Donations are essential to keep Write Out Loud going    

Popular last 30 days

love poem poetry depression sad life truth death peace Nonet

Popular last 12 months

love poetry life poem nature death hope war loss poet

Map

A world of uncertainty

Leaves life without a meaning

Plotting your journey on a map with form

Distance and time spearing you to the floor

Spontaneity and the notion of irrationality

Appear to make one’s life more fruitful

As it is not micromanaged

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Cody Roach:

My Eighth Wonder of the World | A world without you | Promise | Glory |

I Offer Flowers

So, I ask you

Is this it?

The moment

We have quietly

Dreaded

 

Are we to die

At the hands

Of a Russian

Sociopath?

 

For the first time

In my life

The unbelievable

Has become believable

 

His cold eyes

Glaring out

On the TV screen

Send shivers

Down my spine

 

The BBC

Assures me

It’s a bluff

Trust us

All will be fine

 

...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Clare:

Elvis is Dead! | What Will Happen To The Women | She has gone now | Jacquie | Kind Kathleen | Keeping the Shrink Away | Learning How To Be | Waiting for Answers | New Musings | It's Gone! | Tigers Wear Orchids | The Kids Home | The Wandering Wise Woman. |

W in black

Wanda,

such a time,

was an air

of

promise,

of

wanted mail,

of

envelopes,

the sort that fall when

news is good to arrive.

She would traffic

your bumper-to-bumper

thoughts,

your ushered

streets

of firm respect,

with your belief,

Her laugh accompanied

that gentle shake of head

was more

fond of you

through open doorways.

Then glancin...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Tommy Carroll:

Waiting for balance | Down by the sea | Again? or Capital Gains Taxed | Hence |

Questions Of The Day

I ask questions of myself 
each moment of each day 
Watching the news constantly
in disbelief and dismay 

Is there nothing I could do 
is there nothing I could say
That could make a difference
to help take their pain away 

Is there something I should do
is there something I should say 
Should I stand up in protest 
should I bow my head and pray

Which donation should I make 
that...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by julie callaghan:

Feeling Helpless And Hopeless | I Stand With Ukraine | Ukraine | Online Shopping | 700 Days, 700 Writes | Twomorrow Is Twosday | Stormy Weather | Get Well Soon Ma’am | Calm After The Storm | Storm Eunice | West Side Love Story | The Grand Old Duke Of York (rehashed) | Sleepy Ladybird | Four Seasons In One Day | We Stick Together | Scone Or Scone? | Feathered Friends | Sorrowful Snowdrop | Good Grief Umbrella Day | To Eat Or Heat? | Hellebores And Snowdrops | Brave Robin | Platinum Jubilee | Afterlife | Snow White Flu | First Snowdrops | Something About Nothing and Last Day Of January | Cold February Day |

Night-time Serenade

(Re-edit)

 

The dusk turns to dark

As I look to the sky

With starlight reflected

In the blue of my eyes

 

Softly, into focus 

Shine the heroes of old

Each golden cluster

A tale to be told:

 

The Hunter & his Hounds

Search the night sky

For dragons & serpents

And horses that fly

 

Whilst Perseus 

Gives Andromeda the eye

And grabs her a moonbe...

Read and leave comments (4)

Also by Stephen W Atkinson:

A Stale Wind | Your Scar |

Cold

The space race was not enough.
The war could not be won
by Laika, or Yuri, or Neil.

So Spassky and Fischer
were sent to the front line,
reluctant troops in Reykjavik,
playing to save the world.

The Soviet’s revenge
was on the basketball court,
an arena as unlikely
as a miracle on ice.

Americans never
marched in Moscow,
nor Russians in LA.
Better a boycott
than a Bay of Pigs,
...

Read and leave comments (0)

After the storm

The tears that build up are never easily shed

By the old man with the walking stick

That beats his leg to make it work

The youth that stands at the bus stop

Blinking into the sun

Waiting for the bus that will never come

The little girl just out of school

Holding on to mummy’s hand

Wondering what’s for tea tonight

But mummy’s’ only thought is to keep all men away

As sh...

Read and leave comments (1)

Also by Martin Elder:

My head- a seagulls lounge |

Waiting For The Bus

 

Clumps of kids
sit on the grass
with books and backpacks
and their ever-present phones
always staring at phones
they do not see the other
right beside them
they do not care
they just wait in a trance
blankly staring at screens
waiting for the big yellow school bus
to take them away
remember the day
when we rode without phones
and were so excited to be...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by d.knape:

War Games | One Day Closer | The Center For Disease | Old Fools | Pain And Suffering | Anger Management | Adopt A Poet | Clutter | Hugs | Half A Poem | The Alliance For Tired Senior Citizens | The Lizard Story | Sign At The Post Office | The Glade | Under Bridges | No Two Alike | CROW | The Treadmill | Neither Here Nor There | Killer Freeze | Hurt Feelings | Bugs Under Rocks | Snow Day | The Sun Calls In Sick | Power Outage | Free Thought | Masked Men |

UKRAINE AGAIN!

Ukraine will rise again,

As healing subdues pain.

Its people are undaunted

As Russia's flag is flaunted

In futile fashion when it's plain

Ukraine will rise again.

.....................................................

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by M.C. Newberry:

A WEB TALE FOR TODAY | DISHONOURING THE TITLE | PARIAH | PUTIN | NEW AGE | CARRYING A BIG STICK | WOKE'S WEAK! | EVENTIDE |

Triplets

When Allah made Adam (a.s)

He gave him lots of work

Sent him on earth

As vicergent of God

 

Adam and his children

Are born with two things different 

An angel true to guide them to do good

And a jinn to whisper in their ears evil

 

The choice is left to our will

Whether we respond to good or evil

Choices we make, prices we pay

Both in this world and after tha...

Read and leave comments (1)

Also by Ghazala lari:

Feelings | (untitled) | Bubbles of success | Perseverance | I Have A Dream |

Split in Two

The way I hide away, 
to remove myself, from myself, 
from my other self, 
the one that overthinks, 
to remain in motion, 
without hindrance or hesitation, 
because she doesn’t want to 
think of how disorganized, 
an absolute wreck, she is  
trying to keep it all together. 

She exhausts herself; gives 
too much to others until 
burnout. She keeps up with 
self-care, responsibilities...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by kimberly:

Thank You For This Gift |

Don't judge

After a few stretches, she went to the door. Like everyday she picked up the newspaper, started to read. She comfortably sat on the chair in her garden with her coffee mug on the table. Took a few sips refreshing her mind. She turned on the next page and had only read few lines. She felt uncomfortable, anyone could read her face. A look of discomfort, grief, shock and anxiety ran down her face. Hu...

Read and leave comments (3)

Also by Sunshine:

Zelenskyy - The real super hero | 107. Poem | 106 poem | 105 poem | Uncanny tale | Detox | Sugar withdrawal symptoms | Inspired | Just a page | 104 | New beginning | 103 | Good morning | Shadow of words | Unfairytale | Faith |

4 Science Fiction Nightmares at the edge of Madness

(1)

 

Talking with strangers

she only realised she was talking with strangers

when she saw her husband’s rocket

get shot down orbiting Mars

 

(2)

 

Nobody thought the terrorists on Venus

could get through their Robot Fleet

until ship after ship fell through the heavens

like apples from a decaying tree.

 

(3)

 

Gazing away from the rings of Saturn

...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Andy N:

4 Memories at the edge of Darkness |

The last Romans

"The murdering of hundreds of thousands and the deportation to, and starvation in, the deserts of other hundreds of thousands, the destruction of hundreds of villages and cities, will the willful execution of this whole devilish scheme to annihilate the Armenian, Greek and Syrian [or Assyrian] Christians of Turkey  –  will all this go unpunished?"  Henry Morgenthau, the U.S. ambassador to the Otto...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by John E Marks:

WAR GAMES | BETRAYAL | The speech of angels | Mr Inexorable | For Armenia | For Harry O'Neill | Chaldean Numerology on St Valentine's day | Eulogy for Pete | Unacknowledged legislators | Rowdy skies | Like roses miss the dew | A view of the new 1922- 2022 | Mirroring time | Entkleidungskammer : The Undressing Chamber | Meggy | Tomorrow belongs to.... | Submission |

A Time to Write

It seems a waste of time to write

While shots ring out

And bombs and missiles fall,

While populations flee

And others have their backs against the wall,

While bullies swagger round the land

And choose their puppets to install,

It seems a waste of time to write.

 

No! This is what the strongmen want:

Put down your pen and  call it a day.

They seek monopolies on word...

Read and leave comments (2)

Also by Stephen Gospage:

The Point | Nureyev | Pension | Radio Play | Day of Rest | Crisps | Sunday Afternoon |

The Ugly Woman

leaves latifundia

votes republican 

vacations 

in european 

social democracies

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Robert C Gaulke:

Our Designs | Now we wait | You bother me | The Favorite |

The Bitter Night of the Soul

The Bitter Night of the Soul

A large full moon

Bathes the earth

Giving shape to fields and hedges

Defining roads and buildings

All is closing for the night

Growing still, quiet in the darkness

There are no fierce flashes of light

There are no sudden explosions

People do not run, in fear

Children are not crying

Calling for their mothers

In the churchyard

Of a...

Read and leave comments (2)

Also by Brenda Wells:

The Wild Winds of Spring | The Night of the Flaming Beacons | Number 3 Curlington Mews | February | Why Am I Here? | Painting the Day in Rhyme | The Beauty of Moss |

Where Did The Crazy Acts of Passion Go?

Where Did The crazy Acts of Passion Go?

 

At age fourteen

Scotty engraved Sarah's name in to his arm

 

They were not together

They'd never kissed

Or even held hands

 

Sarah didn't see him 

In the way that Scotty saw her

 

She cared for him as a friend

Bit it didn't change how much Scotty loved her

 

He told me once— at recess

That the scar on his arm...

Read and leave comments (6)

Also by Rasa Kabaila:

Bus Crush | Take Me On | Beautiful Things |

"Peach Jam"

Paradise, You'll find yourself running with the waves, We are all here at the beach and I couldn't be happier, Tribal dancing, Tribal dancing, Huge loveable smiles, There is a celebration today let's just say its the peach jam, I found out how we got here, I dispersed from the riff-raff, exchange your love for pain forgotten memories ain't the same, A gift that goes unaccepted but thank god I foun...

Read and leave comments (1)

BEWARE THE BEAR

Beware the bear, my father said,

and he’d been taken to its lair,

read the truth, and clawed his way

from its clasp, a gasp from death

where all breath slows,

in Siberian taiga snows.

 

Beware the bear,

that funny, honey, sunny-featured creature

which, as a host, will greet you

to its land of ice and hut-filled woods,

with a hug and, open-armed,

insist your stay...

Read and leave comments (5)

UkraineGulagRussia

It Is Better To Be Alone

It's better to be alone

Than to be resented

By the one you love

It's better to be alone 

All on your own

Than to feel alone

With someone else

It's better to be alone

Than competing for 

The attention of 

Someone you put first

Whilst they put you last

It's better to be alone 

Than secretley hated

By the one you share a bed with

It's better to be alone

...

Read and leave comments (0)

Cup Final You'll Never Walk Alone (For Ukraine)

The result for me tomorrow takes a back seat.

I won't lose any sleep over a Cup Final defeat.

Replace our red banners with yellow and blue.

At Wembley dedicate our Anthem to Ukraine too.

 

Show the watching world were our thoughts lie.

End this War now, no more innocent people to die.

Let Wembley be our platform, our stage, our time.

Show support for Ukraine, this message o...

Read and leave comments (5)

Also by Mike Bartram:

Occupy | Red Monster | Pray For Ukraine | Happy Birthday Alba ! | For Ronnie King...15 Years Ago Today | Money Talks! | Opposites Do Attract! | UFO Over Knotty Ash! |

All Contributions Gratefully Accepted

 

write a poem
everyone's a critic
read a poem
everyone's a philosopher
fold the paper carrying the poem
into an origami aeroplane
aim high, let it go
everyone's a child at heart
hopeful dreamer, lover of the good 
unschooled slackline walker, poet
write a poem
do it for mama
it's the least you can do
do it for the cause
every little helps
televise the performance
in the company...

Read and leave comments (1)

Also by Adam Whitworth:

Punk Poem | What To Do!? | Questions That Surround Them | Honesty And Generosity | Poem For Today | Creation |

A Message To Send

what does betrayal look like?

can we bend someone to our will?

Do we dare to try?

If my arms were always wide open, would it mean a thing?

Do we hold the Power?

 If we truely reached deep down inside ourselves and touched every bit of our pain and humbly honored our journey, paid tribute to our past, can you not see then, the warrior that is within us?

The ego is abolished

The...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by New Shoes:

Settling Our Affairs | Law of the Land | A Holy Affair |

The New Czar

The New Czar

 

Have we not been here before

thrown against the evils of war

Dictators are back as ever before

who act in defiance of the law

 

They care not for life nor limb

but act according to their whim

They lie, deceive and cheat us all

as people die beneath a smokey pall

 

Dictators are the serpents of evil

and care not who or what they kill

To stamp...

Read and leave comments (3)

Here Comes The War

HERE COMES THE WAR

Upon the hand that wears the ring

Upon the land where locusts sing

There lies a shadow that begins

To make fools of foolish kings

 

By fear, hunger, hate and pride

By secret tears never cried  

By flood, famine, fire and rod

By supplication to their God

 

Here comes the war

Over the border

Right to your door

Here comes the war

 

U...

Read and leave comments (1)

UkrainewarRussiapowerweaponsWWWNATOhistory is a virus

Without Peace Souls Don't Sleep

Heart wrenched grief

diehard prays defiance

human corpse mountains

no longer asking

their freedom lost.

Read and leave comments (3)

Also by Nigel Astell:

Handcuffed in Love |

senseless killing has to cease

Purpose.

You find that thing 

The one you can’t live without 

You’d sell your soul for

You’d bleed and die for 

And you chase it 

With sweat in your eyes and dirt in your lungs

Follow it until your knees give out 

Because where you land

Is exactly where you are meant to be.

Read and leave comments (1)

Also by Jordyn Elizabeth:

Beauty Standards. | Brevity | Cowards Way | The Free Fall | Hospital Visit. (1.) |

Unspoken Rule

 

There's silver and air beneath my feet

Seagulls cry out as sailfish swim

 

Coarse white hair covers the man’s jaw

He pulls bait from his hat’s rim

 

The small girl holds a smaller pole

Her voice as happy as a bird

 

Her fiery-orange hat

Shades her rainbow tie-dye shirt

 

Shells spread on white sand and twigs

Hungover from the night before 

 

The ug...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Candice Reineke:

Your Mind is Yours |

beachhumanitysocial contract

I Wish I Was

I don't want nights to end

I don't want days to begin

And I know I'll spend my entire life

Wishing I was six feet under

Crushed under water pressure

Old blood stains on the stone dirty alley

Bones and grit in places unrecognizable

Picture in the papers

40 words on a daily column

Wooden frame with pretty flowers

Tears of strangers

Hushers and whispers

A wall hang...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by chuuyahua:

Don't Look At Me | Burning Ashes | Forever Might Take Too Long | Secrets | white | In Shadows, In Truths | Infinity Marathon | Long Lost Troubles |

poetry

ONLY ME!

For a long time now I’ve been more than comfortable with the targeted pop-up adverts thrown at me over the internet.  But whereas I once used to have my pick of Ukrainian beauties desperately seeking good-looking dudes like me for husbands, I now attract more age-related ads. – “Release Your Pension” and such like.

However I am even more appreciative of TV ads more recently doing the same.  Aft...

Read and leave comments (4)

Also by John Coopey:

THE GHOST OF TARAS BULBA | ANOTHER DAY OFF | CATS' LIVES MATTER! | THE RHYMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN' | THE RED LADY OF PAVILAND | ALICE'S RESTAURANT | THE BULLY AND THE BULLIED |

Escape window-Aggression

Escape window- Aggression

Friday,25th Feb 2022

I feel concerned

at the turn of events

it presents the horrible face of the world

misery may emerge in quantities untold

people are running for safer shelter fold

are we free from slavery concept?

Are we prompt to offer the counter?

All the nations keep escape window open

add fuel to fire and aggravate the situation

th...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Jadia4708au:

Nice poetry | I want to say | We are susceptible | Only one race | Love to lead & excel | Life is beautiful | Day's work | Decency | No option for man | The feelings | Love & affection | Good poetry |

Jadia4708au

Crumble and Fall

I never wanted to be like ridged things
I've seen them crumble and fall
Fractured and angry at their failure

Rather, like the trees
The branches sway and dance to meet the storms
The leaves fall and renew

They do this countless times
through the years
Until the fires come
And they will come

But I will gambol and spin
until the fires leave me ashes

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Mike McPeek:

Wanderer | The Carpenter | Coffee With My Ex |

Feather

Life is like a feather

strong when it hugs

weak when it flies

rough when it falls

and soft when it leans in for a kiss.

Read and leave comments (0)

One Last Affair

I’m wearing blue, you’re dressed in red
lit by the dancing candle light
in the depths of some back table
at a late night poetry evening
Our only hope to stay safe tonight
is to keep this table between us

Some wily orator spills their guts
before the hallowed microphone
but all I care to know now
is do you smell as good as you look
Each of us wills the other to go too far
with a ‘what’...

Read and leave comments (11)

affairartistswriters

Accusations

I know you think your life is over. I know you think you don’t deserve love. I’m here to tell you that you do. I’m here to Tell you that I love you. I wanna be there for you. I want you not to fret. Don’t take it personally, She's just startled by ur silhouette. I don’t see why. All I see is beauty. Is it ur sad eyes that makes her so afraid? Or is it just your quiet overthinking personality. Eith...

Read and leave comments (0)

Have we had our chips?

Even if this does prove

to be our last fish and chip supper,

even if it's technically 

just a pub lunch, 

if Vladimir the Poisoner

in a mad rage presses the button  

just because we don't admire

his rippling torso, just because

we laugh at his ugly Botox features,

 

before I perform in the am-dram

tonight, before we even rehearse

the lines one more time, then

...

Read and leave comments (2)

Also by Greg Freeman:

The carriage in the forest | Rehab |

Oh, Poor Life!

Life is as tear drops of the morning.
When the sun throws its warm kiss
Away to the drop,
It becomes an invisible entity.
 

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Ujjal Mandal:

The Real Definition of Life |

sadlife

Afterlife

Some days I imagine it might really happen:

an orifice oozing with ectoplasm,

Dorises with messages that we can’t fathom;

transmigration’s been the fashion since ages ago

when Buddhists could make it to the sixth Bardo

or lose their many selves in Limbo.

You don’t think so?

Of course, it’s never on the news, YouTube or Skype,

not the kind of repeats you see on both sid...

Read and leave comments (0)

Jake overcomes a gut obstruction

Jake was an alcholic,addicted to a variety of ales,

Jane noticed he was holding in his tummy while stood on the scales.

"Holding in your tummy isn't going to help you get a lower reading ,"Jane did say.

Jake answered,"But that's the only way I'm going to see how much I weigh."

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by hugh:

Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak have locked horns | To many socks create a misfit for John | A punctuation victory for an abused female | A poetic protest, Berghaus gets the boot | Lower energy bills popping through our letterboxes would be ace ! | A change of heart by Her Majesty the Queen | Get a grip !! |

Vladimir the queer

Vladimir the queer 

 

" Oh Vladimir, Vladimir

Why did you do this my dear" 

Because I'm full of fear 

my dear I fear 

That Yes I'm a queer 

With a wooden strap on 

In place of my spear! 

 

 

Read and leave comments (1)

THOUGHT BUBBLE

Take a thought bubble strip it of its skin

until it fills the whole space of your mind

examine its components

 

describe them in a palace of time

wrap those images in words write them on paper

you've captured that bubble in poetry. 

 

Walk away: it remains to nag you

with its shiny or tawdry ego

bursting with love or hate

 

but hopefully not indifference

for ...

Read and leave comments (2)

Also by ray pool:

WE MAKE A SHOULDER OF THE WIND | THE LUTON FREE DIET |

The Sirens Ringing Out

The sirens are ringing out

Did I wake up to 1939?

 

Bits of paper waved in the air

As a bomb rips through a house

 

“we’ll hit them in their bank accounts”

But no statement can save a child’s life

 

The sirens ringing out

Wailing across a Kyiv square

 

A mother in Donetsk a sister in Odesa

A cold chill running down her spine

 

“It’s hopeless”

...

Read and leave comments (4)

Also by David R Mellor:

The slow tissue paper of lies |

Ukraine

Eye of the beholder

I read it as a child,

But forgot,

As I grew older,

Beauty lies,

In the eye of the beholder.

 

Stones – lifeless and rough

Shine and amaze him!

Peering at them like a master crafter,

Beauty lies,

In the eye of the beholder.

 

Old bottles, tinsel and glue,

Inspired by 5-min crafts

Focused on making the prettiest pen-holder

Beauty lies,

In the eye of th...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by pallavitryingthings:

A Dog's Day |

More Real

If I feel it,

it's real.

If I taste it,

it's real.

If I love it,

it's real.

When I lose it - it's more real.

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Bill Dodsworth:

Waking | The Mists of Being | Spanish Stillness | Conversations | La Faba - 2017 | Somewhere in Spain | The Market | Messages Lost | Camino Days |

lovetastereallose

Texting a Friend

A fleeting aura of the last ditch moment. A concrete thing of blood and bones feeling. Great not left unbroken. Unshackled to a doubted mind. A requirement has left you burning. Holes in books. The thing of warning. For grafting to the skin at night. Your life in venomous mourning.

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Alita Moore:

Mid Month | slowly warming |

MARINE

MARINE

Herded down to the beach at ten

on a winter's morning

in thin white gym shorts as if our volition

came from his barking.

He claimed to have been a marine

and we were terrified,

with anaesthetised flesh

on the oily beach

strewn with bladder wrack

like something coughed up foul and green

and a pill box

full of trash and graffiti;

concrete obstacles from ...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by john short:

FLANNEL WHITE |

GODDESS

You're a Goddess he said 

A sexual Goddess 

There's something about you that makes me obsess 

You own me he said 

In that way for sure 

The queen of my bed 

I can't take no more 

This power you hold and your sweet non intention 

Like a spell you control 

This whole new dimension 

Fantasy maybe

Closeness is tension 

Yes shy modest maybe 

Sex Goddess Lady 

H...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Sarah Louise mcnee:

NOT JUST SOME BIRD |

obsession?sexual goddessFantasygoddess

Aberystwyth, February 1978

Standing at the brink

in off-brand corduroy, dyed wool

picking apart the sunbeams

with your one hand slowly

closing.

The funicular sings silent

the third curve of dust-white

aggregate is steeper still

and behind you lies

the vast bowl of swallowed

time, the shattered stopwatch

shards hanging loosely

quivering swords

over ripped Polaroid.

 

You drop the ...

Read and leave comments (0)

whatever

Show more entries …

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Find out more Hide this message