Here they all are, including ones I’ve already posted. The good, the bad, the ugly. They are NOT in order. However #30 is my very last poem. Enjoy.
Poem 1
I got a c in art class once.
Balancing my boyfriends bipolar alcoholic infused melt down proved to be too much to practice drawing on paper.
The teacher sympathized but told me how she poured her pain into her art.
Maybe I should have used blood instead of charcoal?
But that would not have completed the assignment either.
Or stopped him from trying to kill himself slowly.
I plugged him into a hospital.
Hopped a plane to Hawaii.
Decided this was not my kind of art.
Poem 2
I haven’t dreamed about my grandmother who died 7 years ago until last night: I was packing and going to Paris it was 6 o’clock and the flight was leaving at 8 I hadn’t packed I didn’t know what the weAther was there and I was looking for sweaters and had no place lined up to stay there so between shoving sweaters and looking up air bnb I noticed she was there not saying anything and then it was 6:20 and I knew I wasn’t going to make the flight and could I reschedule or fly standby or still make it and then I woke up to dogs barking upstairs with clueless owners and remembered that I saw you in my dreams and I hadn’t seen you before and I believe/know/trust that you were visiting from the other side and I’m left to wonder if you were there just to tell me you’re ok or to slow down enjoy the trip you don’t have to know what you need to get there just go.
Poem 3
Dear old rich white racists
Please die already.
Short poem.
Poem 4
I don’t want to live in the place where dreams die.
Short poem.
Poem 5
The moments spent in the car are only wasted if you fail to notice the life around you. #shortpoem
Poem 6
Fear is the dream killer.
Short poem.
Poem 7
Some days you look around at your little folding bike and your crappy clothes and the desire for new shoes rattles around and then the realization that children live in cardboard boxes called home and then you shut up.
Poem 8
A little less than ten
old enough to know better
it’s a boy cigars by the big rock
no one has any idea
we could have lit the whole world on fire
but just our lungs instead
we lived in bog
our entertainment consisted of outside
what did you expect?
Poem 9
I’m tired of arguing.
Short poem
Poem 10
Coffee in bed.
Short poem.
Poem 11
Is there a way
To stop glorifying villains and what they do and still be entertained?
Maybe that’s the problem with everything?
We wait for that rush of adrenalin
The payoff of winning against evil
Yet what are we subjecting our subconscious to for that ride
And who else is watching…
I’m turning off Disney now.
Poem 12
I demand a recount!
There’s 31 days right?
Poem challenge failures.
Poem 13
I just wrote 3 stupid poems in three minutes. See you and raise you.
Short poems breed hostility and competitiveness and sometimes nothing worth saying.
Short poem
Poem 14
Shit fuck fuck shit!
Shitty short poem.
Poem 15 – Your Life Here
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
Poem 16 Red
red
not a color
but an energy
pulsating
vibrating
it’s own source
it’s own means
it exists
wants you to know
regardless if you believe
it’s here
not leaving
staying
pulsating
in your veins
your heart
your soul
letting you know
it exists
you exist
live live live
its says
live live live
take a breath
live live live
there is something beyond this body
the vehicles that got you here
the memories the pain the tears
none of it is real
except this pulse
this vibration
this being
pulsating
is you
and you are beyond all of these things
and you are beyond all of these things
and you are beyond all of these things
you are made of this
red
this red
this energy
this pulsation
this vibration
this beat
this flow
this now
this you
here
now
to do what you came to do.
Poem 17 – Moonshine
A day of dreaming
what would become of us
after the moon
we all looked up
drunk on it’s glory
in our collective wonder
and amazement
of life’s mysteries
science explained
but yet we look
and wonder
if it means something more.
Poem 18 – Poem for the Hungry
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
Poem 19 – 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
Poem 20 – Comfort
comfort
creamy dark coffee
slow start saturdays
warm covered sheets
soft stirring sounds
peaceful paced walk
symphony of life
nature’s beauty abounding
momentary awareness
Poem 21 – Today2
Today
well slept
coffee brewed magic
delightful thoughts
healing
no analysis necessary
time spent wisely
in the present.
Poem 22 – Today
Today
Felt long and sad
Not sure why
then conversations no one wants
news flashes no one wants to see
someone’s days end.
Today was not a great day.
Next time I won’t second-guess myself
when feeling so sad
wondering why
I’ll know it’s coming…
Poem 23
“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.
Poem 24 – All of My Failures
All of my failures
Started off as a really good idea.
Short poem
Poem 25
Sometimes it’s good riddance and sometime it’s too soon but goodbyes just suck sometimes. short poem
Poem 26
On April 17th my calendar is written: Ken’s Birthday. Lent is over. Eat a fucking pancake. Short poem
Poem 27
This stupid commercial with Gigantic singing makes me think I can do anything and I hate that commercials have this little itch that scratches that think in all of us and it’s only selling us something to make us believe that with it, we have it, when we had ‘it’ already.
Poem 28
Jewell Karinen is a poem I didn’t write.
Short Poem
Poem 29
There was a poem that I decided not to write with my wrists or hang off of someplace taller or drown in chemical oblivion instead I called it life. Short Poem
Poem 30 – This one better be good.
This one better be good
It better make souls sing in heaven choir clapped thunder
Make bad parents turn themselves in
And make everybody’s favorite dessert harmful to no one.
It better be that epic concert note held in for eternity
and the nostalgic bliss of “I was there” last forever and forever and forever
That wave never came to shore, all got to ride
The sun only went away briefly so clouds could unleash their bounty and water the earth.
Endless it is
endless no going back to Mondays
every day is Saturday and it’s time to sleep in, brunch and enjoy the day
Everything eaten delicious
Everything eaten nutritious
Everything bountiful
Everything happened as it should
Everything was wonder-filled
There is no lamentation
No unrealized potential
Not in this one
Not in this time
Not in this place
It was all
Inbetween the nothing
Slips of brilliance
Turning into shades of something new
Here it comes
This thing called good
You’re not waiting for it
It’s already here
Just watch
Just listen
Just feel
Cause if you keep waiting
You’ll miss it
So look around
Put all the pieces together
Stitch it together with slip-knot-believes
so it will only expand
And get bigger and bigger
Shout it from the mountain tops
See who else is there
Clasp their hands and say ‘thank you’
Clasp their hands and say ‘welcome’
Look in their eyes and say ‘I love you’
Look in the mirror and repeat
Look in the mirror and say
‘Look, we made it.
I’m so glad you’re here.
This one, this one was so good’
Jennie Olson Six 