Tag: poem
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The Algorithm
How do you beat the algorithm?How do you fight a reflection that’s been distorted?Pixelated by cyber forces that convince our daughters that they’re not enough?How do you deflect the million voices that affect their choices and drown out us telling them it’s too much?My daughter tells me she’s ugly,Doesn’t hear me when I tell her…
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My Neighbour Hung a St. George’s Flag and Asked Me What I Thought
My neighbour hung a St. George’s flag and asked me what I thought,Now I’ve been known for my quick wit, but my brain – licked by the grotesqueness of it – could form no such retort,I had no words,No words would come,Struck dumb and dumbfounded that he would ask me something so inherently… dumb,With zero…
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Broken Toy
I accidentally introduced my colleagues to the real me, and now, apparently, they’re scared of me. I have become a monster in their eyes, and I suppose it should come as no surprise, When I’ve been wearing a disguise for the past five years, They were scared by the raised voice and puffed chest, And…
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We Brought the Gold
When we left our homes for England, We expected streets adorned with gold, Because that is what they promised, Because that is the dream they sold, So we dressed up in our Sunday best, Straight backs and heads held high, And we arrived with big aspirations, Based on little White lies, Because the streets were…
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Wait… Did I order my life from Temu?
I wrote a poem about 12 years ago called ‘This Ain’t It‘ – It was a very short poem and, truthfully, an incomplete thought. My life felt wrong… but I couldn’t articulate it very well at the time. This is a more thought-out interpretation of how I felt then (and still feel now in all…
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Be.
I was at Liverpool Street last week and I saw a TFL sign that said “slow down and walk” and it actually made me stop in my tracks because I realised I was actually rushing. But why? I wasn’t on my way to work, or to an appointment, I was just going to see my…
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“WHO ARE YOU?”
I am Kiddo, I am Sez, I am Bread and Water, I am my mother’s child and my father’s daughter, I am mum to Tally and Reecey-Breecey, I am wife to the only other man who sees me, I am exhaustion personified, anxiety made flesh, I am a girl who has more than once toed…
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Limits
It’s true what they say, that the mind is the limit,That any battles outside it are conquered within it,But any battles inside it can’t be conquered without it,Impossible, still, when each synapse is knouted. Each lash, a thief of perception so deathly defiant,Makes all the small things turn into great giants,So how do you fight…
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Hi, my name is…
This #poem was inspired by a real life Teams meeting I was on this week. Inspired too by a post I saw today about #nationalinclusionweek and the importance of getting people’s names right. I have a very Anglicised name yet you would be astonished by the sheer number of people who still get it wrong……
black poet, D&I, DEI, EDI, equality, inclusion, names, office politics, poem, poetry, race, respect, work, workplace racism -
Mouse
She is a mouseHiding from the volley of truthThe folly of youthHas her reading the back of the shampooWhile they shoutBuilding a tower of cotton budsWhile they screamStaring through the green viscosity of the handwashIgnoring the atrocity of another smashed plateAnother crash of hateShe is a mouse in her holeHer sanctumHer tile-lined cellWith the chips…
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To the Syndrome in my Head
You don’t belong here She said She said You are in the wrong place You are a disgrace A face that doesn’t fit You don’t belong here and you need to quit She said QUIT!! Let me be clear You aren’t even meant to be near this table Let alone sat here at this table…
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What for
A rare outing of my face to wish you all a happy #internationalwomensday and share my latest poem inspired by this quote from the BBC sitcom Here We Go: “I actually like women’s football”“No need to say ‘actually’, no need to say ‘women’s’”“I… like… football”“There you go” The poem is called “What For” You’re articulate (for…
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Confetti
Taken in.Scattered vim,Like confetti to the wind,Empty palmof sallow skin,Cold and thinfrom a tiredness that’s hunkered inthe very core of everything.What is this thing?Ephemera.Magician’s sin.No hint of paper left withinthis hollow tin.This wraith in skinand boneand two-bit grinis spirallingwhile the tricksy djinnwith Keyser Söze’s tricksy limbdances inthe coloursdancingonthewind.
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Irreconcilable Differences
If you try and lift the edgeof the dregsof the unspoken,You’ll spy it there– just lying there –blebbed and broken,A token sliver,An oaken whisper,Perhaps hinted once but never said,Once clung like leadfrom a tightropewith every high hopegleaned and bledfrom that damned stone, That stone! That stonethat broke no bones(but that once wasdiamondand now is ash)was…
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Mike Hotel – World Mental Health Day and Black History Month
I was diagnosed with Clinical Depression when I was 11 years old. I was then diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder aged 35 years, but really I had been living with it for many, many years. Looking back, all the signs were all there, but my friends and family just put them down to moodiness, quirkiness,…
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Hollow
In a clearing stands a hollow treethat has long since lost its crown of leaves,Its bark is cracked from weathered storms,Its brittle branches – gnarled, forlorn –lay battered, scattered all around,And when they fell they made no sound,For this broken tree stands all alone,Splintered, fractured, stripped to bone,No more birds to nest, nor squirrels to…
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Sticks & Stones – International Women’s Day
Sticks & Stones by Serena Malcolm – a poem for #internationalwomensday #IWD *** TRIGGER WARNING – Domestic Abuse *** I actually wrote this poem a few years ago. I am fortunate enough to have a wonderful husband of 11 years, but before him I experienced emotional abuse in a relationship. I am not alone. There…
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The Lion’s Share
Camel aside, the straw that broke the lion’s back was not in fact a straw at all, but the utter gall of the Pride arriving after the fall, Her cry was guttural and yet they stalled, But had they been there still – had that been their will – curiosity may not have lured this…
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Insomniac
Night sweats, Sheets wet as cruel scenes stretch across my inner eyes, A gnarled and fetid pantomime of phantom frets ties silken binds across my neck and chokes me to the brink of life, Splits my mind; Half is here and half is on the other side, I’m both alive and not alive in this…
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Dog Fight
Territory marked, Dogs circle and bark, Backs arched and mouths part with that hallmark foam, And she can only watch them posture, sidelined imposter fostering the hope that they long disowned, But it’s all for show, And in the battle throes, As the guttural drum beats grow, When Chaos takes the throne (Erebus in tow),…
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Soul Food
Recent work in progress…. some food for thought, if you will 😜 Soul Food I like my religion as an aside, As a bowl of convention (and a bone of contention) just to the side of my entrée, I find I like small pieces to pick at whenever I decide, That are easy to swallow,…
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One and One
#NaPoWriMo Day Eleven Today’s challenge was to write a poem of origin. About where we are from and where we are now. I chose to write about parents caring for children who in turn care for their parents. There are parallels with my own experience too, of course. One and One It started with a…
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Blue Umbrella
#NaPoWriMo Day Ten Today’s challenge was to write a poem using regional slang for weather. I chose “the heavens opened”, meaning “it started raining”, and turned it into a haiku about love (or at least lust!) at first sight. Blue Umbrella The heavens opened, There with a blue umbrella stood young Zeus himself.
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Fugitive
#NaPoWriMo Day Eight Today’s prompt was to write a poem that uses jargon from a particular profession to shape a metaphor. I chose chasing a fugitive and police jargon for a handheld battering ram (big red key) to shape a metaphor about letting someone capture your heart. Fugitive Like a fugitive I hide inside brick…
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Barista
#NaPoWriMo Day Six Today’s prompt was to write a poem of possibility. Filled with coulds and shoulds and woulds. I chose to write a poem about a split second fantasy, about a possible outcome of a relationship sparked by a chance meeting. Barista She calls out my name and at the same time her eyes…
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Sailing
#NaPoWriMo Day Five Today’s prompt was to write a villanelle. It’s a poetic style that is completely new to me and involves repeating two lines in specific places in the poem. As you can see I am late with this one as I had to think on it for the entire day. I hope I…
grief, heartache, heartbreak, loneliness, love, love poem, love story, NaPoWriMo, nature, poem, poems, poetry, rhyme, sad, spring, villanelle -
Plasters
#NaPoWriMo Day Four Today’s prompt was to write a sad poem that uses simple language to convey strong emotion. The example poem used (sort of) iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets, so I too have incorporated those styles (sort of!) Also the topic I chose for today’s poem, knife crime, is close to my heart for…
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Unravelled
#NaPoWrimo Day Three Today’s prompt was to write a poem that involves a story or action that unfolds over an appreciable length of time. I decided to take the prompt literally and write about an unfolding (unravelling) marriage. I love thinking about the fabric of time being a tangible thing, I have written several poems…
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Swing
#NaPoWriMo Day Two Today’s prompt was to write a poem which transforms the natural world into an unsettled dream-place. I have loosely followed this prompt and combined it with #WorldAutismAwarenessDay, which is also today, creating a poem from the perpective of a child with autism. I hope I have done some small justice to what…
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Hurt
#NaPoWriMo Day One Another April, another month long writing challenge courtesy of National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo). Yesterday’s prompt (I am a little late) was to write an instructional poem, or a disinstructional poem. I read disinstruction and thought of rebellion. Of being instructed to do something and not doing it. So this is what…
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Duck egg, Blue
Trust is a fragile hue, A duck egg, Blue, Transparent shell, You can hardly tell it’s there but not there, It all depends how you look at it, But don’t look at it for too long, Eyes water, Blink and it’s gone.
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Rumour Has It
Rumour has it, You have something close to chest, Suppressed, And I’m impressed For somehow you pressed your finger to your lips – Careful not to let your secret slip – As you fed me soothing snippets, Appeasing tidbits, That quicked the nail upon your fingertip, Stripped by the sharpness of a forked tongue, Crisp,…
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Tiny Hope
From my window I watch cars as they pass a line of box-like houses. A bus stop opposite shelters a gaggle of commuters, the fine April rain making them hunch like vultures as they wait. Next door a dog barks. Farther afield I hear children scream in carefree delight. Spring is trying to awaken, buds…
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Poor, Poor Joan
Another victim is brought to tears by these antisocial miscreants, My colleague goes to roll his eyes and, silently, I must chastise him, As she calls on us to stop it, I pull a tissue from my pocket, From his he pulls his mobile phone and averts his eyes from poor, poor Joan. And as…
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Books on Love
It’s easy to find love in a book, Kismet never reads more poetically. It’s true granduer seems veracious. It’s enchantment seems like a gift voluptuously made. Neverendingly baiting my need for escape. “What do you desire?” My pneuma pulls me keenly, pleasures me knavishly. “Yes, yes” it casts a sultry spell. “Yes, yes” it lures…
books, creative writing, escape, fantasy, GloPoWriMo, hobby, imagination, inspiration, love, NaPoWriMo, passion, poem, poems, poetry, reading, seduction, writer -
Knots
Anxiety. It’s never a mere stomach knot. It’s like a coarse frayed entanglement of rope that’s devoured as it sinks into a molten metal mire deep deep deep inside, Fires fly and gases rise, Beastly belching bubbles that swell and explode like fireworks of fury, All the while an angry tremor bellows through the scalloped…
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Cowboys
Tomorrowland; a far off place, The island at the top of the world, Benji the hunted, Now you see him, now you don’t, RUN, COUGAR, RUN! Castaway cowboy, Escape from the dark, Midnight madness, The black hole, the wild country, The watcher in the woods, Dragonslayer, wild, Something wicked this way comes in search of…
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Poetry Book – This Haggard Alice by Serena Malcolm
After 19 years of writing poetry I have finally taken a leap and published my first book of poetry. The eclectic collection entitled This Haggard Alice showcases an array of styles, topics and emotions, thereby offering something for everyone – hopefully! It’s currently available to buy through Lulu (click the button below) and will be…
books, indie, indie authors, inspiration, poem, poems, poet, poetry, poetry book, success, support, writer -
Door
I was not involved in #NaPoWriMo (now #GloPoWriMo) last year, and while I can’t commit to the whole 30 days, this year I may dip in and out…. Here’s a poem about choice: DOOR There is a door at the end of the hall, Shut tight. It is not locked, but jammed with fear. How…
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Sleeping Bear
I am a sleeping bear with the richest hide of tan, Try and wake me if you dare, But none too many can. You can poke and you can tease; I may grumble, I may moan, But in a deep passivity I have made my humble home. A bear unlike my kin, Yes indeed I…
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The Launch by Reece Malcolm
So I have been writing since I was 7, inspired by my father’s own passion for poetry and his enviable way with words. My older brother’s remarkable love affair with poetry also started at a young age and his career has really taken off this year. You should check him out if you get a…
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First Love
You held my hand when I was young, I looked up and saw more than my father, I saw the first man I would ever love, And the mould for each man thereafter. You showed me the beauty of strength when it’s blended with a gentle core, How to appreciate all that I have, While still pushing…
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Can’t you see my happy face?
Can’t you see my happy face? I’m smiling, can’t you see? These are tears of joy, you know, Your blessings gladden me. Can’t you see my happy face? It’s the best news the world, I can’t wait to meet your little one, Whether boy or whether girl. (Can’t you see my empty space? The hole…
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Hush Child
Hush child, Close your eyes, Shutter out the world and let the stillness fill your mind. Hush child, Hold my hand, Feel its warmth and strength and know the might it can withstand. Hush child, Take a breath, Let it fill your lungs and feel the lightness lift your chest. Hush child, Lean on me,…
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Til Death
Don’t let my fingers slip from the palm of your hand, You’re all I have left. Inspired by the story of Italvino and Diva, a Brazilian couple who died within 40 minutes of each other, after 65 years of marriage, in the same hospital room, their beds pushed together so they could hold…
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Example
My Daddy hitted a man, There was lots of blood and I sawed that when daddy hitted the man, the man went to sleep on the floor, And daddy had on that face, Like the one when he hitted my mum and she cried and cried and cried and kept asking him what she had done,…
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No More Winter
There will be no more winter, We’ll live forever in the spring, There will be no more winter, And the birds will always sing, The icy swathes of death, Will never lay across this land, We’ll never see the fall of Summer’s beauty at its hand, The sun will live forever, There’ll be bleakness nevermore,…
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Ice and Fire
Your heart was ice, Your heart was fire, You froze and blazed until I grew tired, Until it snowed upon my funeral pyre, You dragged me down but I flew higher, A phoenix risen from the fire, Preserved in ice and seared with ire, At last I’ll be what I desire, I’ll freeze and blaze and never tire, My heart is ice, My heart is fire. Today…
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Rainbow
When skies are dull, bleak, I long for relief, and, lo, he comes uninvited but welcome. He is my rainbow. Today is the last day of NaPoWriMo. No prompt for me today (but you can find out what it was here). Instead I revamped an old poem (we’re talking 16 years old) that…
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Bridges
Bridge to Freedom I hear the melancholy slither of the stream across the stones, I feel the dampness of the wood as it seeps into my bones. My legs dangle through the railings, Dried up mud cocoons my knees, I watch my teardrops salt the water as I cast secrets to the breeze. I feel…
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A Second Chance
I still remember the day we met, You were this tiny, perfect child, And though you couldn’t focus yet, I know you saw I was beguiled. You quickly learned to hold my hand, And just as quickly refused to let go, You held it as you took your first stand, As you toddled to and…
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When We Were Wee
We are friends and friends we’ll be, A promise made when we were wee, When we’ve grown old disgracefully, We’ll dip our toes at eighty-three in the very water of the very sea where you first made the pact with me. You swore to be there by my side, I swore in me you could…
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Ten Diamonds
Ten diamonds on my nightstand, Right beside my phone, A nervous joy inside my heart, A lump inside my throat, Sweet memories like pendants dance and twirl and sing, As I slowly grasp the magnitude of this tiny little ring, He is charm inside a cotton shirt, Desire inside blue eyes, He is the promise…
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Little Green Fingers
With heat lapping at my nape and soil beneath my nails, I take a momentary break, to watch you hunt for snails, OK, you shouldn’t be weeding in the shoes I bought last night, But barefoot in the seedlings?! My heart dances at the sight! I love the frown of concentration as you try to…
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My Mother’s Pearls
What goes up must come down, If I am lost I can be found, I must learn to swim or I will drown, Success proceeds a sweaty brow, No difference trumps a common ground, There’s no place like my own home town, My family are forever proud, There’s silver lining every cloud, Tomorrow’s hurt will be…
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Squirrel Bait
When he spies his prize beyond his touch, He knows there is nothing he will ever want this much. Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to write a Landay. A poem of 22 syllables originating in Afghanstisan. I saw this photo on Google a few days ago and felt that it needed captioning. As soon as…
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Disconnected
What’s this that falls before my eyes, With blistered sores and weary sighs? A shell, a corpse that’s mummified in the bloodied gauze of her demise, She is my spirit, Mauled, maligned, Her salted tears have scored and dried. Malevolence poured from callous minds, Like tiny swords that beat and bind ’til they’ve pilfered thoughts…
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Games
Let’s play a different type of game: I’ll pretend that you’re not home late, If you pretend that you’re ashamed, I’ll ignore your pathetic state, If you wipe all that lipstick off your shirt and make your tie look straight, I will ignore the telling wafts of the perfume that’s on your skin and the…
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Questions, Questions
Did you buy me any more crumpets? Did this laundry pile somehow get bigger? Can I have chocolate for breakfast? Can you please not kick your sister? What costume shall I put on? What shall I put on for lunch? Can you be my pretend robot patient? Can you please remember we do not punch? …
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Accomplish Something Big
Listen up and riddle me this, Fed through two by two, at first, (Is this making sense yet? Maybe it first must get much worse…) Decide what’s really important but Of course you must forgo the rest, Listen to these: A5, R8, TT… which car is the best? Let me tell you a secret, The answer was…
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A Heart Full of Willow Blossom
I plucked catkins tenderly from a willow, To show how love captured me when you were born, I filled the sea endlessly with blonde billows; No drop unadorned, They broke the banks, wondrously swathing the land, With hundreds of heavenly starbursts of gold, For when you so helplessly searched for my hand, Your hand found…
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To All New Recruits
Accept nothing, Believe no-one, Check everything, Do not lose yourself admist all their lies, Even the innocent can filch and can savage the goodness that I see in your eyes, Have a refuge in which you just breathe, Kill some time there when things go awry, Learn to leave the day’s madness behind you, Never sleep with other…
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Homo Erectus
I love you when the first light hits, and I spy the white trails of sleepy spit, When you yawn and your hot breath wafts my way, When you sniff your pits and start your day, I love you when your eye-crust shines, As your red-veined peepers gaze into mine, When you scratch your crotch…
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Evanescence
The route along the cobbles is silent Save for the shushing of the water wheel The grass glistens green, pear, then emerald As the winds rush through its blades with such zeal The sky is adorned with falling blossom Its scent sweeps over me like a tide I should probably get home for supper But…
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Identity Crisis
What makes you you? The things you’ve seen? The lives you’ve touched? The where you’ve been? If you woke without your memories, Tell me, who, then, would you be? Would you still be you? Could you ever know for sure? Or would you relinquish all that came before? Know this: Who you have been is…
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Dysmorphic
It’s a dark, dark road that you venture down when you can’t even look yourself in the eye, When the words ‘fat’ and ‘ugly’ explode like landmines in your mind every time you look in the mirror, When you’d rather rip your flesh and gouge out your eyes than have to look a second more…
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Invisible
You don’t see me as I move across your day, You don’t see the things I do, You don’t see me, So I shouldn’t be surprised that you step on me, Walk all over me, Without the faintest acknowledgement that I’m always by your side, You don’t see me and you don’t even care, You do…
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Unchained
Mr Organ Grinder, Please discard your bait, I will no longer dine Upon you hate, Your slurs disguised as playfulness serve only to fat my stubbornness, Heels dug in, Now listen well; You do not own this coloured girl, I will not dance, No sir, Not today, And your ignorance is in my way, If…
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Worked to Death, Death to Work!
I’ve had enough of all the office politics, Of sickly pricks and inappropriate wit, How many ways could I get out of this pit? Take a hole puncher to my finger tips? Or perhaps I could just staple my lips, Or jam pencils into each eye socket, Use scissors as a hara-kiri sword, Or hang…
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15 Years Later
If you asked me 15 years ago If I thought that time could heal that wound I would have looked at you – A rawness in my eyes, My light nearly all consumed – And I would have told you with intense certainty that it would never fade away A hurt that great is itself…
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Bullies
It’s Blue Monday so this poem is dedicated to all the organisations, bosses, colleagues, and other individuals who never quite graduated from playground bullying. Remember your words and behaviour have consequences…… There is a strange peace In knowing the day; The day that the pain will be going away, When the bullies will stop their…
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Kiss Me
Kiss me like we’re eighteen years old, Standing in Paris waiting for our lives to unfold. Hold my hand with the innocence of that boy who once handed me a rose and fixed my heartache with the joy. Look at me just like you did at first; Like if you ever looked away your very…
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The Worst
This piece is a little rough around the edges (no neat rhythm, some questionable rhymes) but that’s because it’s one written from the heart and not one written for poetic perfection. What’s the worst that could happen If you were to let me touch you? If I were to hug you or just…
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No Apology
I make no apology for being me, I may wear my heart upon my sleeve, I may laugh like Marge, I may kiss my teeth and evoke a hamster when I sneeze, But I make no apology for who I am, My skin is wolf but my blood is lamb, Defender of truth and taker…
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Between the Lines
Love is in the imperfection, And life is in the mistakes, So you have to pay attention, To the silence music makes, Listen to the beauty between the notes; Ornate stories of happiness, Venture beyond the words I wrote, Enjoy the truth my soul confessed. This poem was inspired by the two quotes about…
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Cold Toast
When some things are changed, They are changed for good, Cold toast is not bread, And ash is not wood. When I looked at you, Selfishness ended, All thoughts of me were promptly suspended. When you looked at me, With innocent eyes, I knew I was changed, Completely revised. There’s nothing at all, Not one…
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Black Pixels
Just what will be my legacy? Black pixels on a screen? Will children ever learn of me? Will I shape a young girl’s dream? I myself once had a dream; That long after I am gone, People will be quoting me, My stanzas turned to song. But then I face reality, And from my dream…
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A Love Story
Here is where their story begins, In a time when they were young, And they did not yet regret their sins. A boy whose praises went unsung, Met a girl who ignored her worth, And together they climbed on love’s first rung. But they scaled too quickly from earth, And when those naïve darlings fell,…
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Exposure of My Heart
Oh how I miss you, When I held you you taught me just who I was behind the shutters, You showed me my true colours, That I was like no other when I bled; I saw crimson, I saw claret, I saw carmine, and I saw scarlet, And now you’re gone, My love, Most all…
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Letting Go
As we lay body to body in ecstasy I knew it was the last time you’d be next to me, The last time I’d hold your chest to me, Feel your breath on me, For your body cried out: “Remember Me” And mine called back, regrettably: “To the end of me… Til the death of…
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The Painting
Painted is perfection, The story of great love, A tale of fated spirits, And the best is not enough. Painted is elation, The joy of fated souls, Shared devotion in abundance, Giving more than one heart holds. Painted is completion, Two hearts fused as one, A union of the moon and stars, The heavens and…
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This Ain’t It
My life’s the wrong size It just doesn’t fit I once had a dream But this ain’t it I prayed that the end Would be worth the long trip I once had a plan But this ain’t it From there it looked sexy From here it’s just shit I once had a vision But this…
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The Dreams
I always dare to dream the dreams But little shards disturb my sleep When reality rips right through the seams And all that’s left are the sighs that creep From lips that tremble with the tears Of wasted hopes and realised fears A stifled cry, frustrated screams My heart is sinking in defeat I always…
Serena Malcolm 