other people's thoughts...
Since starting this page people have been sending me poetry
here are some of the ones that I have particularly liked
i hope you like them too.
Poverty
Gloomy streets play host to a small boy
Forlorn eyes subject to a life of poverty
Matted hair plastered against a wet head
The colour now indistinguishable
He cowers at the rising sun
Shrinks from the light
Preferring the unobserved freedom found in darkness
A racking cough breaks forth
The tranquility of early morning shattered
Like a swarm of bees a hum unearths itself from the city
As he escapes the encroaching light the sounds grow louder
Inside concrete piping he shivers with cold
His head droops and opaque eyes close
He is lost once again within empty dreams
By Cedah Lee Cooper
Freedom
She stood on the edge
Looking out over the ocean
Unseeing the beauty, that abounded there.
The only thing seen through her sad eyes
Perfectly mirrored her mood.
The rising sun, normally bright and cheerful,
Was being covered by stormclouds,
The horizon seemed to draw nearer and nearer.
She felt inclosed,
Trapped in an unfriendly world.
She was frightened,
Frightened of the pounding waves
Frightened of the very cliffs that she was standing on.
But she was drawn,
Drawn to this place.
What it was she didn't know
But although scared, she felt safe
Safer here than back there
There she felt intruded upon
All who had loved her,
Now hated and despised her
Looking back at the gathering darkness
She felt suddenly free
She knew the resaon she was here
Knew what had drawn her to this place
She could sense her freedom
She had to escape
To leave behind this hated place
Her hated world
Lifting her tired aching body
She launched herself into the air
She had found her freedom...
By Cedah Lee Cooper
This is the fence line
This is our fence line, our
Terracotta woodcutter-chop-edge fence line.
It is the sound of soil and the songs of sleeping...
The midnight air...
your midnight airs.
('Coffee in your sugar?' she said)
These are the songs of sleeping,
the ebb and flow of weeping trees
Stereo on repeat
(Repeat
Repeat)
The fading summer twilights;
The final, falling autumn leaves
This is the midnight air that ghosts under doorjams
(Under the doorjam)
...Cracks within the wooden floors, the peeling paint, the sunswept
lawns.
This is my fenceline,
which shadows along the concrete floors that
Shy from windows and become my walls
These are my shadows.
These are my fence-line flaws.
By Miss Jordana Amalia
Voluntary Confinement
Antarctic winds are born onto
Fledging outposts; beacons
Transmitting blips and blobs
To wherever it is they go.
We like to know what happens in the snow.
Bearded men furrow
Their weathered brows,
Dreaming of
Discovering something
Worthwhile out of
All this white.
Stories to tell,
Names on plaques
And pictures
In journals.
Hasn't this all been
Seen before?
Families left behind
Are remembered
And forgotten.
It hurt to think.
Ice and alcohol numb
the body and mind.
You can leave me
Whenever you please,
Hurry on back to
Your foreign homes; your other lives.
I know I've taken your wits from you,
And I know I'm not letting them go.
By Brenton Bell
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