The Poetry Lounge

I bet you didn't know I wrote poetry? I took a creative writing class this Spring semester and here are three poems I produced.  Hope you enjoy.  They're in order by favorite.  

I Am

I see them on the manicured grass

I see my father strutting

under the bright lights of the football field,

his helmet reflecting the starry sky. I see

my mother, cheering loudly in her modest uniform,

pom poms in hand, her smile revealing

her heart’s fulfillment.

They are in love,

so he says,

and so she believes. 

His words bring her security

even though they are arguably hollow.

I wish I could warn

her; that in this moment

in front of her locker as they exchange

kisses and sweet messages, her standing

still and he walking in the opposite

direction would become her reality.

I wish I could warn her of the coming pain. 

That the responsibility of being a father

would scare him away, and he would abandon

her with the consequences of their tango---

in which, I am.   

I am her pain,

the memory of first loves lost. 

I am her regret,

made in his image so she never forgets.

I am her reminder

of college dreams deferred.

As an infant I helplessly nag for milk

only concerned about my own needs,

unable to understand her loses.   

But I am her joy,

evident by her sharing the baby boy’s innocent smile.

I am her motivation,

her grudge with the world to prove

that single moms can persevere.     

From this, the pain seems to have reason. 

Reason for her, and maybe even

reason for me.      

So I choose not to warn

my mother of the coming sorrow.

Without it, I am not alive,

and neither does she become.     


Snapshots

We are like robots, programmed

to answer everything with, “I’m doing fine.”

Though we are coded to desire

companionship, love, and acceptance, somehow

giving snapshots of ourselves has become status quo. 

We accept the culture’s grace, and put on a smile and faulty disposition,

knowing that a smile isn’t an accurate meter of our heart’s condition.

When watching the news, the hearts

of man can be clearly heard screaming

“I just need someone to love me!” 

Sadly, we fail to express this. Instead, we say,

“I’m doing fine.”    

The news claim to have live video coverage,

But really they only have snapshots,

missing the reality that we are broken,

and becoming less aware of our need for a Savior.

Instead we have chosen to be our own saviors,

benignly content with front facing

cameras that reflects our own glory. 

Man has chosen to worship themselves---

which only means we have been blinded by the flash.

Love Defines Love (Italian Sonnet) 

Is love to us defined clearly today? 

Does a love of pancakes share in robust

with a love for someone unstained with lust?

Since loosely used, its value fades away. 

So who is to blame for our negligence?

That first love who said it prematurely?

Though they had no clue it’s meaning, surely

word spoken from ignorant innocence. 

Whatever is to blame there is one thing.

We seem to be misgauging this word love,

perhaps because we have chosen our fates.

We reject the Creator of all being

whose name is Love, virtues it sits above.

In all things, Love defines since it creates.