I don’t know if it’s within me to let you go

Never seeing or feeling, makes time so slow

Darkness inside me begins  to grow

Even with feelings turned stale

Thoughts of you still prevail

Bitter, jaded, unstable

Never knowing, never seeing

So ungrateful, disbelieving 

My left and right are diagreeing

Much time past since we drifted apart

I still can’t forget how you broke my heart

Wish I knew right from the start

My efforts wasted on a clone

So now I’m the one who sits alone

Writing like a mindless drone

Suffering from a severe case of writers block, combined with too much caffeine, new meds, and too many cigarettes. Usually these things (minus the writers block) would make me want to poetry my ass off, but it’s just not happening.

We need your poems. We need your words for inspiration and courage.

Don’t be scared. We don’t bite. Unless you like that, in which case you should go ahead and party hard

-Sam

Say what you need to say. Write what you need to write. There aren’t really any rules, we just want to create a space where you can put your work out there. Whether it be anonymous or not.

We won’t judge your writing skills. 

My heart is nothing more than a burned down bridge that no one has the guts to swim across.

It seems as though everyone is willing to gingerly dip their toes into my waters, but never fully submerge into the lukewarm lagoon.

I would never ask you to swim across.

Never would I ask that of you.

All I ask is that you build yourself a raft

Find a paddle

And float on across to the other side.

Before I put the fire out.

Before I have to watch anyone else I love drown trying to make it to the other side.

I might as well be holding them under myself while their last breaths turn into nothing but frothy bubbles on the surface.

I might as well be the bloat in their tender bellies when the new tide comes and they float ashore, defeated.

I know that on that side things look bleak and cold and dark.

I know you might be scared of what lies beyond.

It’s warm here. And lovely. And I wait on the other side of this burned up bridge with open arms.

Feb/March, 2011

Sometimes I sit.
sometimes I lounge in a field.
Sometimes I lay on a beach.
Then I start to look around.
I look at the leaves.
I look at the grass.
I look at passing animals.
I stare at the sky.
I begin to wonder.
Why is everything so beautiful ?
So many shades.
So many hues of colour.
It all seems so vivid.
I can see it with an artist’s eye.
Wishing I could capture it,
The smell,
The taste in the air,
The gorgeous image.
That one only my mind can see.
Wishing I could share it with you.
But all I can do is store the memory.
To dwell on another time.

 Isolated

by his ignorance.

Pushed aside

by his lack of ability to see beyond greed.

Raped

by the loneliness of the company of a man who has no dimension.

Crucified

from the division he inflicts with his ideals of working together.

He calls this love,

this blatant manipulation of who/what/when/how;

he calls this love,

this oppressive shield of control

that he believes covers the insecurities that he denies he has.

He thinks I am beautiful

lying still on the bottom of this cage.

He thinks my wings look pretty

folded tight against my body,

and aching from never having stretched them.

He likes it when I sing

as long as it is quiet and there is no one to hear me.

It is when they hear my voice

that he realizes what he has got to lose,

and then he drapes a veil over the bars of this abyss

he calls love.

© Lisa Tate, July 1, 2006.

Winner - 2011 Cowichan Women Against Violence Poetry Competition

Featured at the Vagina Monologues Preformance, Cowichan Theatre.

You will always be that fallen star,
Fallen Star, you didn’t fall far
You failed at launching,
Failed at falling
And we all laugh at your fallen trail
Fallen Star,
You’re a Fallen Fail!

I hate myself for wanting her.
It’s a burning desire I cant get rid of.
I see her,
I hear her,
The thought of her,
makes me tremble!
Is this love,
or is it wanting deeply?
I don’t know.
It cant be love,
I have no heart.
It still hurts,
Wish you were mine,
Scared of these feelings inside.
So I’m going to run away.
Leave these feelings behind.
I cant be hurt,
I am a runner.

I wanted to share just one of this man’s amazing pieces. Search his name on youtube and you’ll find some incredible spoken word. Here is Skin 2.

———————————————————-

I don’t imagine you

saran-wrapped in black latex

or seeping out the edges

of something tight and red

I don’t close my eyes

to dream of your back

arched at the impossible angle

of a bow pulled tight

encouraging your shoulder blades

to drip the blood

of stockpiled broken hearts

but I hope the sound

of you not shielding your eyes

from my blinding humility

will one day top the charts

it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard

and you’re the charlie chaplin of your beautifuls

because you make me believe it

when you say it all without saying a word

looking at you it occurred to me

I could sit around all day

wearing nothing but your kiss

you make mirrors

want to grind themselves

back down into sand

because they can’t do your reflection justice

and this just in

I am done with those

who in life would have made me fight

an army of imperfections

a battalion of flaws

tonight we’re going to keep this city up

when they hear our bodies

slap together like applause

Flown

for a while I’ve flown

when your dreams became my own

now the sky I must dismount

little things to you don’t count 3

too blind to see

small things are free

guess I was only a vision

give your thoughts a good revision

From pain to anger

this pain’s released

can’t believe how much I’ve missed

my anger now flows easily

how far from perfect you could be

Courtesy

I thought it’s common courtesy

to say “I’m sorry” - you hurt me

now I know how not to act

when my stress my soul attacks

Walls

these walls you’ve helped me build

from all the pain instilled

it’s not worth to love and lose

because myself to love I choose

Truly loveable

it doesn’t matter anymore

that you no longer me adore

cuz my reflection smiles at me

my love for me will always be

Compare

to think I don’t compare

when I’m the one that’s rare

my mind’s reshaping now

and to myself I bow

Addiction

my suffering’s addictive

why am I so restive?

I should do myself a favour

and the present moment savour

Toast

How come when I miss you most

That’s when your affection’s toast

I’m a fool to think you’d care

When the romance is not there

Clone

Said I wanted your clone

But in fact I want my own

I’d just get a sex change

Perfect love for her arrange

Let me go

You won’t even say hello

You’re a fool to let me go

Thought a real man always fought

For the wonder girl he’d saught

Considerate

I should not care and yet I do

I’ve turned to black from feeling blue

All that’s going through my mind

Will he hurtful my words find?