Silence

Silence

I’m the girl whose acoustic playlist

consists of others’ ‘get-up-and-go’ music.

But lately I’ve been craving,

peace,  stillness, silence.

Crowded city streets,

bumper-to-bumper traffic

flowing at all hours.

The non-stop jabber of interns

gathered right outside of my office.

Two reports in two days

of gunmen rampaging in public.

Home is quiet, calm.

I turn off my computer,

silence my phone,

don’t even bother with the television.

I lay & read on my couch

until I fall into a restless sleep.

Glitter

In October, it will be 3 years since my friend Leigh and her brother Matt were killed in a car crash while coming home from the lake. As the date approaches, I think about them a lot, and usually end up sobbing. Leigh was like a sister to me in my first year, her last year, of high school. She was also a writer. This is for Leigh.

I have written a lot about Leigh and about her & her brother's deaths. Here are the links to the ones that I've put on here: Untitled Poem & True Story

Glitter

I poured glitter

 into my coffee this morning.

I didn’t even notice it

until I had already taken a few sips.

I laughed at myself,

caught up in the moment,

thinking about the glittery flakes

falling down my esophagus

carried by coffee and cream.

An upcoming anniversary is quickly approaching

but instead of crying (again)

that my friend has been gone

for almost 3 years,

I smile

because Leigh would have laughed

at my glitter in my coffee.

Punk Rock Peace

Over at dversepoets.com we were challenged to write a poem for International Day of Peace, which is today. This is a great subject, one of which I would have written about on my own, but I am glad to get to share it with my fellow dverse poets! The song lyrics in the poem are all from Dropkick Murphys - "Don't Tear Us Apart". The photo was taken at the concert mentioned in the poem!! Here is my contribution! I hope you like it! :-) Let me know what you think!

 

Punk Rock Peace

Many people think that punk rock is violent.

They think that punks are a drugged out bunch

that start inane fights whenever possible.

These people have never been

in the middle of a mosh pit,

where this week I witnessed

more compassion in one night alone

than I have in  most weeks

out in the ‘normal’ world.

When someone falls down,

you pick them back up

in a mosh pit,

but that’s not always the case

in the  real world.

Right now I am listening to a punk song

about compassion,

a topic that most mainstream musicians never even touch on.

Will somebody please

Come aid those helpless in need,

And renew our faith in this human race!

It’s funny that on the International Day of Peace

the only thing that I want

is for my fellow humans to learn a little about compassion

from my favorite band:

Will you show some heart

And end this trouble here where it starts

You won’t tear us apart!

This is my anthem for peace.

Don’t tear us apart

You’ve gotta show some heart!

Holograph to the World, or No One

I keep of list of poetry prompts on my iPhone, which I don't think is an uncommon type of practice at all!! I have been itching to write a poem for a good number of days now, and I finally felt the right energy in the air to do so!! I looked through my list and picked some of prompts that had a similar feel to one-another, and out came this!! The lyrics songs are from (in order) The Briggs "Bloody Minds" and Rancid "St. Mary"!! Hope you like it!! Leaving me a comment means a lot to me!! Thanks!! :-)

(Holograph: 1-adjective-wholly written by the person in whose name it appears; 2-noun-a holograph writing, as a deed, will or letter)

(Skank: Verb-to dance a rhythmic dance performed to punk, reggae or ska music, characterized by bending forward, raising the knees, and extending the hands.)

Holograph to the World, or No One

Restless, again.

I wander aimlessly around my house,

punk rock blasting as loudly as possible

from my laptop in the living room;

it’s a good parallel to my seemingly

helter-skelter life.

I pause for a moment,

skank in my kitchen,

yelling lyrics to my empty house,

I fed my common sense to the world years ago!

I laugh, half-run and half-skip

then throw myself on to my couch.

So many disjoined thoughts

float through my head:

my punk-rocker crush’s new picture,

seeing my deceased friend’s Facebook page this afternoon,

an upcoming concert date’s rapid approach,

the guy who has fallen in love with an image he’s made of me.

I shake my head,

shout the lyrics being sung:

Now Mary’s out the door with a loaded 44 in her hands!

Jilting all these thoughts

from my mind, into the night.

I smirk, lean over,

grab my notebook and pen

and write a happy scene.

Poem for Detroit

If you know me at all, you know how much I love my hometown of Detroit. Today the city filed for bankruptcy. I wasn't on-line all day, I saw the news when I got home. It wasn't a huge surprise, but it was a heartbreaking one.

For dVerse Poets Pub (It's been a while, guys!!) Using "Oh the places we live!" Even though I don't live in the D anymore & "The Poet's Toolbox"!!

My Detroit

I didn’t expect the news of Detroit today to get to me so much,

But I know why it did:

Detroit is my home.

Hot summer nights spent in Tiger’s Stadium.

Family outings to Ford Field.

My cousins babysitting my brother (the only boy) & I

at our Grandmother’s.

Sitting around multiple tables at my aunt & uncle’s house

because there were too many of us to fit at a single table.

Watching the Red Wings

skate to victory two years in a row

in my aunt and uncle’s living room.

Huge, Polish Catholic, family reunions on the lake.

Sleeping on the floor in tiny cabins

without air conditioning.

Meeting my cousin’s newly adopted daughter,

the first of the next generation of our family.

My cousin’s baby shower,

her sister stricken with cancer,

the two of them never stopped smiling that day.

Family members tight in together, both sides,

at my grandmother’s

then my aunt’s

then my cousin’s funerals.

Detroit is my family,

my history,

my love.

A Poem About Poetry

"The page is long, blank, and full of truth." - Jack Kerouac

"Life is too short to live without poetry." - Frank Turner

Hope you like it!! Leave a comment, please, if ya'd like!! :-)

The Poetry of Me

Staring, again,

at yet another bank page

in my notebook.

An upbeat punk tune

guitars, bass, drums, piano

pulse through my headphones

and into my brain.

I believe that there is

poetry in everything.

In the kids running

through the fountains in the park,

parents close by watching

yet letting their little ones be kids.

In the black sleek tower

looming above the park from a distance,

the chief building in the city’s skyline.

In the concrete block emerging

out from the grass, currently

holding me while I write.

I write about

what I see, feel, hear, love, experience.

And today my poetry

comes from the park.

---

Hockey & Superman in a Poem!!

This one's untitled, again (I kinda suck at titling my poems!!) I've been writing really short poems lately for some reason!! Here's a new one, containing hockey & my Superman blanket!! Was inspired by something someone said about being in my element the other day when I told him that I was being boring!! Let me know what you think!! Thanks for stopping by!! (Oh, and title suggestion for this and any untitled poem of mine are always welcome!!) :-)

                                                            (Yes, this is the actual blanket that I write about!!)

Hockey’s playing on my TV

but it’s not my favorite team.

I’m half-heartedly watching

while playing with my phone.

I’m feeling vulnerable tonight,

again,

laying underneath my Superman blanket.

No reason to feel exposed

But alone, in my old cavernous house,

I feel the weight of being me,

of my own self-doubt

and of my strength to prevail,

fighting a battle to win me over.

I can take off, I know

that I can fucking fly!

But I first have to find

where the hell my kryptonite is hidden.