24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
If I ever get a chance
I wish to go back to the home I was born in
Live the memories I had there, once more
I wish to go back to the home
Where I first learnt cycling
Where the first time I spoke
The first time I walked
Getting up by the voice of my maa
I needed no alarm
Playing with my toys
As soon as I came back from school
I barely needed friends
I wish I could go back to the home of my childhood.
Harsh winter season zoomed in and
My dried pale skin thirst for you and
I am here longing for your embrace my Philippines.
My cold trembling hands need your warm touch.
Spring unveil and welcomes you with my cheeks blushing in pink and yet,
No other warm weather can replace you my love.
Your warm sun, brighten my day and bring back the good old days.
Oh, my summer love, I am longing to see you soon,
You rescued my frost bite lips with your sunburst kiss. When you welcome me home,
A splendid cool breeze from coconut trees whispered to me like lovers do
And you caressed my soft skin and tickled me.
Philippines, my lover for all season.
Middle of nowhere
My thoughts have left for elsewhere
Mindless
Ignored signs
Reckless actions
Leaving path
on railway tracks
Jumped the curb
Now, flat tire
All fixed
Ready for
Destination!.
Your suffering for naught
As it is taken up and brandished
As a unique identity,
As a distinguished honour.
Glamorized anguish,
Narcissism posturing as tragedy.
Debilitating sadness is only beautiful
To those for whom it is foreign.
Write a poem about a specific location that meant a lot to you as a child or teenager that you have not returned to in many years. It could be a house, a park, a country, anywhere that had particular significance. The focus of the poem could be on the location itself, or it could be on something(s) that happened there, or someone you spent a lot of time with there.
Who I was
By Patricia Harris
The cabin in the mountains
Made me who I would grow to be,
The stream to drink from
Taught me a different
Way to see.
Simplicity
In the way of life,
Makes one realize
More about possibility.
An outhouse and barely even
Has electricity,
Gather water from the stream,
With a natural quiet
That encourages the soul to dream.
Childhood paradises
Are only adult memory.
Time encapsulated
In sentimentality.
The house in Tennessee
Roof concave, near surrender
Brush and trees, dirt and bees
New roof built and hope extended
Real struggle revealed
Just a shitty old field with logs in it
I guess people wanted to park there
it certainly was no park.
Old telephone poles littered about.
Never paid much attention to it.
New parking lot
New train stop
New lamp posts
New asphalt
perfect.
I started going there to skateboard
to hang out
roll around
jump and
fall.
I’d ride my bike to this haven
empty except for the cars
quiet except for the city
the train
occasionally oozing commuters.
This was where I went
that day I was upset
young emotions overwhelming
the cigarette I stole from my stupid uncle
terrible and freeing
My bike was down
I was fuming
on an island
then I floated
about twenty feet above
I looked down
a leaf floating and careening
carefree
empty and confused
that’s my body?
I just wanted to escape
and what a place to go
the atmosphere
above the emptiness
the flaccid firmness of reality.
Fleeting
but what an experience
to be
above and beyond
my tumultuous brain.
Stanza poem 4
A day:
A day
Simple and similar
Until my heart broke
A day
Turned sad
My heart took
A day
That never changed
It was the same
A day
I wanted to die
I cried & cried
A day
I don’t want back
A day
I had my first
Panic attack
My eyes are light blue
My hair is brown
I never thought I was pretty
Until now.
Light grows like weeds
in and out—swift slips
inside dark recesses, cracks
cave to brillance.
Far off in the universe,
dust and wind wash
away turbulence—all unseen.
Still, we chill down our spines,
turn to reach another,
nodding.