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Best Poems Written by Brian Rusch

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12
Details | Brian Rusch Poem

New Year Confusion About Maturity

Somewhere I am not
As is my memory... not
If not there, then where?

When I was eighteen
Going to change the world
My world at least...

That hook went missing 
Place is changed too, for good
As Time... slipped the knot.

We’ll see if I see
Acting out what has happened
Still to see, or saw.…	

Different wholes… 
Time only allowing me
To play minor parts.

Care I any more
To be ever more worthy?
For age has changed me. 

Truths were more hidden
Eighteen should come much later
Was quick passage planned?

Copyright © Brian Rusch | Year Posted 2024



Details | Brian Rusch Poem

On the Trail - Prelude, Dream I

I lay so seemingly far away from here

In the sleeping bag of my dreams

Where ever do I come from
Going exactly where, I wonder

Especially seeing nothing... is
As was thought it to be seen.

Chilled, wrapped in safety blankets 
Of imprinted thoughts, and memories known

Mansions many, waiting 
Through sleepy mind’s open door

Ready for re-visiting, enter free
As free to roam.

                                                       ___*___


Release I say!
Yes, release this sad Soul’s connection 
For more forward fancy flights.

So off again, I can go again 
Into unknown, crazy, enlightened newer places
Leaving here Moon guarding

Another peaceful, wintry night.

Knowing well, in the end 
I will have only found in my expanded Self

Aspects in infinity's wrap 
Of strange disturbances.

Oh... why then challenge so, balance's peace
Why bother old safe dreams with some new

Does the river ever end, is the ocean that near
Am I one of many, or only few? 

Chasing traces.

                                                           ___*___

Ages have I camped in such strange places
Home itself is now 
Just a figment of what?

A greater picture
Or just a stamp on an unaddressed envelope?

Waiting for sleep, on a comfortable cot.

Patient for the universe to give up its true addresses
Where Infinity’s chuckles rise into glorious laughter

Knowing well, the envelope has already reached home
Long before.

It’s to me, the We

Please this time, forget me not.
					

Copyright © Brian Rusch | Year Posted 2024

Details | Brian Rusch Poem

Times on Nature's Land

I was Here last year
Building on my memories…

‘Remember my old hat and way of walking, talking
Playing, and singing the blues…’

                                       ___*___

The lands, these lands
How can one not tell a grand story without the Lands
The platform of life activity…

Oh yes, in deeds
Since surrounds play such a wild part.

You seldom have a joy-time resting in a swamp
Or bouncing on a deck, in a raging storm

And who cares for the old aunt on her porch
Rambling on at what the neighbor again is doing.

No, better to climb an easy hill to see a new Sun rise
Or to lay on soft grasses, humming with the birds 

Bidding the same Sun as it sets... ‘Adios’.

Or, wander in a quaking Aspen forest 
Under cloudless, blue, gentle, breezy skies
In the fall, when the changing colors mesmerize

As if it’s still spring.

Close your Mind and listen... 

To the Land’s family sharing
Listen to the singing.

Oh, how life is then eh?
Choose it well.

                                            __*__

For while you while away your day
The cubicle nation holding sway
Someone somewhere, is blessing theirs
Take a least a little time, blessing your own soul.

Acres can be bought and sold
As can candy
But a thousand year-old redwood to sit by
Telling you a strange, ancient story…

Or, an ocean shore to walk barefoot, alone on
Followed by shore birds just traipsing along

With a single sea gull landing, to say…

‘Hey, how’s your day
Mind if I follow?’

Days on Nature’s land… priceless.

                                                 ___*___

Be ye as rich in your life
The inner lands you can call your own.

Understand what truly profits you as
 Luggage, to carry along in your heart of hearts

Especially, for those times you must travel alone.

What is there... then…
You can show to your true friends

After the vacant memories have all passed
And the wise one comes, to ask how you’re truly doing…

Especially if he’s your secret friend, with a special name that’s holy.

Do you, can you… sing him your true song
Will he smile or dance with you, on that land of yours
Or look at you in wonder, and cover his ears.

Now you are talking about unpacking life’s luggage
After all, you can only handle so much.

And some things pack in together so much nicer
And are harder to break.

Learn to wrap the best in comfortable clothes and socks
As they all fit nicely, for any travel.

And wear that jolly hat well.

Copyright © Brian Rusch | Year Posted 2024

Details | Brian Rusch Poem

Dark and Wasteful Rambling Conversation I

In all my artist wanderings 
Traveling through these great lands of ours

Places visited or lived in, diverse, memorable
Many messages I received...

As did so many that passed before me
Passing through each wilderness
Learning new steps to take.

                                   ___*___

From the lands themselves, such current’s rising
Graced with as much memory as could be held...

Weaving in with the music’s felt in drifting airs…

Did you hear my singing too, joining too
Off in the distances?

                                       ___*___

Danced I wildly through in all these places
Connecting currents wherever found, discovered…

Becoming one, uniting elements
Strongly manifesting new impressions around chosen places...

Like volcanoes quiet, smelly, silent cones
Some still holding withheld fires.

And such warm cousins, stifling Desert heats
Driving me to ground to wait out the day…

Can you feel this… laughing with me
Waiting until tomorrow’s return.

                                       ___*___

How about even-heated, plain sand places 
Near to Ocean’s rocky, and broken, shell-strewn shores
Having their own tunes to teach...

No place here for barefoot wading
Or, even waiting out the tides to rest.

Holding still there, in your chosen place for sittings...
With only bitter biting fleas and seaweeds stinking
Offering sights and feelings for the day.

                                       ___*___

Though memory can serve up more irksome places
Try Humid swamps with their dank, smelly waters.

Small islanded wildlands opening 
And swiftly closing behind one paddling through.

No trails to follow, just pick any direction
Each offering little argument needed, to leave…

As dusk and darkness settle in early
Ready for new bones to chew on.

                                        ___*___

Quick was I always 
To run away to higher grounds

When alone, lost in high mountain sloping’s
Airs chilling to the bone

Loose scree feeding fears of falling…
Down and down into waiting holes in the ground.

Silent… cold, wet in caves...
Real rocky Earth connecting again.

                                               ___*___

In earlier days, and younger
 Where did that great, silence feeling visit before?

Oh yes, on mystic Moon-lit nights
As the large orb passed it’s own time for reflecting...

Listening then to the rising dark...
The Deep of ocean waters.

Sighing within its quiet waves
Can any chasm be as deep and black as mine?

                                            ___*___ 

All this varied life
Much with bitter laughing…

Well, what else could they even say
’Drop in for a visit…?,’ perhaps.

Dare I even think more crazy things as this
Dare I play so wild, in courting stranger dangers?

                                                ___*___

For be it known, this Earth has many diverse songs to sing
And not all are pleasant melodies, ears find worth hearing.

What do the crowds say…
Oh, less said or sang by most, better to forget

Learning well, few fully sane men are met 
On these sparse empty trails.

So few chasing limits such as these
Through their own many years, then going gray. 

                                                ___*___

Crazy is... this courting chaos
Finding yet still, many new in such haunted places

Why not, are they fit for naive youth, or wise old men.
Youth for learning true
Elder courting curiosities, unsettling to Soul’s home.

Trying to tie mysterious energies rising together 
Merging balanced to be enveloped
By the later sitting-still.

                                                  ___*___

Enough of this and those
That given in Time and its special places

Wait for waking presence in mind 
Sometimes waking old, ancient memories…

Hearing connecting from a deep, quiet within
‘I’ve been here before…’

Ah, for the true artist
Just the place to pursue real art impulses

Where else can the right fools be found?
Can we still dance?

Copyright © Brian Rusch | Year Posted 2025

Details | Brian Rusch Poem

A Life Well Lived, Lived Well

Can you stack your chunks of memory, like me 
In tiered stacks of stories... free to see? 

Woven from far time to now, in soft open volumes bound 
Waiting for thoughts lost, but Wow... now together found. 

Oh, most take me back then, there, into seeing forward times 
Where I understand now, what’s yours... what’s mine. 

All that can be drank as fresh, versus aged fine wine 
Living wild again, renewed here... in such better climes. 

No more intense heat, the bitterest of cold 
No more living in the fear of... getting old 

Battles fought are for less, and better assigned 
To other’s intent, far away... from mine. 

For now, my choices are more wisely, peaceful made 
The yin and yang of things, invested in... and well paid 

And love’s all patched, and wrapped in queenly spades 
Under new wrapping, yet unopened... so then, better played. 

For one thing is sure, well yes, a perfect bet 
The best of the best is to come, aye... haven’t seen it yet. 

Bring any and all on, before me set 
I’ll laugh and cry knowing, already... what I’ll get. 

Another life lived, Time, let’s get it on 
While the chorus’s not finished, with this... my own Swan Song 

For I no longer fear what’s right, or wrong 
It all fits into a script, ages old... then dictated long. 

That script containing vast Universes, Multi-dimension’s, oh me, oh my 
Opened, no more needing a place to run... much less to hide and cry 

Free to explore much more, from any other side, and abide 
Seeing whole, from parts thought before... so far apart and wide. 

                                               ___*___

So, if and when we meet again, say us each to other our fond hello’s 
No matter how high, or low… we go 

Know we now fields are well-chosen, for we both to better sow. 

We’re living, that life forgotten, this life... already known. 

And secrets shared here and there, now are to re-open 
Unwrapping gifts, that here, were never before... then so lively spoken. 

So we can laugh, and dance in peace, love well and sing 
And see life as it is as balanced, a most splendid... beautiful thing. 

For still, lessons lived, we’re here to completely learn 
As many as needed, to finish... our turn 

Into better trips and higher things, where there to See 
Finding who, when, and how we are... what we truly Be. 

Be... that’s it, the secret found... 
In what all is realized, that’s square, lined, and round 

No more to quibble... getting stern and eyebrow’s frowned 
Instead smiling so hard, we laugh in falling down. 

Into another further Time willed, to pass into again, so funny 
Letting go the games we’ve played here, for toys... and money. 

All leaving here and there, for others to pick up and squander 
As we did ourselves before, remembering our youth here, and back there yonder. 

To this Time we knew coming, yes... meant to here get 
Under New Moons, and Stars, and even Suns... that will set 

Wildly dancing through Times as these, we can now better 
See Living out our songs knowing, all this is free, to together gather... 

And just… Be.

Copyright © Brian Rusch | Year Posted 2024



Details | Brian Rusch Poem

As So The Wise Do Live

Haiku beginning
Green Tara begins singing
Welcome better days…

Morning Sun ends night
Inviting eyes to Nature
Seeking true health’s light

Try sight-see dreaming 
What Nature does bring winging
For nurturing Self.

___*___

Filtering out non-truths
Following better curiosity fit
Seeking saner trail-heads 

Where Cheshire cats... refuse to sit.

Practicing into a more perfected me
One learning to truly, truly ‘See’.
Seeing, a higher art to learn… to be

Where ‘here’ surrounds one as finally free.

___*___

See the Elements
Working in Nature’s own life
Muses and angels balancing strife.

From the darkest Deeps 
Energies of directions
And wildest chaos… stirs

Where darker self
Flounders, as cast aside
By better nature becoming

As he, this other, dark gray in black
Stays there swimming until he sinks 
With the deep claiming him

For he is... 
Not a very happy fellow
Who likes to be bothered.

___*___

He is like an old, weathered habit
That one has to feed 
Less he ramble fierce in chaos

Angry, blind, and powerful 
Using remorse as his fuel 
Feeding terrors with his angers

To quench unending thirsts through time.

‘What have I done’, he screams
For in the dark swamps 
There is so little salvation 

Sighing silently, a wisdom seed sprouts… 
Then dies, recognizing
‘Here has no home’.

___*___

The Cosmos between...
Holding Space, Place, and Time
Thankfully, is filled with Life’s rhymes

Giving at least places for living dreams to find
Wandering into better times
Though knowing not exactly where.

So, search, and you will find…
Depths of persuasion
Processing good information

There... 
Releasing for the better remainder of us
Fluffier rests.

Leaving him supported, curious as I
By all that lies beyond understanding
Bending, toward one’s own true need, not lies

There to practice wise fairness
Selfishness merging with growth,
Within sharper awareness.

___*___

See… practicing kindness 

And the five forgivenesses
Grants credibility
To one’s responsibility…

Asking forgiveness, with change
Giving full forgiveness, without remorse
Forgiving self, with grace
Forgiving reluctance to change once
Forgiving twice, within stern resolve... 

To embrace change, or admit weakness
Leaving the act of asking forgiveness
Still an issue.

All within selfless duty...
Serving Nature’s management
Where assigned responsibility lies.

___*___

Hear now, planet Earth’s mantra
‘Everything in its season’
Children teasing through the ages... 

‘See this, see something new’
For curiosities thrive like morning dew
Constant, ever appearing

Waiting softly for the heat of query,
To offer sweetest secrets in dissipation
Bright sparkling sprinkles.

Like early morning golf balls bouncing through
Without shouted ‘4’ warnings
To prepare the resting quiet carpet

For the light of a busy day.

Scattering misty sprays.. such bouncing gifts to find 
Showing fresh green grasses underneath
Heaven surely having spent its restful night here.

___*___

Day passes, Night begins, setting Sun’s reason 
Inviting eyes back to Dreaming
Searching for better selves, teaming…

Happy, finding truer homes
Leaving others… in darker places
To forever roam.

Giving right penance 
To the progress of men
Green Tara’s partners

Along for the ending ride.

Copyright © Brian Rusch | Year Posted 2024

Details | Brian Rusch Poem

On the Trail - Dreaming the Darkened Maidens I

Softest whispers as I do pass

‘Oh wandering Watcher

Your path has led you here

We wait for the One to come’


‘Are you truly the One to write it?‘


Softer whispering's

‘How will it be true written... in Blood, Fire, or sparkling Water?’

‘How will you write the twelfth verse... to Be’


_______________Maiden I_________________

The world abounds around us

In seeming calamity

Seething with injustices

From sea to polluted sea.


________________Maiden II________________

Disturbed, our Gods forsake us

We look for anything more

And find the Devil laughing

As he closes heaven’s door.


______________Maiden III_______________

What the heck did happen

How did we fall so far

Our educations left us

More ignorant than before.


_____________Maiden IV_______________

As Monied Powers skim the cream

To feed their greedy pits

Where good goes in only crap comes out

What good is there with this?


_____________Maiden V_______________

The answer must be found somewhere

Men solving man’s continuing sins

Or else we all will be shoveled down

A birthing pit... to start again.


___________Maiden VI_______________

As dreams and hopes in scenes of Peace

Shared prosperity turned to mists

Perhaps we sowed the seeds seen sowed

Seeing it through to come to this.


___________Maiden VII______________

For Man does love a tragedy

Too much laughing causes pain

And from far down all can then look up

To mount the Stars again.


___________Maiden VIII_____________

Thinking ourselves victorious

See, no animals do we be

As we rise again, from among the herds

Parading proud for all to see.


___________Maiden IX_____________

As Balance again takes our cue

Freeing Chaos to have its fun

To stun and wreck what’s fair and pure

Feeding chattel to our greedy sons.


___________Maiden X_____________

As life it winds around itself

Meeting Darkness at the end

Thinking Light is just a switch to use

Turn on, proceed again.


___________Maiden XI_____________

Oh, such fools we so surely are

Cursing so... ourselves as sinned

As human life it finally blinks out

Storied potentials forever dimmed.


__________Reply_____________


Stunned at implications

Not me!


I have nothing here to write.

Wait!


Dimmed! Not yet gone… yet

Though what can be done…

I turned around and ran.


The Antlered Man brought The Laughing Master

To the Garden planted

I made refuge in to hide...


And there we spent many days

Planning the last lines ending

Words poetic, rising for hope in the twelfth verse

Achieving something for future hope... in Will.


Abide, bride, cried, deny, fried, guide, lied, pride, ride, side, tied, wide

Or one unborn... still hidden.


Softer whispering's demanded answering's

‘How will it be True written... in Blood, Fire, or sparkling Water?’


‘How will you write the twelfth verse... to Be’


Blood spilled, there be well enough

Not even Fire stems that dark tide

But Water yes, in Life of Man

Sparkles Life to live again.


___________Maiden XII_____________

Oh born She is, to Be, hear ye special Maiden twelve

Speaking words guiding Lighted Truth

Wresting up Love, in Balanced Action's grand

Learned lessons leading wiser youth.

Copyright © Brian Rusch | Year Posted 2024

Details | Brian Rusch Poem

Dark and Wasteful Rambling Conversation II

Thank God, for people of order 
That disciplined, hold in people like myself.

We men, who enjoy strange living so…

In such outrageous outposts
Tempting a varied life… 

As well as early imprintings so…
Weren’t we told to be better than this challenging?

Why be vibrating on the edge of chaos so...
Seeing few happy women about to help

They who in feeling
Know true what lies in restless artist’s hearts.

                                         ___*___

For In many ways these diverse multiple energy’s traded
Are the best of artist’s food

Gourmet meals for the day…
Grinning slightly at yet another close call passing

Blood’s up...
Knowing it feeds special Muses with needed fuels.

Who otherwise would never feed fires so deep within
Jailed instead into bored deafening silences...

So quiet one would think them dead
Instead of so hidden deep.
 
Reserved, waiting for sparkling lights to come shining their way
Spilling out energy’s fresh to use… ‘Wake up and create!’

                                       ___*___

I keep going again through years passing
The energizer of this all, free-choice curiosity, aware…

Of where it strives to be
Wading again throughout our own wild America at will...

Storing future fuels for future work purpose 
Carrying lifted, the used soiled lantern of truth

Filtering out chaff and worthless false images
Burning parasites and biters to the ground

We know horizon mirages are just a tease
Better to visit ‘real’ to know

Above all, in truth be true, and stay that way
Is this how it is?

                                       ___*___

Does Cool Water ring a bell
With no Dan to call, just a crow cawing…
 
To mark the way, as morning doves left long ago
Leaving me to crawl alone, to nearest spring.

Unfettered, unchained, crazy at times questioned
Why would, how could artists as I, come to be so untethered

Whatever happened to the fine imprintings in youth given
Thinking you all, we were, we are so well anchored.

                                           ___*___

In degrees, communion, employment, right to vote and family 
Scattered we and they are and were

Slain all before the wild eyes of chaos.

Looking each in their own mirror
‘Are you happy, fulfilled, truly free?’

Inner-self answers firmly
‘Then what worth was all of that calling itself
In your self, the true, better nature of man?’

Something wrong here
So, in this then, begins the quest

                                     ___*___

With too, a fresh lantern lit and hoisted
As sure enough leaving religion, education
Governance, and family to howl...

They, not seeing their own closets 
Creating their own monsters

Order, presence, and profits struggling well 
To hold such selfish sway. 

Watching false praises to those powers that be
Through so many, tedious passing’s of Time.

                                         ___*___

Better to throw abandoned justices into dark rooms 
Beyond the light of any day, thinking now so well hidden…

War, famine, disease, and sins of all kind
Ever bursting out of bonds, feral, laughing gibberish

Intense, fierce, in more and more velocities
Deliveries of karma, future warning, worse ahead…

Until today, worrying many of forecasted end times
For how else could such encroaching chaos be answered rightly.

                                          ___*___

After so many tries, so much fails
As sins of fathers pass on to sons unhindered

To play on, prey on, again using rare blessings given, wasted
Made only into more foul desserts.

While order excuses all to exhaustion
Holding on to its own justifications…

Tethered as it is to long, thought strong, founding habits
Any tortured pathway home only found etched through dirty, bloody fields.

                                          ___*___

Long past missing saving grace, that thin ribboned trail 
Leading away upwards

Where light lives, and balance reigns supreme
What gain then is that?

No longer needing Chaos understanding
Seeing it then having taken its right place, throughout the All of It

I easily hark back to past dreams and lessor poems
In a new understanding.

                                      ___*___

For today... is only today, the same as yesterday.

Or is it... 

For dues paid...
From the rim of chaos comes light stirring

Muses waken full, life brightening in diverse places
Secretly rise opening, to fuse in new times ascending.

No secret, answer always there as before
Hiding in plain sight as it is…

And has always been...
Enough people care.

So do we all plod on.

Copyright © Brian Rusch | Year Posted 2025

Details | Brian Rusch Poem

Nursing Home, An Unlikely Place

Oh, find I here as elder in this small place
Some glad respite…

From inside pills 
And journeying on to bitter end

With so many joys of past, left trail-side
To sit only in fading memory then

Great entertainments and friends
Allowed temptations, travels
Sparkling departures into new excitements…

Even the most basic of foods and drinks diminished
Into lowest price bid, blandness, and strange resourcing.

Letting mind suffice to hold better recollections, though dimming 
Still, having grace winning.

                                                      ___*___

And here, in this small corner, outside, alone
Humbly, gratefully receiving

Water, fire, winds, and earth connection...
Saying their own small hello’s.

‘Greetings, remember us too, not to be forgotten
Living in unity, here for you, granting your soul reprieve.

Not all in the best of health...’ 

I do agree…

An old, worn, unlikely small, dry place
Almost enclosed on all sides…

Yet, thankfully outdoors…

Much the same… 
As my mind and body here, now seem to be.

                                            ___*___

‘Feel deeply’, I’m told...

‘Loose inside connections
Let us here, lovingly remind you of Nature’s vibrations.

Life yet springs the world free
Finding you and our Nature, into I, again together.

Each to it’s same task as before, to need.’

‘Yes, I see!’... I quickly answer in quickening attention
As my mind fuses memory in, opening a forgotten door.

’Yes, bless this place, equal to any forest vast.
Caring little now, how long it’ll last.

With memories brought too, of ocean’s deep
Waves crashing strong…

Winds up to task, blowing energies along.

Within Sun’s heat, stirring water’s pot 
Some misting into clouds, far away from here, to drop

On forests and fields, lifeblood rain 
Letting Nature amend what was here...

With health returning ten-fold
Into fresh living life, once again.

Even to I, humbly now blessing this spot
No less, no more, than any place in pain.

As we elements all share each other… again...

Though energies owned, fading
Acknowledging age old blessings to all, on our own call.

Can’t live forever.'

                                                 ___*___


Together, vibrations recall places we’ve roamed
And see here together, gathered once again…
With dreams still to be shared...

Potentials for better future in growing
Singing the joining tunes, each of us well know.

Feel... soft breezes still rise, cool when called
Caressing heated skins

And plants waving hello through seed pods dried thin

As a tiny pond filling, gurgles... ‘Welcome friend’.

All enlightening energies glad received… again
Under this same Sun
Not forgotten.

Space, Place, and Time
All acknowledging most mystic connections

As learned, each to each, past into future
One to the other, investing in…

Joy in peace, serving our own mindful balance.

                                                   ___*___

I now feel the sleep lying deep within this elder place
Waiting for me also like a very old friend

Nothing to fear, for on nothing it depends.

Silently, and like a blanket, warming
It does not hurt, memories keeping me safe for travel. 

Hmm, comes quiet thoughts…
A fitting place to leave these shores, if need be

A Gate to pass one way through… this yes, Heaven’s door.

For the time is close
Tired, I feel it step softly near.

                                                  ___*___

‘There is no true pain’, It whispers
‘There is no fear’.

“I will cry not out loud”, I answer, shedding no tear
The other side... becoming clear.

Secrets unfold, as know I, this task near done
A long life lived, lessons won

And I carry... with me memories of everyone 
As well as energies connecting...

To wake anew, under a purer White Sun. 

                                                  ___*___

Within wisdom’s and understanding’s learned
Here past into there’s future, fusing into one whole

Completion...
Such an easy gate to pass.

In deep humility sharing softest tears
I give thanks singing…

And return back to elder work.

Perhaps tomorrow.

Copyright © Brian Rusch | Year Posted 2024

Details | Brian Rusch Poem

Well, How About This?

Is this that most uncertain day
When new thoughts rising
Demand their say

Breaking with past ways thought secure
That like broken icebergs, face warming waters pure

Met in life changed, as sons and daughters
And other melted sirens of various kinds.

Water is water, so it is all singing say
So why not merge with us today

For Sun’s hot, and rousing us to fly
Into forming clouds that fill the sky

Or stay firm as ice you can see in heading south
To butt into brothers like yourself

To in the end make full southern amends
By becoming ice-lands once again.

So when you’re ground and melted down
And all can see, what in the past you’ve found

Will they believe you, from far north or south
Or think stranger meltings fill their mouth

Or just murmur, smile, and shake their head
And not give a lick for what’s been said

Since ice is ice, whether north or south
Or in a drink heading for your mouth

No matter where your ice journey led...
Instead of rain, it’s just piss instead.

Copyright © Brian Rusch | Year Posted 2024

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Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry