24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
My secluded island
surrounded by friends
Creating the barrier
so that, I may have
calmer waters
within
My hammock
tied between two trees
swings, ever so lightly
with the breeze
the soft caress, of their
well~wishes
whispers along my skin
the sands I walk upon
leaving footprints
sometimes, only one
Where their love has
carried me
let the tide
wash away
our worries, of today
Home is where the heart is,
my momma always said
©2016 Amanda Potter
Dear Lord,
Let my soul be at rest once more
Swallowed up in the contentment
Of resting in Your arms.
Please save me from the darkness
That I am so easily entrapped in
Stone walls towering in my mind
A maze I can’t escape.
The sins and fears that haunt me
I face over and again
The same old troubles which still stop me
To the point that I’m ashamed
Who is knocked down by the same monster
Again and again and again?
Lord, I know You’re patient with me
I know You’re by my side
Though I know I should rise when I’ve fallen
– Sometimes I just don’t want to try.
But You’re patient, kind, merciful;
You’re with me,
You won’t leave me here to die.
Not because I try my best
Or somehow earn Your smile
Will You carry me through.
You’ll lift me from darkness because You are faithful,
Even when I’m not;
That’s just what You do.
So my dear God, I thank you
I could never live without You.
Though sometimes I still try,
As I’m sometimes still a fool
And old ghosts in my mind
Lead me away from You.
Show me how to face the monsters, God
Let me see the Way
Using good to overcome evil
To see light brighter than the day.
The brightest light of all:
Please remind me that I’m loved,
And help me give that love to others
– That graced love from above.
Lying on the bed of the hospital
When her heart was beating for the last time
She saw everyone she loved beside her
A mother trying hard to control her river of tears
A father being strong as he was
But his eyes said he was lying
A sister who always fought with her over tiny things
Was now fighting for some more time just to be with her
And the love of her life
Doing all that he could
By just trying to love her as much as he can
Lying on the bed of the hospital
She realised she got a tiny life in her hands
When life was about to leave her soon
the inner child surfaced;
my courage has found me –
heading the right way
Dear traveler,
we wandered together,
we wandered apart,
we roamed familiar worlds,
we detoured alone.
I can barely describe
my fatigue, my fog,
sensation of the crowd.
bombarded by the singular
I sleep, I awaken,
puzzled and perplexed
by words, by design,
by god, by the devil.
now I forget am I at my 22nd detour
or is it my 21st,
losing count, tomorrow
is not another day,
nor will I speak about this
with others, yet do not forget.
sincerely, your strange companion,
your verbal friend, it is I.
box 27 to be exact,
on a road also called Old 31,
I lived there happily for more than
twelve years –
until my Grandfather decided to retire from
the police department and move South;
I was never so upset as to be uprooted from
everything I knew to move two states South,
where people had a drawl that I could barely
understand,
almost like moving to a new country;
my Grandmother was not happy to uproot her
Hoosier self and move to Tennessee where the
dirt was red and moved like balls of clay;
nothing smelled better than Indiana dirt.
The move was shock,
but we adjusted and it wasn’t long until our new
life was acclimated and churched.
Michellia D. Wilson 8/14/2015
The sea was in all its beauty
Waves came rushing in
The sand between my toes
Was as walking in snow
Reality is this
Life can be like the waves
So don’t be knocked over
As you ride those waves
Stand firm and be confident
There is no sand beneath
only solid ground.
copyright 2016 Roxann A Harvey
I thought I’m healed
I thought I’min the same league as Wonder Woman
I thought I am solid-like any concrete monument
I thought my mind is stronger that my heart
I thought I am a stand-out, no ordinary soul,
that could forget the past so easily
I thought my bravado came back, intact
I thought my tearducts finally obeyed and stopped the flow
I thought …
But realization, that –
Wounds cannot be healed in a flash
I’m no Wonder Woman instead a definite fixture in a loco ward
Any monument will not stand the test of time with so-so materials used
Not to depend on my mind to win over my heart, not always, never ever
To forget is to forgive first, easily said than done
I’m not as courageous woman as I want to portray, no chance
Any reminder from the past will surely bring tears to the forth
The tearduct is not to be relied upon for non-supply of its commodity
And so I thought…but it was not so and never it would be…
That’s me!
Marching
Next to my Lord
The great bear.
He takes on many imaginings
Power!
Larger than life
Itself
My mother walks ahead
Oh, she was
A fox
Indeed!
A thing of rare beauty.
Our mission
Us three
Though I alone am seen
Is beyond all reckoning.
He knows
My dear great
Bear of a savior.
I am just the instrument.
I know this is terribly prosaic, but 1. I’m too tired to pursue another angle and 2. I forgot my second point (see: 1).
Every other weekend my sister and I stayed with our grandmother,
who lived at the bottom of sloping Lawndale.
We took a bus downtown on Saturdays
and downtown meant Kresge’s.
Though, we would also pop into Macy’s,
the department store was our main destination.
The street-level floor held cosmetics, jewelry and toys.
I don’t remember the upper floors.
Of course, we had our hamburger lunch
downstairs, in the Kresge’s diner,
where our grandmother would steer us to one of the red leather booths
to wait for our waitress, an older woman with red hair in a beehive.
My first milkshake was in the Kresge’s diner.
If it had been around when I was older and began taking myself downtown,
would I still be as charmed by the simple fare,
those high-backed seats and the red-haired waitress?
Probably.