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Best Poems Written by Will Hollis

Below are the all-time best Will Hollis poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Will Hollis Poem

An Elegy For Bravery: For the Victims of Virginia Tech

This country defined bravery for the modern world.
Standing tall in the gales of monarchy,
Locking arms against the assaults of autocracy,
Running headfirst, headstrong into battles
For the name of democracy, the right for each man
To speak, believe, live his ways.
But again, we must invent bravery.

Oh, how years can change definitions
Standing in planes to bring them down,
Locking arms to leap from buildings,
Running without thought from a 
Free man’s bullets.

Bravery is necessary for life.
So is courage and selfishness.
In times only we have experienced 
We must have the courage to be brave,
And selfishness to demand it from others.

Details | Will Hollis Poem

An Elegy For Safety: For the Victims of Virginia Tech

I remember the wooden floors of Catholic school;
And the grin reflected in glossy planks; 
And how I learned of God, love, peace, white, pure,
But never knew anything else,
A warm embrace of family in the house of God,
His warmth raining on me in the Spring of my youth.
And the friends I had, who were wet with me,
And in the name of childhood 
We danced and sang.

But it was a child who shot down
His school, covering steel bullets in blood;
More powerfully covering childhood in the truth:
There is no safe place.

The planks hold doubter’s eyes, now,
The reality that death is for all of us,
That each person holds the end 
Of strangers’ worlds in his hands.

If I could take the Hokies,
And all the murdered youth of this greatest nation, 
And heal them, I would.  
But I did not invent the safe feeling
Only remaining…hopefully somewhere.

Details | Will Hollis Poem

A Funeral For Unsweet Tea

The voice of a moth was all to come out
when I meant to to say I hate this life.  
I meant to scream it with all the genetic coding 
that allows such well developed emotions, 
but what really happened in the time span of 
those few seconds was a desperate little whimper 
only the caged schnauzer 
in a car at Wal-Mart could hear.  
The poor little beast looked at me
knowing what I really meant 
as I dropped my bottles of unsweet tea, 
glass, liquid, pavement, all meshing around my feet 
as I sighed at where my life had led me.  
Cursing my way to the Honda I call home,
I saw the schnauzer call me a little priss 
as he strained to reach the insufficient crack in the window.
While seeing his eyes close for the last time and
his bowels releasing themselves in his final act of defiance, 
I wondered who the hell was I to complain.

Details | Will Hollis Poem

Hallow Gourd

Snap my lonely stem and
Amputate my denied attachments and
Discover the life that drains
From an open wound.
Oozing to the earth it will 
Whet the desires of worms,
Each wondering why tears
Taste so much like pulp
From a pale and oddly shaped
Pumpkin.

Details | Will Hollis Poem

We Are the Two Headed City

No man could separate us
all they could do was add to us
give our soul food
give our food soul

It was a woman who broke us
entered the cracks of hate
leaked through the pores of
inequality, injustice

I am the white one
Daughter of conquerors 
Princess of the realm
Belle and heir to the kingdom

I am the blonde one
the Jewel of my father’s crown
the one that adds class 
adds power, adds indifference

I am the black head 
Mother of the oppressed
Queen of the swamp
Maker and maintainer of soul

I am the cocoa one
the Diamond of the coal mine
the one that adds sass
adds music, adds separation

Together we unite the people
but we have been damaged
made two
our parents and children are lost
lost to us
lost to each other

Details | Will Hollis Poem

Katrina Changed Everything

She ripped me out of my home
out of fort mitchell
out of kentucky.
She hoisted my roots from the ground
with her powerful arms, so unlike a woman
holding no one close to her bosom.
She used her calloused, bloody hands
opened my eyes
awakened me from ignorance.
She screamed into my ears the 
voices of the oppressed 
the calls of the forgotten.
She grappled my head and pointed
it to those who were different
yet still brethren, not related
but sisters and brothers
in need of love 
on the most desperate level.
She held the death to my nose 
the pungency smacking the 
apathy from my young mind.
She forced me to redefine
Neighbor
no longer those close by
but those far away 
She flung me to New Orleans
this Jersey Yankee
a born-again po boy.