Survival Poems - Poems about Survival

A pale ray bleeds across the swamp. Slick ivy coils tangled tight, choking voices into damp grass hissing...love? —drowned before heard— They say Mother Nature provides but she doesn’t shield— we live for ourselves, as the swamp feasts on our marrow. She taught us: you either hide from or become the man-eating ripples. You have to get your shoes dirty to not be swallowed. “The water,” my mother warned, “takes...

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What a beautiful story this is a garden blooming after drought when fire scorched the thirsty earth and silence sang the darkest song. You cupped your heart like fragile glass let quiet wrap around your bones not rushing past the shattered shards but learning how to stand alone. Slow stitches pulled from trembling hands threaded hope through every tear and in that gentle mending space you...

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“The darkened sky stole my tears” and left me to face the threat of cancer with deep doubts. Fear overwhelmed me, my tears absentee, dreading the shadows of my whereabouts. Not hiding my bald head maybe was dumb; my plague, the curse of chemo, I abhorred. Then I read the beginning of wisdom is found in the fear (reverence) of...

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I am a mess — but not one to be fixed. I am the ruins and the rebuilding. I am the storm that walked away from the wreckage, Still breathing. Still burning. Still me. They hurt me. Often. And I stayed. Not because I was weak — But because I believed people were more than their wounds. I saw the parts no one else...

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I am chaos, the storm that shatters silence — thunder rolling through the wreckage, still breathing, still burning, still me. They hurt me. Often. And I stayed. Not because I was weak — but because I believed people were more than their wounds. I saw the hidden cracks no one else did. I loved anyway. But the tether snapped. No longer do I chase the lightning that scars but...

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be positive run a t v c ...

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It seemed to happen in a flash. Our movements were rash. Behind the breakfast bar With scraps of potato hash. Our webbed little feet Stuck in a muddy mash. Scores of us slip-slapping up the alley Unabashed, with feathers Mucked and thrashed Finally on the road and--boom! Crash! Linda was blindsided, Some trucker with a stash. There were eight of us now Headed for a small pond...

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I pressed my body into gravel and oil, the earth shuddering like it knew my name. Wind tore at my hair— hot metal screaming above me, the stink of burnt grease and fear beside me. Too late, I thought of low-hung hoses, of chains and things that could reach down and pluck me straight out of the world. I held my breath, as if...

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The plate, a small sun. Fork a tiny, eager orbit. Live to eat: the sizzle a promise, the aroma, a map to pleasure. Each bite, a small victory against the gnawing void. A celebration of texture, a symphony of salt and sweet. Fueling the brief, bright flame of this particular day. Eat to live: the mindful chew, a quiet ritual. Carbohydrates anchoring bone, vitamins painting the blood, protein rebuilding the...

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Life is a heavy hat, we wear it, and we learn to bear it, as we age the debris grows, bright chapeau that once was trimmed with flowers attains a brim of dirty crows, that peck and eat our dreams, crap filthy ropes and jump upon the battered crown weighing down upon our ancient heads, yet somewhere underneath the mess, we smile warriors...

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It was grandma’s last winter. I watched her hurry outside to split enough wood so her old kitchen stove would burn through the new storm she felt gathering along the horizon, its first eiderdown already afloat on the twilight settling over her white garden. From nowhere a dog tormented by visions plunged through the drifts and laid ahold of her leg. She hacked half through its neck and crawled...

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in a world of make believe of people hooked on games and scenarios seen on screens people have become expendable everyone is now jaded content in their isolation closing in onto themselves with a growing distaste for socializing we've become cynical and antisocial friendship no longer a commodity we smile and nod without oversharing not letting anyone into our bubble time is a factor we refuse to...

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Eroded, undercut, sagging for years beneath the weight of a dead sycamore, the bank gave way when the lake was closed and the dams opened up during the winter overflow, leaving the tree offshore, hunkered down in the water, half submerged, its white branches groping the sky like a blind spider waiting to prey. The boat just happened to be there (its outboard, suddenly crippled, useless against the current), swept...

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My knee was a cracked hinge, each step a bargain struck with pain. The canyon walls pressed in, heat still rising from the stone long after sun left it behind. Halfway to the distant rim, I flopped down on the trailside bench— the slats grabbed hold of my full weight as if they meant to keep me. And then I was above it all— a...

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Sleepless nights keep piling up. Always in a foul mood, I poison myself with nicotine, caffeine, ethanol, and cannabinoids. I live like a hedonist with suicidal urges. I won’t bequeath my body to science. The wreck will be too battered by my twilight. One life, one ride—no concessions, no compromise. I'm on alert, constantly in crisis mode. I sleep with the windows open,...

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