Category: poetry

Your life here #napowrimo14

Life

you’re not here long enough

to spend enough days laughing

playing

eating watermelon and icecream

see birds flying

blue skies

rain clouds emptying their bounty

raw enough to feel each moment

slip by knowing

you do not get out alive

and neither does anyone else

these moments

slips of time

we spend with each other

holding hands

sometimes clenched teeth

bruised hearts

it will all end someday

and we’ll miss the moments

we spent in furious rage

lamenting over something so painful

and yet now so insignifant

do we get to take another breath

do we get to wake tomorrow

do we get one more chance to make it right

do we get to say good-bye

the way we want to

and most of the time no

it burns in hearts

makes it seem like we could almost bleed to death

from tears lumped in throats

we do not get to escape this pain of living

but we get to choose

what we lean into

in our moments we have left

here.

A Poem for the Hungry #NAPOWRIMO14

Make it simple

delicious, tasty

something you have in your cupboard

mix things together

don’t be afraid to try

flavor them

add more

taste it

taste some more

allow yourself to savor it

each flavor

each moment

each bite

you’ll forget you were hungry

you’ll forget about everything

if the spice is right

and the moment is relished

it’ll feel like

plenty.

Houston, we have a problem #NaPoWriMo14

Space Cowboys

We look to the sky and wonder

the vastness of space

the complexity of what we see

the amazement of what could be out there

The adventure of discovery

the frontier beyond our sphere

they ride the rocket to the moon

someday maybe Mars

someday, maybe beyond

the terrifying reality of something going wrong

the horse not surviving the trip

not being able to send another horse

make these space cowboys

heading on a possible one-way trip

to no where

and yet they ride

the horses have failed before

the possibilities behind

unknown lights and unresolved pictures

reflecting back ideas that someone else might be out there

we must always remember

long ago a few brave souls

taught us the importance

of our collective knowledge

intelligence

and will to survive

and most important

that lives are more important than missions

and getting home is a job well done

for that is what will tell

someone else out there

who we really are

and what is important to us

what together makes us

human.

 

#napowrimo And here we go….

“Today’s remains stand upon the virtues of stretching the truth,  the idea of truth, that gold throat. We liked you as sunlight, ”  from “Sunshine Prosthetic” by Karl Parker

Remember when we were just an idea,

a fleeting miniscule cell perhaps on the brink of nothingness.

There were no boxes to crawl out of, no bad days or fevered tizzies.

The purity of it all, the connection, the spark.

Yet we go down this path and forget and forget and forget

until the dark has crept up and permeated everything.

Why can’t we remember that we were an idea

in the mind of it all and then came to being,

rare like emeralds

bright like diamonds

shining in the face

here

now

to do what we came to do.

@JennieOSix 2014

napo2014button2

Poems for the Other Half of April

Ok, this month was WAY harder than last year.  So yes, 30, was finally written, although I’ve been writing it in my head and heart for a few weeks.

Poems for the other half of April
18.Moonshine
Sometimes we all look at the moon
And wonder
And remind ourselves of all we do not yet know
19. Beach
New suit new flip-flops
Packing car with what will be
Mostly unused stuff
20. Beach 2
Parking lot night mare
Rage against tourist filled cars
Spot found near Egypt.
21. Beach 3
No fire pits left
Mini hibatchi saves day
Marshmallows later
22. Beach 4
Spread out beach blanket
Lasts thirty seconds before
Sand encrustation
23. Beach 5
Sunscreen applied thick
Dreams of sun-kissed golden skin
Water calls, laughing.
24. Beach 6
Salty water up
Nose forced by nature isn’t
A good neti pot.
25.  Beach 7
Wave walking only
occurs when your feet fly up
Head under water
26.  Beach 9
SPF thirty
Never works against suns lips
Stained red kisses
27. Beach 10
Sun creeps down blue sky
Rays hit water flashing green
Bye red lips lover
28.  Beach 10
Heated skin cool night
Air chilled but not enough to
Stop marshmallow death
29.  Beach 11
Good bye sun and sand
Left red and sandy trudging
Moon lit beach sweet dreams
30.  Home
When you said you were going home
It did not come as a surprise
But sadness crept into my heart
Knowing you would be far away.
Far away has been where you have been for a long time
And no one can blame you for being there
Especially when your puppy has been kept in a cage
By caretakers who refused to let you feed or water yourself
Kicked you every time you came near
And kept moving so you wouldn’t find them
So you gave it up when you had no other choices
We will all reach that point
Where aging parent s need the care
They freely gave to us as infants
You just didn’t have the opportunity.
So when he gave you something no one else could
A safe place to land
The choice was never a choice
And when you spoke your truth
About what you were returning to
And getting another puppy
That was really when I knew
So go home
Home to the place you once lived
Let those walls you daydreamed behind
Feed the fire that’s been tending in your soul
Let the carpets be the trampoline from which you launch
Grow the grass
Cut it with a lawnmower
Build a dog house
Make plans over beer and barbecue
And go get your puppy
Let him run in the grass
Feed him and water him well
Let him lick your face
We all know he’ll poop in the house and it will smell sometimes
But you’ll never regret letting him in the house to love you
The caretakers will come and try to tell you what to do with him
Some will be kinder and you’ll take what they have to say to heart
You’ll have to let him play with other dogs
It’s how they learn, sometimes the hard way
But know that ultimately, it’s your puppy,
That can grow into a dog
That stays loyal to you even when others walk away
Because you know who you are
And that was never a choice.
@2013 Jennie Olson Six

National Poetry Month 16 and 17

Inspiration

Inspiration lost
still putting pen to paper
hoping for the words.

Long time in the head

fracture spin think think think what did oh really not a chance to change mind spin splinter why how no no no and again repeat spin fracture think think ponder reality disconnect disconnected alone what no one likes me repeat spiral fracture think think react spin what again wait breathe pause spiral pause spiral think interrupt pause breathe past no now yes pause fracture interrupt breathe out let out not here not now think now feet ground root now breathe now think legs now head up breathe out let out not now now here breathe now let go now today good today breathe break a pattern breathe think breathe live breathe inhale now inhale yes exhale yesterday think yes breath yes now yes today yes everything yes life yes breathe yes.  now. 

5 stupid poems

Writing Fail

Writer’s Block
leads to pounding head on keyboard
insane debates between the voices in my head
and full fetal position

yeah…..let’s keep doin’ that.

Turtle

What is most unfortunate
is that I was not born with a shell
to pull my head and body into
to hide from that which threatens me.
Instead, I was born with soft skin
thin in places and bruises easily
my knees are permanently scared.
But I can move slowly
deliberately and with purpose
and remind myself I don’t need
a shell to hide from the world
I just need too slow down and take it all in.

5 7 5

Adds to seventeen
Sometimes pure frustration leads
To a clear moment.  

Kevin Six’s Famous Last Words

I would only have sex with her once just to say that I did.
You are to obey me in a Christian Household.
We live in a Christian household and you as a good Christian wife are to do that for me.
Pretty much anything that starts with “Christian Household.”
In case anyone wonders why….

When the World Blows Up

When the world blows up
will anything need to be said
or remembered or done
other than to grab each other
and go….

National Poetry Month 5….maybe 6….

Denial

Denial isn’t
A river in Eypgt if
you’re swimming it….

The Zombie Apocalypse Came

You and I were not supposed to be friends
It was through our broken we stitched up bandages
made of marijuana, alcohol, methamphatamine and anything
else someone could offer us in exchange for things
teen-aged girls shouldn’t be selling.

After intolerable, I started to get out
you had two birds in your nest born from neglect of the world
not giving their mother refuge from the horror she was born into
but you finally found your way out
and back to nesting
but it would not last.

Before I left for sunnier pastures
you started telling the truth again
letting the sweat and the shakes pour out
in my spare bedroom
I encouraged you to keep coming back
it isn’t easy but it is the only way
but you chose your own option.

You’ve had a few last words:
“Your sister wasn’t very tough, she couldn’t handle the drugs.”
“I heard her youngest was adopted by foster parents.”

Then your picture
Identical to your mother at the age we met:
Dead, vacant eyes,
Swollen alcholic skin
Nothing left of the beauty once there
Just a mimographed copy of a woman
whose choices led to your abuse
who never got different
who never left you better
so you watched it all happen
her stumble-down drunk dance
with the poison which eventually took everything
and in spite of the breadcrumbs and interventions
chose to put on her shoes and walk right in them
Until you’ve stopped walking
consciously
anymore.

Poetry


To Anya on her 30th birthday:
Hey.
You.
You with the imagined big tattoo of 30 across the face.
Not thrilled about being here
Believes somehow that the tattoo is visible to all
and that it perhaps means something.
Comparing yourself to others
who seem to be somewhere ‘better’ than where you are now
At 30.
You see, that 30, isn’t your 30.
Because someone else’s life isn’t your life.
These are the constructs of someone else.
These are illusions, not relevant to anyone, unless you’re comparing yourself to the arbitrary and meaningless.
For if you’re lucky enough to reach 30
you’re lucky to have made it at all.
Chances are you’ve seen some that didn’t make it
And those that didn’t make it in one piece.
And the sooner you realize that your dreams
do not fit into the perspective you have right now
because they are not arbitrary things
you will find out that you are not an arbitrary thing
defined by a number
because you can’t be. 
Because on this day
the universe brought you into being
 a light to shine on all the world
with gifts to give
Nothing less than amazing.