24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
I [redacted] tell you.
What you [redacted] hear
What you need [redacted]
[Redacted} my dear
I [redacted] tell you.
Though [redacted] I fear
The words [redacted].
Are just [redacted] my dear
I [redacted] tell you.
Hear [redacted] you must.
They [redacted] say.
[Redacted] words are just.
I see your words,
Hear your call.
I look to the left,
Look to the right.
No way out,
No escape.
Trapped,
Blocked in by this barricade –
How do I break free?
I try to yell,
But it’s no use.
You can’t hear me,
You don’t notice.
Too wrapped up in the memes on your screen,
To see that life is moving on without you.
The power dying,
You finally move.
Pick your head up to see the world,
Only to find yourself alone,
Surrounded by nothing but the wall you built.
Hour 13
“I am a writer”, I tell them
“That’s great” they smile
But they still ask what my profession is!
And so, I started teaching
I stood inside the classroom
Books and chalk in hand
I was greeted by chaos and paper planes
I tried teaching them english and math
But they had different plans
They taught me life is not easy!
They ran around the class
Doodled my caricatures and
Sang loudly when the principal was passing by
But the day, I really opened my heart
And bent my ideals to match their innocence
And sang and danced with them
We became one class; Class 3A
Amidst the mayhem, we found laughter and camaraderie
I felt fortunate to witness
Young minds taking flight
I became a learner too
I learnt teaching is a comedy show
But what a show!
She was determined,
unlike anyone you’ve ever seen
just waiting for her shot to make it big.
& when it never came, she
found solace in the little things:
friends, family, the occasional parachute jump.
She’s better now,
not nearly as temperamental as before
& still holds out hope that someday she just
might be in the center of one of those immense
spotlights
whatever it takes.
Status report nominal
The ship sails the cosmos
A winding river of stars
And journey into new life
Light, and adventure
Galactic travel is possible thanks to [redacted]
Perilous [redacted] approaching
The future is [redacted]
And only [redacted]
remains [redacted]
End of log
Captain [Redacted]
History a tainted word, a dirty word, a buzzword
History should make us feel uncomfortable or we become complacent
We have learned nothing
History should not be censored
Censorship tells us what is fit to learn
Censorship decides what we are allowed to know
History should be shown in all its grotesque glory
Do not sugar coat, spill half truths
Paint the white hats and black cloaks on whichever side you deem the right side
There is no right side to history
For the worlds loneliest music
I’m reaching for the stars,
I’m aligning them to my favor.
If the world fails to understand the
Nature of beauty, why must my mother
Be punished by the wheels of existence?
I’m sorry the clock ticks backwards,
I’m sorry the music keeps fading
What’s yet to be revealed to
The angels, is yet to be revealed to
The devil, so if the world fails,
In pursuing communal harmony
Then let the drums sing & sing
To their stomachs content.
Waiting for that message
to come through
is like watching paint dry
you look for a sign
that it’s coming
but all you end up doing is
scrolling
and scrolling
let’s see what is on my
Facebook timeline
no, wait!
Let me check my
Tick tock (Tik Tok)
time passes
until
*ding*
it comes…
Prompt Fourteen – Text Prompt
Redacting is the act of censoring or obscuring part of a text. Sometimes it is done by the author themselves, and more often it is done by someone else.
I want you to write a poem and then during or after writing the poem choose at least one, or ideally five or more words to redact from the poem. How is the poem changed by this simple act? This is not the same as a “black out” or erasure poem”. The words you are using are your own, and well over 50% of them should be visible.
When writing on physical paper, you can do this easily with a marker, ideally a black sharpie. If you are writing your poem in a Word document, you can use the highlight feature and set the highlight colour to black, this creates a black box over the word or words. Or you can just write the word redacted in place of the word you wanted to use.
Redaction, not reduction
A strange new style to use.
I take on the REDACT, cannot refuse.
I continue to cruise,
bleary eyed, weary sighs
Demanding the REDACT of my muse
I stare at the blank screen.
There’s nothing to lose,
Go on, redact away!
But first, say what you need to say.
At this REDACT hour
When even hardened nightclubbers
Have lain down to rest.
We soldier on.
Rolling stiff shoulders on.
Propping each other up
on REDACT.
But then, all it took,
was a generous REDACT
from a fellow writer.
Her words were different,
But what she was really saying
‘Go on, continue playing’.
We can do this – REDACT on!
It’s hard to explain
The way I feel inside when
A song hits just right
I’m really not sure
If it’s the music or words
Something just hits right
And I am obsessed