For Pakistan, for Muslim light
Hope and resilience never die
-
she is an oak tree
roots drink storms in deep silence
still she shades the dawn
He wandered away from troubles
but he never gets tired of solving
whatever he does…
always with heart and soul.
He stayed strong through many hardships.
Whoever tries to strike him down,
he still rises without holding back.
He keeps walking--
even when the road is not easy today too.
This Week's Poetry Challenge: Exactly 50 Words
Write a poem using exactly 50 words.
Challenge Dates: July 27, 2026 - August 2, 2026.
I am calmly motivated
through adversity ,
with a holistic salvation
we are never undeserving ;
always be the headway
from afterworld .
(Weekly Magnetic Poetry Challenge • July 27–August 2, 2026)
A single star softens
above cold stone,
where quiet shadows steal across the lawn.
A lone sprout
stands tall—
waiting to greet the ghostly glimmer of dawn.
With petals frozen in pure repose,
it whispers the memory of winter’s weathered white.
A pale, pristine thing,
subdued,
breathing its beauty into the bitter night.
I built a small cathedral
out of the hours no one saw.
Not of stone,
but of the quiet ache
that gathers when a person learns
to live with their own echo.
Inside it,
the light behaves differently.
It bends around old memories,
touches the soft edges
of the things I never said,
and warms them
as if forgiveness were a sunrise
slowly remembering how to rise.
Some days,
I am only a doorway
waiting to be opened.
Other days,
I am the whole sky
trying to hold itself together
while the wind insists
on teaching me how to let go.
But tonight,
I am simply human
a pulse,
a breath,
a small lantern of hope
carried through the dark
by hands that have learned
the art of not giving up.
And if you pass me
on one of your quieter evenings,
you might see it
that faint shimmer
of someone rebuilding themselves
not loudly,
not perfectly,
but honestly.
Shadows of burden, dissolve in the sun,
The many are scattered, the essence is one.
Rise from the deluge, steady and still,
I am the anchor, I am the will.
Chaos, be silent! Clarity, ignite!
I stand as the master, I stand in the light!
I heard the hollowness that this heart hithers ~
but to tame my tears, must I trust the twilight
that ripped me in tremors and toxic tales,
the titanium lightning that traded me thirsty,
like the thunder that cuts across the ribbed sky?
these tantalizing trembles of Thor have left me,
wilting in memories, where moon rests in malice
and the monsoon maiden murmurs in wrath,
unspoken within roars of wallflower leopards ~
who ink me, laced with tiger-lilies and lethal lies.
I ache for you, stretched across sun sighs,
a bereaved goddess of thunderstorms,
vows to sear within silver streaks of solace
stripped of silk and sacrifice,in rust-skin revolt,
seething a smile across slaughtered stars,
and be the Bronté light in brooding blindness,
that cunning cyans cease to code and conceal,
I am the feminine glitch of golden gloom ~
perfumed with mercuric petals that echo rain,
in the restless release of reverent renaissance...
my anchor was ripped
but not forgotten again
he is guard goodly
(Weekly Magnetic Poetry Challenge • July 13–19, 2026)
Kindness is a rare, unpolished gem,
A steady, quiet spark
Hidden deep inside us.
It is an open, reaching hand
Extended with no strings attached.
It is a whisper of solace,
A living action aiming to mend,
Marking forever—not in silence—
What the gesture made flawless.
It is fiercely resilient,
Refusing to make excuses.
It is a quiet fire
Guided by bravery,
Burning for everyone to see.
On looking into the mirror, I saw
a thousand bits of myself;
a woman who like Janus, with twin faces~
one looking backward to the past, to learn
the other forward, to hope and plan.
Saw a warrior, brave and indomitable~
fighting adversities and hardships
not because she is unbreakable
but because she knows so well
that the sun will rise after every sunset.
Sub Categories
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