The Poetry Marathon

Memories of camping

Being out by the lake

Marking a fire

And cooking dinner over it

Play games in the woods

Not for a prize

but for glory only

Pitching a big tent

That has room to spare

Roasting marshmallows

and making s’mores.

Then looking through

the canopy of leaves

Up at the moon and stars.

These quiet nights

Of camping

I’ll always remember.

I travel light

My two feet

Take me wherever I want to be

North to south

East to west

I’ve seen it all.

You see me and

You judge me

As you pretend to not see me.

But I see you as you peek out

from behind your sunglasses

Some people acknowledge me

Give me water, food or money.

And this restores my faith

In humanity.

Can’t stay in one place too long

So me and my two feet

Will move on.

As I try to find

Where I want to be.

In the middle of the night
When worries keep my eyes open
Or filled to the brim with tears,
You were there to put my fears to bed.
When a student is crying
Or being especially difficult
And I am a loss for words
You give me just the right thing to say.
Even when I mess up or
Have harsh words for those around me
You remind me that your grace is enough.
Words can’t fully express
The gratitude in my heart
As you keep on “making a way outta no way.”
So thank you, Lord, for blessing me
Each and every day.

Softly she walks lost in thought

And wonders what fate

Has in stored for her today.

All the paths around her

are blocked by mountains

and escape seems impossible.

None of that matters now.

She has peace here

on the boardwalk by the lake

And though tomorrow

she have to fight for her life.

Today she has inner peace.

Romance, fantasy and mysteries.
The journey of a lifetime waits before our eyes
But only when we take the time to dive deep
We will be better than we were before.

The journey of a lifetime waits before our eyes
When we read adventure stories
We will be better than we were before
And we’ll grow to love the characters.

When we read adventure stories
Romance, fantasy and mysteries.
And we’ll grow to love the characters
But only when we take the time to dive deep.

There’s a knock at my heart’s door

And though I know I shouldn’t answer it

I open the door anyway.

He slips in

claiming to be here

only a few minutes.

But he’s sneaky

And attacks me where he knows I’m weak.

He wants to be

the chains that bind me

the chains that hold me down

and stop me from being

the butterfly I’m meant to be.

So I dig down deep,

Deep within my soul.

And tell

Fear

Anxiety

Angst

To kick rocks

and get out of my heart.

This is not your home.

There is no room for you here.

It’s 6 p.m. on a Friday night. Instead of being in my pjs at home, I’m sitting around in a room filled with friends with a wine glass in my hand. There is good food and even better conversation – though we only spent 20 minutes talking about the book. The fact that most of us have not even finished the book is not important. It’s all about the wine.

Female ritual

Here we vent our frustrations

Wine makes life better.

It consumes

every moment

of your life.

You can’t put it down for

one hour

one minute

one second

of the day.

A real human being is sitting in front of you

and you prefer to Snapchat someone

who’s miles away.

You have to put

All your opinions

(right or wrong)

on Facebook for all the world to see.

Not understanding

That once you post

It’s out there

Forever

And an employer could fire you

or you could miss out on a scholarship

all because of your obsession with

your cellphone.

I came to work one day and

I was excited about the piece I was going to teach.

I was getting in the flow when

In the middle of class

A student raised his hand

and asked, “Why we gotta learn about this?”

We were reading a piece by Dr. Martin Luther King

And the other students looked to me for my reply.

His attitude about the subject matter

Was trying to throw off my flow.

And I thought to myself 

It’s such a shame that good authors

Receive no respect this days.

I was tempted to brush him off and go on with the lesson

But instead I broke it down for him

Telling him things to spark his imagination 

All the while finding my flow once again

And went on with my lesson.

Taking pride that I was able to use this moment

To shape and influence a young mind.

Note: The italics is what I add to the original 10 lines and I put a line through the 8 lines I took out.

I walk

in silence.

Knowing

what’s coming

doesn’t help

in the end.

Try resisting

waste of energy

it doesn’t matter

once I start

my descent.

Then the crying

and the rage

thoroughly convinced

it’s not supposed

to be this way.

All these feelings

before darkness

comes to swallow

me whole again.