The Night

I walk through the darkness 

log shadows surround every step

Horrors are told of your darkened sky

People hide till the moon passes

The night holds darkness 

Darkness and blindness 

Blindness hides what is coming next

Yes, you are feared. The late hours haunt

They haunt those who stay in daylight 

Haunt those who fear what they cannot see. 

They know what they know and they do not look beyond 

Others love the night, but not for the night. 

In the night I see the short skirts, leather coats, cutthroats and other forms of evil 

Yes, evil hides in the shadows of the night. 

The moon’s light is blocked out by the partying spotlight 

The lion lurks in the shadows,

She hunts in the night

Just when you least expect it

 she strikes

A shot rings out, a life is lost. 

Yes, all forms of evil lurk in the night. 

As the lion strikes, the peaceful sleep

Sleep till morning, avoid the night

Yet, is that all the night holds? Do the shadows only hide darkness

All the same, the moon will shine over the crashing waves

The stars that city lights hide reman,

They remain, 

They are just better hidden than the darkness 

A peace can come when the world sleeps. 

I peace not seen by the rush of daylight 

The moon watches as fireflies shine. 

Fireflies and stars

Is there  beauty in the darkness?

Or just darkness in the darkness?

Dear California

Dear California,

I was raised on your crashing shores

I have beheld the beauty of the redwood trees

Seen the highest peek, to the desert of el Centro

The hot pastel

Root 66

From the surfers, To the business men and women.

From north to south,

Beyond the beautiful cover, it is all the same

Never enough.

Hungry people,

Selfish people

The bullies

The cruel,

And those taken advantage of.

            I see them try to hide their pain

They try to hide it by putting others down.

They don’t see their worth, so they put others down

They want to believe they are better

Better than those around them

It is not strength they have, but uttermost weakness.

            You take those who do not conform to their ideas, and drag them in

You can only be different if you fit in our terms

You can be different, but different like us

You do you and I do me, but you can’t disagree with me

            Your people claim to be original, open, and understanding, but they are exactly the opposite.

They call murder of innocence women’s rights

How is that a woman’s right?

What happened to a mothers undying love for her child?

The people through their lives away, but they drag more than themselves down.

Don’t you know?

No man, woman, or child is an island.

What you do effects your family.

It effects those who love you!

            What happened to the family?

There was a time when family mattered,

I remember the days when mothers stayed home to raise their young

The fathers worked to support the family

The men worked for money so the woman could do something more important.

The woman raised the future, they guided their children

It mattered, and that system worked

            So why do so many seek to destroy it?

From your sunny shores, you fight aghast the family.

I know a mother who lives in that sunny state

She left her job to devote all her time to her kids,

She did it because she wanted to, she wanted to give all her time to her children,

Because, she loves them.

For that decision, she has been treated like trash.

Talked down upon for quitting her well-paying job.

            Women who don’t work are treated as though they waste their time,

            And men who work are treated like they stole a lady’s job

I know men who are thrown down and demoted

Do you not see that it is not just the man you are hurting, but his family at home?

            Men cannot work, so the roles are reversed.

Mothers must work, and the men must stay at home

The roles have been reversed you see,

Reversed like day and night

Things are not as they were

            Children need both parents

Children don’t see their parents

Don’t you know?

They don’t want money or status

What a child wants is their parent’s time

            Do you not wonder why teen suicide is so high?

Did you ever think that a little love could help change that?

All a child wants is to be seen

They want mommy

They want daddy

The world is changing

I ask you,

 what is wright

 and what is wrong?

Do we truly seek to end oppression?

Or do we simply seek to reverse the roles?

You must know history

Are we overcoming the past? Or just repeating it in reverse roles?

Is this freedom,

or revenge?

            “You do what is right for you, I do what is right for me”

I hear those words,

I hear the words, and I weep

Is that truly the essence of right and wrong?

Preference?

            NO!

No, I cannot by that.

I won’t take what you are selling

Most grow up hearing the words “If your friends jump off a cliff, would you?”

But I have another question for you

I ask you,

I plead to know

Would you really not try to stop them?

             Is that what you consider love?

Is that what this world calls love?

Is that love?

I have to ask because that is what you teach

That is what your shores tell.

Is that not what you call truth California?

Are we called to watch those we love destroy themselves, and those around them?

Are we called not to interfere?

Are we called to let them hurt themselves in fear of hurting feelings?

Are we called to sit and watch?

No!

NO, I will not have it.

I cannot live in that word

No, this cannot be

Love

Hate me.

Hate me as I try to stop you

Hate me as I try to pull you back from the edge of the cliff

            I don’t care

I believe

I know there is a right and a wrong

Love doesn’t sit back and watch

Love gets its hands dirty

Hate me, because I will fight for the family

            I will fight because I know how blessed I am

The family.

My mother gave up a job to raise her kids

I am ever grateful, for I would not be who I am if not for her

She sacrificed so much

            But…

But my sister scorns her for her sacrifice

My sister wished my mother got a job instead

My sister who doesn’t want the gift she was given

            Dear California, you got my sister,

You have her, yet we still welcome her home with open arms

What happened to children respecting their parents?

Oh, California,

What have you become?

You are like a poisons toxin

Your poison has leaked beyond your shores

Oh, California,

I am glad I escaped you

So, why?

Why do I feel that I will one day return to your shores?

Cubism

Crazy.

Crazy

What is, this is, what, is what

Insanity.
 This is, this is, this,

Sense,
 no sense.

What? Why. Why what, why,
what why, what is,
 this is, what?

Why use, what is,
what is, what?
cubism.
What is, why?
 Cubism.

Cubism, sense.  No sense,
no, no, why?

Point. Pointless, no, pointless.

 Senseless.
 No sense,  what why.
 Why this.

No. sense no. sense no.
 no, no sense

Point, no, no,
no point.

This, no, what?
Why, this no

Can’t

Hurts.
 Mind hurts

College: I list of love and hate

         I hate this,

         I hate this endless homework,

         The classes I can’t miss,

         The extra class,

         The lack of sleep,

         No rest for the weary,

         The workload pushes me past my limit.

         I hate that I do this.

         I hate how stubborn I am.

         I hate how I know nothing will stop me.

         I hate how I agreed to this

         I hate that I don’t even get my own room.

         I hate the grades I need to keep my scholarship,

         I hate how nobody else made me come here.

         I hate that it was my idea to do the extra class.

I hate how I love every moment of it.

I love how much I’ve learned,

I love every murderous class.

I love how my endurance has grown,

I love that I have the opportunity to be here.

I love the chance I have to learn more,

I love how blessed I am.

I love my crazy roommates,

I love how all my teachers care and want the students to excel,

Most of all I love my parents who have given me this chance.

No,
I wouldn’t change it for the world.

4 short poems:

Darkness holds,

Morning light fights

High in shaky branches,

Peace takes hold

Homework done,

Sleep lost

Shakes of sorrow
Flowers in a pond

The poet, Ezra Pound, once said when talking about a poem’s image, “It is that if you set two things side by side the produce not only each other but something else in reaction of the two together that you need not have connected links all the time in art and poetry.

            When I write poetry I usually break the lines by sound and thought. The lines need to be separated in a way that both breaks and unites and breaks the poem. I’ve been told that the length of the lines is divided in that of the length of a breath. Poetry lines can show different topics or the same, yet the reader know they are somehow connected. The best way to know how the lines should be cut is to listen to them. Read the poem with the proper pauses. Your ears will pick up the musical tune of the poem, or they will not. If the poem doesn’t sound musical or pleasing to the ears, your lines are definitely off. The sound will tell when the poem is right. Another thing that is important in poetry is people tend to pay the most attention the beginning and end of the lines. Making the most sense of the lines to convey the point of the poem is important too. Once the sound is right, and it is linked so it helps convey the story, most of your work is done. There are other steps, but in my own bias opinion these are the most important.