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HOPE (Remove filter)

Attriage

Though the echoes of you are gone

I lose the grip I thought I'd won

You hoard your grief in a shrouded manor

While I'm buried in the wreckage of mine

 

What is it that reminds me of you?

All that I know and love leads to you

I share my dreams with your ghosts

They reclaim the throne of closure's bones

 

As I draw ink from all tongues known to me

To brush in strokes...

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🌷(3) 

grief   hope   love   rumination

Other Life

My other life is pretty good;

It seems to lie beyond the stars,

Beyond the pettiness of Earth,

Its angry men, its belching wars.

 

My other life makes lots of sense:

An antidote to gloominess.

It lifts me from the daily dread;

Away from this destructive mess.

 

My other life turns up in dreams,

When I snatch instances of sleep;

Where joyful and unscripted larks

...

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🌷(9) 

Coping   Dreams   Fantasies   Hope

the path

Walking blind in the darkness 

outreached hands 

calling no names

godless

I ask where I am 

and nothing answers 

dante walked with a poet beside him

but my path is wordless 

no witness

I wail so someone will hold me 

the darkness clothes my body

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🌷(7) 

darkness   family   grief   healing   hope   loneliness   loss   love   motherhood   poetry   recovery   resilience   spiritual   survival   truth

The Borrowed Face

I choose my mask — 
a polished smile,
quiet eyes
looking past everyone in the room,
the yes before anyone asks — 
afraid my own skin
would not be enough.

I brush past others,
strangers’ shoulders meeting in a crowd — 
brief pressure,
then the quick pull away
I have learned to expect.

Then something gives — 
a breath held too long
that slipped beneath the surface — 
a hairline fr...

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🌷(4) 

depression   FreeVerse   healing   hope   masks   mentalhealth

Haiku for 2026 [ No. 16. Resignation?]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, the day after,

will the evil cease?

Will Hope conquer Hate?

 

 

 

Le Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh,

Dé Domhnaigh, an t-aonú lá is fiche de mhí an Mheitimh,

an bhliain dhá mhíle is fiche a sé.

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🌷(1) 

evil   hate   hope   Resignation

There's Always Hope

If you find yourself in such distress,
That you cannot show nor express.
If you find yourself in so much pain,
And you'll not feel happiness again.

If you find yourself in dreadful trouble,
That you must hide inside a secret bubble.
If you believe that there is no more hope,
And with your problems you just can't cope. 

If you are stuck in such deep misery,
And there's no light outside...

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🌷(6) 

Distress   Hope   Pain   Stuart Vanner

Ukraine Trilogy

Gibberish

 

If all those dying in the fray

Were laid from end to end,

They would stretch for many a mile

And no doubt grievously offend,

Behind their desks so far away,

The same men talking gibberish

With a sickly, spray-on smile.

 

As it happens

 

No one needed to die today

But, as it happens, sixteen did.

Of the usual bagged variety:

Men, women and so...

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🌷(4) 

Hope   Invasion   Lies   Resilience   Suffering   Ukraine   War

Haiku for 2026 [No. 5. Stop Arming Genocide!]

Palestine Action

went a-courting with courage:

Hopes’s green shoots showing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Le Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh,

Dé Sathairn, an ceathrú lá déag de mhí Feabhra,

An Bhliain Dhá Mhíle is Fiche a sé.

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arms   courage   genocide   hope   Palestine Action

Whisper from Ukraine

Her habit, during nights deprived of peace,

Of dark skies savaged by the usual crowd,

Was to tell the world in her loudest voice:

‘For God’s sake, listen; this madness must cease!’.

But no one did, although she shouted loud.

Close by, stunned citizens with no choice

Took comfort in the echoes of her scream,

While they browsed damage as though in a dream.

 

Today she was ...

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bombing   destruction   hope   resistance   Ukraine   war

Candles

Years, like decades, may end up dishonest.

This year has been the most dishonest of years;

A year of old men who wallow in hate.

They get their stupid kicks from war and death,

And wield their pudgy pens like howitzers.

Not much to recommend it, you might think,

 

Yet, somewhere, a woman helps her neighbour,

A girl gives succour to a wounded boy,

And suddenly, we see can...

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🌷(6) 

decency   hope   light   Peace

NONET DON CHRANN NOLLAG

NONET DON CHRANN NOLLAG

Christmas Tree Nonet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

SEE!

I

*A STAR*,

I

*ONE OF A*

I

*CONSTELLATION*,

I

*THERE, HIGH ON THE TIP*.

I

*DOWN HERE, FOR YOU TO READ*,

I

*THIS POET’S MESSAGE, JUST FOR YOU*,

I

*WISHES OF HOPE AND OF GREAT JOY*,

I

*EVERGREEN, BELOW THIS CHRISTMAS TREE*.

II

III

...

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🌷(8) 

Christmas Trees   constellations   evergreens   hope   joy   Nonets   poets   stars

Last leaves of Autumn

"Cling on, be strong" they said as the wind swirled them away

Now everyone's gone and left me, there's no defense my way

 

The wind hisses at me, "let go, be free"

There's not many of us left now clinging to this tree

 

The summer was bright, inviting and calm

Warm breezes filled with harmless hope

But now, I'm not sure if I can cope

 

These days are as dark as night

...

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🌷(8) 

autumn   hope   peace

Haiku for 2025 [No.46. Justice for Sale]

Double Haiku [National Emergency Edition]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SUPPORT GENOCIDE!

OPPOSE PALESTINE ACTION!

BURN OLIVE BRANCHES!

 

JUSTICE IN BRITAIN

FOR SALE TO GENOCIDERS

KILLS GREEN SHOOTS OF HOPE

 

Le Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh

 

Déardaoin, an seachtú lá is fiche de mhí na Samhna,

 

dhá mhíle agus cúig is fiche.

 

(Thursday 27th ...

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🌷(6) 

genocide   hope   justice   olive branches   Palestine

Nighthawks

We’re nighthawks in some moody painting
Haunting stools at a midnight bar
The headlight beams of passing cars
Scan us both as they squeal out of town
You’re telling me of a coming wedding
And asking me to stand beside you both
Well, that deserves another round
To swallow my flattered feelings down
I’ve been chasing love like some wild dog
You’ve been cautious, careful and selective
Look ...

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🌷(8) 

3 nights   divorce   friends   hope   love   marriage   nighthawks

Songs

At the songs of the birds,

My heart erupts with joy

And streams of colour fill my world.

 

At the songs of the trees,

I catch the rusty leaves

Which crumble, softly, in my hand.

 

At the songs of the clouds,

I imagine myself

Floating, at untold altitudes.

 

At the songs of the grass,

I listen, intently,

For unlikely scraps of news.

 

At the songs of ...

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Hope   Nature   Songs   War

The Price of Years

Everyone wants to grow old, but no one wants to be old.

 

All long to see the years in gentle rise,
Yet none would dwell where age has made its home;
The mirror bends the truth of weary eyes,
And hearts protest a fate they call their own.

The body, once a vessel tuned to speed,
Now trembles under weight of time’s command;
Each step recalls a fire that once would lead,
Now falters li...

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🌷(8) 

aging   decline   hope   loneliness   loss   mortality   resilience   stubbornness   time

Inferno Seed - 지옥불 씨앗

North Korea remains one of the world’s most isolated and repressive states. For nearly eight decades, its people have lived under extreme surveillance, forced conformity, and brutal punishment, with little access to information, freedom of movement, or independent thought. The Inminban system monitors neighborhoods and even families, ensuring that fear and control permeate every aspect...

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🌷(5) 

dictatorship   freedom   hope   human rights   Inminban   isolation   North Korea   oppression   surveillance   totalitarianism

Climbing Up

Know thoughts and feelings come in waves,

Though this may depend upon how one behaves.

So if we feel bad know this shall change,

Though at this time it may seem strange.

 

So if you live in a pit of misery,

Know you shall find a way out and be free.

And you shall once again breath the air

Of a world that we should love and share. 

 

So break out from your troubled min...

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🌷(5) 

Hope   Stuart Vanner

The Piper from the Broken Ridge

This poem tells the haunting story of how silence and fear empower despots and tyrants to build fragile thrones, sacrificing freedom for control. Through the mysterious figure of a quiet piper, it envisions the subtle yet unstoppable dismantling of tyranny—without violence or fanfare—and the hope for a world where new maps guide future generations beyond borders and oppression.

They laughed w...

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🌷(3) 

allegory   freedom   hope   metaphor   political poetry   power   resistance   revolution   silence   tyranny

Handala, Speed with our Love on the Wing!

I first had the idea for this song / poem on hearing the news about the good ship Madleen, setting out for Gaza.

 

Thunberg and her crewmates were not “deported” from Israel. The Madleen was illegally detained, her crew illegally abducted / kidnapped to Israel, and then released, after the Madleen’s cargo of aid had been stolen.

 

The so-called “personalities” - several failed “comedia...

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🌷(9) 

courage   Gaza   hope   humanity   love   Palestine   The Handala

My Poems

I believe all my poems to be refined,
And to have an impact upon our mind.
And although they're deep and thoroughly planned,
Each one is quite easy to understand.

They may be about people or about things,
And aimed towards beggars right up to kings.
And they show us how to appreciate life,
And hold happiness whilst dealing with strife.

They may be about thoughts or our emotions.
And t...

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Hope   Poems   Stuart Vanner

Breaking

Her sky was burning crashing down around her 

there  was fire in the sky  it burned so brightly she could 

not see that her whole entire world was gone she lost her

breath laying on the ground tears began to fall down her face 

washing some of the darkness away those tears fell and fell

until the fire was out  and she found her breath with her last bit of strength 

she stood up l...

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🌷(9) 

hope   loss   pain   strength

Resting With What Hurts

A figure slumped beside the road, a heap of ash and thread. No face, no shape, just heavy cloth, and eyes that looked half-dead. “Who are you?” asked the wrinkled one, with voice both calm and kind. “I’m Sadness,” said the shape, half-formed, “the one all try to bind.” “They turn from me,” the figure said, “as if I bring disease. They smile too wide, deny the weight, pretending th...

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🌷(6) 

acceptance   comfort   compassion   emotional pain   healing   hope   inner strength   loneliness   resilience   sadness

Find Your Faith

 

You've gotten by without it.
Tucked away.
But now,
It's a rainy day.

 

 

 

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🌷(9) 

Faith   Hope   Love

Bonnie Madleen

Bonnie Madleen

I first had the idea for this song / poem on hearing the news about the good ship Madleen, setting out for Gaza.

Thunberg and her crewmates were not “deported” from Israel, as reported in the biased media, they were released after the Madleen and her crew were illegally abducted to Israel, and her cargo stolen.

The so-called “personalities” - several failed “comedians” amon...

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🌷(5) 

bombs   courage   freedom   Gaza   Greta Thunberg   hate   hope   humans   love   Madleen   Palestine   truth   tyrants

Fades

I feel distant from hope

like a soul that is separated

like an empty space

there is only me and uncertain thoughts

 

waiting for the end of the day

but wishing that there was no tomorrow

as if all my dreams are hard to achieve

and slowly my ambition fades

 

I feel like I see someone else inside me

I don't recognize her

little things feel new to me

and death b...

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🌷(9) 

hope   life   poem

Chaotic search for light

I'm walking alone
Through this chaotic road
Through this desolated land
That my senses corrode

The environment is hostile
Full of greed and jealousy
People want everything
While forgetting our legacy

The values from the past
Now seems to have a cost
Honesty lost its meaning
While respect was lost

So I'm searching the darkness
For a sparkle of light
For the motivation I need
To...

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🌷(5) 

desire   hope   introspection   love

Yes, I'm Blind

 

All I can do is follow my heart
The one that you fill.
You made me unique.
So I can follow no one else.
I wait for your still small voice.
But I don't hear anything.


I am blind, but I know it,
So there is hope.
I follow my heart
Where it leads, I go.
Yes, I am blind...
But I can feel the light.

 

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God   Hope   Light

Uncharted Light

The dreams we cherish, will they come to be? In perfect worlds, all wishes would align. Yet still I wonder, as I search to see, What life will bring, and how it will define. The storms may rage, yet in their swirling mist, I catch a glimpse of light that leads the way. Each answer seems elusive, hard to grasp, But still I hope, and keep my fears at bay. Though answers fade, my hope w...

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🌷(4) 

dreams   future   hope   life

The Bitter Cup

“The Bitter Cup” reflects the themes of enduring hardship and finding strength in the face of suffering, inspired by Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Surrounded by Good Powers...” The sonnet explores the idea of accepting life’s trials with quiet courage, symbolised by the "bitter cup," and trusting that even through pain, we move towards light and renewal. It echoes Bonhoeffer’s own spirit of res...

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🌷(2) 

Bonhoeffer   courage   faith   hardship   hope   inspiration   resilience   sonnet   strength   suffering   The Bitter Cup

The Man on the Hill

It made me sad when I saw him there.

 

Beaten and bruised as he carried it. 

 

No one helped him.

 

No one cared. 

 

He hadn’t hurt anyone, yet they hated him.

 

He hadn’t stolen anything, yet they despised him.

 

All of this made no sense to me.

 

Why was a man who was faultless being punished?

 

Why was a man who healed and renewed life to people g...

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🌷(5) 

emotional   forgiveness   hope   life   love   poetry   sacrifice

Song Of Hope

 

If Hope were a song

I'd sing it all day long

I'd sing it through the night

I'd sing it from great heights!

I'd sing it ‘til my skin

Turned old & pale & thin

I'd sing it ‘til the Earth

Rejoiced in its re-birth!

If Hope were a song

I'd sing it all day long

I'd sing ‘til only love

Rained down from up above

 

 

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Hope

Here With Me

Sometimes I feel like a soul that's forever searching.

Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever find the light.

I get weary.  I grasp for hope.

Sometimes I wonder, am I getting accustomed

To stumbling around in the dark of night?

I know I'll never stop my searching.

Even if it cost me everything that I hold dear.

Just to find out that You are

And have always been... right here.

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Encouragement   God   Hope

Gloom Of Grey

I walk this walk in winter’s fog

along the path to fill each day.

Each stranger I see barely nods,

they pass by without aught to say. 

 

Against the cold I wrap my coat

while trying to ignore the sting

and thoughts of all the miles ahead

that passing through this season brings. 

 

I still recall the trees in color.

It seems like just a day ago.

I dream of time i...

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🌷(6) 

faith   hope   inner struggle   life struggle   struggle

If I were God...

If I were God, no tyrant’s fist Would strike the world and call it law. No throne would stand on broken backs, No crown be forged from cries of pain. The fattened few who drink from veins Of those who toil, who starve, who break, Would wake to find their golden feasts Had turned to dust upon their tongues. No child would fade to hollow bone, No mother beg for crusts of bread, No fa...

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🌷(1) 

cruelty   dystopian   environment   extinction   greed   hope   hunger   justice   nature   oppression   power   revolution   suffering   tyranny   war

Unyielding Heroes

Today, three years ago, Russia launched its brutal invasion of Ukraine, shattering peace and unleashing a wave of destruction. Towns were levelled, lives torn apart, and a nation thrust into an endless struggle for survival. Despite the relentless violence, Ukraine remains unyielding, its people refusing to surrender. The world has watched as the cost in blood and suffering continues to rise, and ...

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🌷(7) 

brutality   courage   defiance   destruction   freedom   hope   loss   resilience   resistance   resistance spirit   sacrifice   sovereignty   strength   suffering   survival   tragedy   Ukraine   unyielding   war   war anniversary   war crimes

The Snow is not to blame

The snow is not to blame

In fact, it covers it up

All that I see is kindness

On the white covered ground

 

The snow is not to blame

 

It offers a rest bite

from worry,

as the crystals float past

my window  

 

an endless letting

       go

an endless letting

             go

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🌷(1) 

hope   Nature   snow   winter

I swear to tell the … the Whole … and Nothing but the … ! [or The Client Hack’s Tale]

The Berlin Holocaust Memorial is stark.

For the Tool though, those Stelae made a brilliant backdrop

to his ‘Twenty-Two election publicity lark;

The Shoa, he reduced to a pantomime prop,

Behind you, behind you! Look, Sir, it’s the …!

 

At Auschwitz yer man is on ‘Twenty-Five’s photo-shoot,

The strain in his face, act studiously honed

to show that he cares, oh, look at him, ...

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🌷(4) 

Auschwitz   Berlin   hate   hope   hummus   Israelis   Palestinians   The Holocaust   The Nakba   The Shoa   truth

Listening For Change

This poem is about a society increasingly divided, where accusations fly and truth seems lost. It speaks to the urgency of listening instead of blaming, understanding instead of judging, and choosing hope over fear. In a world where opinions are quickly voiced and emotions run high, the poem urges a shift in perspective—one that values connection, love, and the strength to find hope, even in diffi...

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change   division   empowerment   future   hope   hope vs expectations   listening   love   resilience   social media   society   strength   truth   understanding

Haiku For 2025 [No 1 Capall na beatha an grá]

The Irish proverb:

Capall na beatha an grá,

/koh-pul nuh baa-ha un gra/

literally means Love is the horse of life:

the English equivalent is Love makes the world go round.

it’s an example of the historical importance of the horse in Irish life.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Love’s revolution,

Capall na beatha a...

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🌷(7) 

an grá   haiku   Hope   Love

The Girl Who Sold The Stars

Beneath the aching winter’s shroud,

A child walked mute through the bustling crowd.

Her feet, bare whispers on the frozen stone,

Her ribs a harp of hunger’s tone.

 

She carried a box, her treasure, her thread

Of tiny star-sticks, sulfur-fed.

She called to the rich, the hurried, the gray,

“Buy one, kind sir, and light your way.”

 

But no one paused, no coin was tossed,

...

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afterlife   compassion   death   despair   grief   hope   innocence   loneliness   loss   poverty   sacrifice   sadness   winter   Xmas

Believe

Believe

 

What

is the

reason for

the season? Why

do we celebrate

the date a child was born?

Perhaps... as a reminder

We have a chance for redemption

If we open our hearts to believe.

[]

 

(Click Read/Comment to get Christmas tree effect)

 

                                               

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Christmas   Faith   Hope   Love

Southern Lights

The lights you seek are not these ones, these are mine

I shall explain more in time

As I have searched far and wide

Yet these are the most beaufitul I find

Unique, like tears in the snow

 

I share these lights with the Emporer, Leopard and Crabeater

With an hour of sunlight, there's nothing more sweeter

Than to sit and watch the carnival of light above

On my own, as the ...

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🌷(5) 

beauty   depression   hope   lights   sad   time

The Maple of Alesund

The wind bites at the death of hope

Beautiful mountains stare from the distance waiting

A town scarred from a fire lingering in mind

As the silence quells the last of hope

 

Soldiers, guns and tanks roll through

Seeking opposition on a path straight through

Fortifications find footing, scarring the beauty of those hills

Where evil lurks and killing is a thrill

 

In am...

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death   hope   Nazis   Norway   soldiers   war   WWII

Imagine…!

My friend and I have just been reduced to tears by this scene in a video.

 

A charming girl of three years old,

makes a beautiful request,

a scene of wonder then unfolds,

in which the world by her’s then blessed,

‘please can you play Imagine’;

how like a nightingale she sings

with words of charity, compassion,

hope to a suffering world she brings.

The world and I beh...

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charity   compassion   hope   imagine   love

Alone In A Crowded Stream

The driftwood floats,

Down toward the rocky slopes,

Without a care in the world.

"I can't be bothered by those jagged rocks now,

In this cool water where I enjoy my ride,"

"Besides, there's still time to turn this around,

If I could just go against the tide."

"What a life this is being driftwood,

Where I go next is anybody's guess."

So I smile like nothing's the matter,

...

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🌷(4) 

Alone   Drifting   Driftwood   God   Hope   Miracles   Nature   Stream

Why not

Why should I hold myself back ?

Why should I talk less ?

Why not colour my life like a flower,

Why not  move on like moving water in the shower,

Why not I dye myself like scattered leaves, 

Why not I leave behind all my grieves.

 

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🌷(6) 

empowerment   hope

Life in Smallville

The wind blows through the palm trees
like someone passing by without a sound,
but leaves the trace of its presence
in the song of the birds.

The sun is already low,
and the earth, warm, breathes slowly.
Each step is a reminder
that time is a road that doesn't turn back.

Life is made of small gestures:
the worker’s embrace,
the child's smile,
the gaze of the woman who makes a home a...

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🌷(6) 

earth   eyes   hope   life   missing   remains   road   sky   Smallville   song   sun   time   walk

Say it out

Think about it and then shout it Don't be shy, just say hi 💗 To the bias of your heart, of your mind To the reason of your laugh, of your shine .    

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🌷(2) 

hope   Just Say it out   love

The Breaking Point: The Silent Decent

This poem tries to capture the pain of watching a friend succumb to addiction, bound to a destructive habit that erodes both health and hope. As one friend struggles with the limits of friendship and "agape", the other slips further and further away, lost in a cycle that breaks promises and bodies alike. This poem hopefully serves as both plea and ultimatum—a haunting look at the cost of holding o...

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🌷(2) 

addiction   chronic illness   friendship   hope   intervention   letting go   loss   mental health   struggle   ultimatum

Show more entries …

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