On Ridicule

Consider it

a good sign

when someone

ridicules

your dream

or

your effort;

if it brings

no one to jeer,

it’s hardly

outrageous

enough

to make

a difference.

_________________________

Poems you might love:

Growth

Ode to Joy

Firestone Friday: Poem XVII

I think

we reject

our exes

because our

romantic relationships

offer the most

intimate look

at humanity,

and we’d rather

believe exes

are broken

than concede

that it is

the human heart

— individually and collectively —

that is repulsive.

On Grief

Of course,

we suffer agony

when we lose someone;

how can you not,

when something

crawls out of your heart,

tears through your chest,

and sinks, blood-soaked,

into the soft earth?

On Drinking

How

are you

my

steaming mug

of coffee,

my

hot-day

lemonade,

and my

whiskey

on the rocks?

_______________________

Poems you might love:

Safe

Wordsmith Wednesday: Poem XVII

Space for Expression

Safe

Do we connect

with lovers

because we

feel safe,

at least,

while they

hold us

gently

in their mouths?

Wordsmith Wednesday: Poem XVII

You are a radiant paradox,

making me to

cherish the memory

of the past

and the potential

of the future,

being the calm

in my storm

and the storm

in my calm.

Touchstone Tuesday: Poem XII

Music is a formed space

and lyrics, the beaten door,

when I hear a song played

I’m thrown onto its floor.

And, without authority,

I’m made to recall,

where I was and what I felt

when I first was made to fall.

Thrown back into the room

where my olden thoughts were sketched,

turned about by dancing memories,

I fell forward and I retched.

Movement

With a thousand poems,

I try to tell you

how I feel about you,

but, with every failed lyric,

it’s clearer that

my passion

can only be expressed

with movement.

Space for Expression

But what is a relationship

without the freedom

of self-expression?

If you so smother

your partner

that she cannot

be herself,

you have lost your partner,

and she, truly,

should lose hers.