Tag: poem

A Poem a Day: a Series – Day 101

Day 101: “Smiling on the Street”

I’m a lot nicer

When I’m visiting places for work

I smile more

Say hi to everyone

Want to make everyone feel welcome

Even when I leave the building

I’m smiling on the street

Warm and welcoming

It honestly feels good

I feel connection

Why am I not like that regularly?

Fear that a smile might invite something unwanted

Not wanting a rude reaction

Not getting paid to do so

And honestly, it can be a bit exhausting, interacting with everyone I cross paths with

Trying to smile and make others feel comfortable

Sometimes I just want to look forward, avoid eye contact

It’s less energy, safer

But maybe there’s space for both

A Poem a Day: a Series – Day 100

Day 100: “100”

Today I hit a milestone

I’ve been reaching for

100 days of poems

Not consecutively, but that wasn’t my goal

My goal was to not get stuck in the black and white

The 0 to 100

The writing out of obligation

I wanted to write when I felt inspired

When I wanted to

Not because I had to to meet a quota

In that time

Those 100 days

I’m at a place now where I want to try to write daily

Not obligated to

But I want to try new things

I want to write about feelings

And situations

And songs

And movies

And my passions

It’s fun

I feel proud

Brave

Strong

Aligned

Loud

Excited

Cheers to 100 poems

And whatever the future holds

A Poem a Day: a Series – Day 99

Day 99: “Accidents Happen”

I had an accident

And I didn’t freak out

I lost my grip on my water bottle

Saw it in slo-mo falling

Froze

Water still pouring out of the Brita

My brain snapped to

I shut the water off

Picked up my bottle from where I caught it between my knees

Took a moment

Examined the fallout

Water

Everywhere

I stepped away

Took a breath

Quickly brainstormed my next move

Could use paper towels

A big towel

Two kitchen towels

Kitchen towels it is

Ones I don’t care about touching the floor

I started inside the fridge

Then wiped the outside

The door to the freezer

Then the wall

And baseboards

Ending with the floor

Wiping it up

Reminding me how much we need to vacuum

Through it all

I stayed calm

Because freaking out wouldn’t have changed the mess on my hands

And hey, it was kind of funny

And it could have been worse

And at least it was water, you know

A Poem a Day: a Series – Day 98

Day 98: “Painting”

Sometimes I think I could be a painter

I like to wet my brush

And see what I can create

I always start from something else

Usually an Albert Marquet painting

I like the nature

Mixed with European architecture

I see how well I can mimic

I take creative liberties

Usually on the colors

And dumbing down the design a bit

To something more in my wheelhouse

I have a lot of fun

And am almost always proud of the finished product

Even if my paintings look best when you’re standing far away

A Poem a Day: a Series – Day 97

Day 97: “Severance”

What if you didn’t feel loss

Well you did

But it was the other you

Severance

And when that loss came up

You’d be a different you

One that holds all of that pain

I wonder how heavy that’d be

And would the memories go too?

The good, happy ones?

What would it be like to sever the grief

Would it be like they never existed at all?

Would it be unfair to yourself?

Your other self

To give them the loss

Or would they be better off

More resilient

Stronger

What would that make you? Without the grief?

Would you even be you at all?

A Poem a Day: a Series – Day 96

Day 96: “Not Feeling”

I don’t really feel like being witty

I don’t feel like being smart

I don’t feel like cracking jokes

I don’t feel like cracking smiles

But I also don’t feel like frowning

I don’t feel like pouting

I’m in an in-between place

The air is still

There is no sound

No time

I don’t feel like caring

I don’t feel like being numb

Maybe I’m just overwhelmed

By the state of the world

By everyday life

Maybe I just need a break

A Poem a Day: a Series – Day 95

Day 95: “Eruption”

Just one day

Can make everything fall apart

One ill-made decision

One misrepresentation

One callous remark

One violent gesture

Can make it all come crumbling down

When you get up from the rubble

Dust yourself off

You see the signs

They were there before

But you see them now

It didn’t just all blow up one day

It was a slow, lava-oozing rupturing

Just an upset stomach

That became an infected mess of pain

A full-blown eruption

A big eye-opener

Emergency surgery

You have to cut out the poison

To live

That kind of gives me comfort

That things don’t just blow up out of nowhere

But it does make me question my judgment

A Poem a Day: a Series – Day 93

Day 93: “The Realization at the End of a Movie”

What I’ve realized

Is that my dreams don’t have to make sense to anyone else

They don’t have to yearn the way I do

For the future I want

They don’t have to get it

Maybe they won’t

But I know I have something to offer this world

Something meaningful

“That’s nice, but I asked you what side you wanted. It comes with fries, but you can substitute for a salad instead.”