Donations are essential to keep Write Out Loud going    

Popular last 30 days

love Life poem nature War family spiritual poetry loss sadness

Popular last 12 months

love poetry life poem Nature death hope War loss poet

Recent Comments

M.C. Newberry on Bungalow Dreaming
22 seconds ago

M.C. Newberry on Final visit? ( fictional )
13 minutes ago

M.C. Newberry on Draft Dodger
28 minutes ago

Landi Cruz on Love Song
35 minutes ago

Graham Sherwood on
1 hour ago

Reggie's Ghost on Draft Dodger
2 hours ago

David RL Moore on Draft Dodger
2 hours ago

Graham Sherwood on Draft Dodger
4 hours ago

Tom Doolan on I Remember Joy
6 hours ago

John Coopey on A Sense Of You
7 hours ago

Determination in Morrisania 

kids can feel it 

are real with it 

the future’s 

in their eyes 

 

so we’re careful 

with the lies 

chains of causation

waves of confusion we ride

 

causing all this 

dissonance 

we help them 

with the lifting  

 

their hope 

is our own 

we pass it on 

so it grows 

 

their determination 

the oxygen 

that makes 

the glow 

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Robert C Gaulke:

After the Pause |

.....as blue as robins' eggs

 
Memories bring me diamonds and rust, nothing more,
though time’s chasm opens before my very sight,
and the vertigo returns with the Lapis Lazuli.
 
I will devote some time to resurrecting the lived poetry
of the Byzantimes, Persians, Armenians, Assyrians.
each civilization alloted supreme value to the blue of lapis lazuli.
 
Lapis lazuli was used in the funeral mask of Tut...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by John E Marks:

.......early onset | AN OPAL LUMINOSITY | Wisława Szymborska Polish poet | WE, THE ENGLISH | SHEER LUNACY | 16th June, 1904 | BLUE REMEMBERED HILLS | ELOQUENT GRAFFITI | Indian summer | Haiku | Testament | Mem û Zîn‎ | ELEGY for ANNA |

Trying

I tried

Acceptance is the key

To the lock on the door

The one painted red

On the house down the street

It's a key understanding

Why the door is shut

Closing off the world

And everybody else

It's the key to you

So you said to look for it

And I tried and tried

Really I did

I looked in my heart

And my head

And my soul

But you had taken it

And lied

...

Read and leave comments (0)

The river of life flows

Like Achilles, we're headfirst into the river of life

Slowly floating downstream towards death, irrevocably

Circumstances may speed many through whitewater rapids,

To an untimely end, somewhat unbenevolently

 

Those less fortunate perish in cascading waterfalls

While others simply meander aimlessly in shallows

Egotists, ignorant of the plight of their own drowning

Unaware t...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by JD Russell:

Residential Dementia | The Globaticus | 77, 78, PUNKed | Celebrations | What happens in the hot tub, stays in the hot tub | Waste No Time |

My...

Were you there before me,

I don't know,

Yet, I've felt your eyes on me,

Since I was born,

You are so beautiful,

Shining through the dark,

They say you steal His light,

Something about, 

Reflection?

Huh, Let them say!

'Cause for me,

You are Brighter than the Brightest Star.

Me?

In your eyes,

Do I shine?

Leave it,

Let me just talk about you,

You are...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Nitika Prabhakar:

Blah Blah!!! | My Life... | Trust... | Everything... | Be Who You Are!!! | Being Perfect!!! |

blood off my nails

carve the cloth off my skin,

wipe the polish off my nails,

scrape the itch off my flesh;

i can’t help it,

i won’t stand it again.

 

strawberry dressing on vanilla ice cream;

paint spilled over the notebook’s page

i feel the ink in my fingerprints,

it’s staining my hands.

i don’t know that i’ll ever get it out again

 

rip the skin off my bones,

pry my nails of...

Read and leave comments (0)

self harmself-harmself hateself-hate

An Undying Poet

The heaven's eye becomes tired
With rage,
Water endless in the sea.

Winter deflowers the tree,
Spring fills the fissures-
The process constant all year round.

Clouds take off the canopy-
Vapours make a sail
Occuring in cycles.

Leaves green and alive
Develops gray hue,
A tree never stops dreaming.

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Ujjal Mandal:

The Bard of the Rydal Mount and Tagore |

mortality

Heavy heart with smiling face !

pink rose cheeks with sweet smile,

crushed heart with seamless soul,

hopping and humming along the aisle,

peace roaming on the burning coal.

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by shan shan:

POEM ! | A SILLY GIRL and THE IMAGINARY PRINCE ! | For my beloved Muhibbi ! |

Sometimes Life Is Funny, Isn't It?

Hey, did you get the memo on the cosmic joke?

Yes, there really is one.

It's entitled "Life."

We don't know what the punch line is, though.

Apparently this becomes apparent when one dies.

But, hey, it's okay to start laughing now (with kindness of course)

because, why not?

it makes Life a bit more fun.

Read and leave comments (1)

Also by Hélène:

Meditations on Love | Rhythm of the Day | A Rainbow at Dusk | Mental Meandering | Late At Night | Thoughts on Poetry | Shadows | This, Now | Song of Life | Pondering | Old Tree | Watering the Garden with Rain | Blue Umbrella | Life is a Delicious Apple | Song of Your Soul |

Apple Trees

"Sweet Apple Tree that pleasantly grows,

Whose fruit I once stole to please a fair maiden

When, with sword on my thigh, stout shield on my shoulder,

Alone I slept in the woods of Calydon.

Beneath its branches I began softly to fade,

Dreaming that around its' trunk I quickly played

With a sweet enchantress of most splendid form.

And since then for ten and forty years

I becam...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by leonidas kazantheos:

The Month of October | Oh Hidden God | The Month of September, A Rural Almanack | Lu Chi's (Wen Fu) The Art of Writing |

Welsh PoetryApple TreesMerlin

Transition

The air fluctuates in tone on the windowsill as October grips the seasons consuming the fading light shaking the remnants of the summer curling its fingers around your neck before finally resting upon your chinbone.

You become part of the dusk no matter where you stand, facing the changes in front of you whether standing against an imaginary plague filling up the newspapers again or looking dow...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Gray Nicholls:

Taking on the light II | Taking on the light | Thresholds of Surrender | Sculpting Absence | Cascaded 2 |

Here Not There

If love was kind, why is it often misunderstood 

If love was easy, why do we suffer

We give it away, but sometimes it's not return

We hold onto love, but others may pretend 

It is hard for one to believe

running to love, running from love

love hides here not there

Read and leave comments (1)

Chronic pain 

Waking up to being riddled in pain feeling like every day different but it really remains the same . Another person telling you your mental health declining , feeling you’re trying to tell the world but the world thinks you’re just whining . Rocking up to work with a smile on your face , doing what you have to do because it’s not the time or place . Seeing others in a worst positi...

Read and leave comments (0)

Chronic painfibromyalgia

feet on stones

how curious this life of now

 

my shoulders rounded over

from all this time on the computer

 

my feet are on stones

my hands on a keyboard

 

Fred meows to his friend upstairs

*said in meow complaining voice* COME PLAY

 

how curious this life of now

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Jaya Papaya:

smaller | (untitled) |

Tess’s What Ifs

Tess’s What Ifs

 

Twice he said to me up there on the rick

that I’d never mentioned my husband’s name.

What if I had, told him he was the son 

of Parson Clare, so instrumental in his ‘conversion’?

What if I’d told Angel that the man who 

seduced me was the one his father ran into?

 

It’s as good as asking how it would have been

had Tringham held his tongue, or if Prin...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Peter J Donnelly:

Why I'd Never Go To Holland | Wild Raspberries in Harrogate |

SICK AND MORE!

The hand and mind that would fell a tree

That has stood for so long for all to see

Like a beacon of enduring hope so that we

Might marvel at something so fine and free

Could never be worth a damn to me

The heart and hand that took a saw

And did the deed makes me sick and more!

(Written in response to the timely poem by Stephen W Atkinson)

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

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by M.C. Newberry:

CHRISTMAS SNOW-ORCHESTRAL | DISPARITY | MIKE YARWOOD | TIME AND TIDINGS | YOUTH AND TRUTH | NEW AGE | THE MAN IN BLACK - remembering Johnny Cash |

Information

There're things you can share

With everyone around you

And many an important information

You shy off from telling anybody

Matters that's general can be discussed

But one's that's personal can't be

Face to face conversations are valuable

But those that are talked about in groups needs sorting up

So choose wisely what's meant to be shared

And those that concerns none but o...

Read and leave comments (2)

Also by Sunshine:

Uncertainty is the only Certainty |

Sycamore Gap

The Sycamore Gap

Is just 'The gap'

Its body tumbled, bleeding sap

For 200 years its leafy hair

Ruffled to whispers in swirling air

O! What it heard in ages past!

Now, sadly lost

It's heard its last…

Read and leave comments (5)

Also by Stephen W Atkinson:

John's Cafe | A song of time | Painted sky |

Sycamoregap

MY MUMMY

It's my mummy's birthday today

a hundred and fifteen to be precise

but now she's passed away. 

Nineteen years have gone and time is moving on

but I can see her as sharp as a pin

I know she must be looking in. 

 

She never wanted to let me go

but had no option that much is clear,

that was the future I suppose

but today the clouds have parted and like the crescent moon

...

Read and leave comments (9)

Also by ray pool:

WHITE WORLD |

GONE MR ZINFANDEL

Promise  Fun

Promise  Freedom 

Promise  Release 

Promise  Happiness 

Promise  Relaxation 

TWISTED MR ZINFANDEL

Brings  anxiety 

Brings  isolation 

Brings  lonliness

Brings misery

Brings  darkness

GONE MR ZINFANDEL

FREEDOM 

 

 

Read and leave comments (0)

The Hidden Essence

At the time I was somewhat cold,     

A child doing as it was told,   

Sitting in the hut Dad just built,     

Not so solid, a bit of tilt,    

The rain dripping onto my head,  

Family there, us being fed,     

Avoiding spiders seen about,     

Waiting until we could run out,    

Back inside into our home warm,  

Before drizzle turned into storm,     

Yet now all I...

Read and leave comments (2)

Also by Dalia Sophia Jayes:

The Hidden Essence |

FamilyLoveNatureTimeLoss

Slackers, or The View from Washington

Get out there and win the war, you slackers!

You’ve had tons of weapons from your backers.

They’re no excuse: defences, mines and tanks;

You’ve all you need to break enemy ranks.

Casualties? That’s just collateral stuff;

You mean you don’t know that war will be rough?

You know what they say: you can’t take the heat?

Vacate the kitchen and stare at defeat.

We’ve stumped up t...

Read and leave comments (8)

Also by Stephen Gospage:

Young Man, Dancing | Square Root | Lexicon | Crossword Clue | The Long Haul | Colossus | Daft as a Brush |

UkraineWar Fatigue

Haiku Foundations

Relationships are very much like houses

Unless they’re built on a strong foundation

They will soon come tumbling down

 

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Rick Varden:

Shards of broken glass | Haiku Faith | Haiku Curtains | Haiku Footbal | Haiku Music | HAIKU FEELINGS | Haiku Parenthood | The Supporter | The Barista | Climate Change | Hey what’s up? | On the Road Again |

21st birthday

it's my birthday on OCTOBER 3RD. 

i will be 21. 

i've lived a little more than i ever did before.

i saw the inside of my head from a first persons perspective. 

i know who i am, but i am extremely scared to lose her. 

my sister is my soulmate and my friends are my angels.

my throat hurts more than last year from the cigarettes and the screaming. 

my heart hurts alot more than ...

Read and leave comments (1)

Inner Child

I was sinking to the ocean floor,

We were with two

Me and a child, surrounded by blue.

Connected with a thread,

I was swimming us both to the surface,

Then somehow,

The thread broke

And I watched as the child choked,

Sinking to the bottom

I was pushed above.

Read and leave comments (2)

Also by Yasoda:

Enough | To Love Is To Die | Alone? | Anger's Embrace | Whispers From Death | Your Unknown Friend |

tragedypoem

Burying the Dragonfly

It lie there near our planted flowers,

where it passed. Done with all the insect things

a dragonfly must attend to in the brief time it has.

And those wings! Like stained glass panels

still shimmering in the early Fall light!

 

Our dogs were curious too, but maybe

more interested in the motionless creature’s value

as a snack, or possibly something to play with – ewww!

...

Read and leave comments (2)

Also by Mike McPeek:

Family Reunion | How I Learned to Dislike Fishing - For Anything! | A Few Things I Like | Seeing Red |

Viva La Vida

Greetings from Menton!

 

A town emerges, gently, house by house,

Out of my misty morning memory.

Terracotta rooftops naively painted,

Against the feeling of a bright blue sky,

Where outbound and incoming tourists fly.

 

Menton, where pale consumptives came to die,

Entombed in the hill-top cemetery,

Where, out of breath, I decided to sit,

By William Webb Ellis who, ...

Read and leave comments (3)

Also by John Botterill:

Broken Biscuit Company | Lambs to the Slaughter |

Her Final Solution

You can’t afford to pay your heating bills?

Well, here’s some hate to keep you nice and warm.

Aim it at them, and them; they’ve caused your ills.

With love from me to you; a firestorm.

Read and leave comments (4)

Also by Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh:

Blackshirt Haiku |

hatebills

Blackened Blew

Before the night was frightened,

where the shine of a star meets the gaze of your eyes,

innocence is ever-closer.

My life pauses when you blink, as waves roll on.

A trumpet wails out a cry of hunger

drowning out the siren songs.

I fall from the clouds:

a helpless hurricane-vortex,

into a thunderous, freezing splash.

Absolved by her salt,

I drift under her surface.

...

Read and leave comments (2)

Also by Ferris Ty Taylor:

One Small step Forwards and one Giant Leap Backwards | Lazy Bones | One too many hits to the Head | Sugar |

We're All of Us - 'The Puzzle!'

We’re All of Us – ‘The Puzzle.’

 

 

     It is not, a police state but;-

a state of ignorance where peoples

become a desperate for warmth,

   I look to the rings around an invisible -

  knowing the extraction to a vacant stone

     is near.

 

     Again, it is the coldness now

upheld in people that has the white lighter

  a rarity needing save,

     surrounde...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by ZTK Space:

In Rothiemay 'They' Still Children |

Happiness by a primary school child

"I feel so very happy when I go to school,

Life for me is wonderful,my teachers are so cool.

Their teaching makes me happy,their words make me smile,

Coming to school and learning,is preciously worthwhile.

 

Teachers stand by us in bad times and keep us safe from harm,

You are our Guardian Angels and our lucky charm.

You are much older and every day are there,

You bring us ...

Read and leave comments (3)

Also by hugh:

A shock to my system !! | Patient distress | Lucy Letby,sweet innocent faced |

Their First Song

 

 

Night-time is my enemy, loneliness to blame.

Every single night, I always feel the same.

I walk into empty rooms, for something to do.

I listen to traffic, wishing I was in traffic too.

 

Up and down 3 flights of stairs I often climb.

For no other reason but just to kill time.

An empty house, void of laughter and cheer.

I shout out loud as it breaks the silence I ...

Read and leave comments (3)

Also by Mike Bartram:

A Different World | Demons | The Spirit World |

Encouragement

I can go miles 

with someone believing in me.

So, speak into existence, 

those words I need.

 

I’m not kidding,

or play acting a pose,

this isn’t a hobby,

it’s me you see, exposed.

 

My time is here, and

I don’t want to stop.

Give me that shout,

dissolve my doubts.

Read and leave comments (2)

Also by John Gilbert Ellis:

I Know You | Minimalist to the Max | All Part of the Art of Falling Apart | Best a Poet Can Get | There Was Talk |

poetspoemsencouragementhelp

Spread your wings

Spread your wings they say.

Follow your dreams they encourage. 

Light up the world they say. 

Give it your best shot they want. 

 

Lovely sentiments, strong words, 

designed to help us succeed. 

Form a life for ourselves 

and be the best we can be. 

 

but what about the people

who are struggling to be seen?

Not because of their academic ability 

but because o...

Read and leave comments (2)

PoetrysentimentjasonreynoldsSpeechhelp

ACHING ALL OVER

Memories of the time some years ago when I did yoga.  (Old gits may remember Johnny Kidd and the Pirates' "Shakin' All Over")

 

Our Leader had not an ounce of fat on her

So found it easy holding Shavasana

She started us with words “Just touch your toes.

Now you can try to hold the Lotus Pose”

But I am just an old crone

I let out a low moan

Tremors down my backbone

Aching...

Read and leave comments (8)

Also by John Coopey:

SLIMMING WORLD | 208 | I CAN PEE FOR MILES | THE DEVIL'S FOOD | YER "CASTLEFORD" BLACKBERRY CRUMBLE | "5-a-Day" | CROSSROADS MOTEL |

Ancient Ruin

The hour is slim!

the time to entwine

with her and

with advantage inhale

the heavy offering

from between the jaws

of her open thighs.

 

Persephone's tasty flesh

renders her cleft

of wet truth-

she can slake this thirst-

can assuage my ache

when enthralled against

the serpent earth,

with legs knotted,

we lay tangled

in ancient ruin.

 

words a...

Read and leave comments (0)

Americano

A handful of heat, coffee tastes sweet in the bottom of the mug

Splayed out, dissected human bug, body chopped and tugged

Catalogue my suffering, patch me together with hemp twine

Ignoring every sign and warning, falling is soaring interrupted

A life defined as loveless, a body bled out bloodless

This mud is sticking to my brain again, no way to win

Don't you hate it when it don'...

Read and leave comments (0)

Happy daze

Happy days I’m by the sea

My four legged friends and me

Splashing in and out the surf

more exciting than boring turf 

 

Who cares if it rains or shine

This sandy beach is now all mine

Buckets and spades they’ve all gone home

Leaving us playing all alone

 

Thundering waves with walls of foam

Come on throw another stone

It’s here somewhere in the sand

I thought...

Read and leave comments (3)

Also by Edbreathe:

The Giiirl in the Orange dress | The Giiiirl in the Orange Dress |

The Invisible

The Invisible

 

I believe in what is unseen,

as a gentle summer's breeze

does rustle the leaves of sundry trees.

When a ship is leaving port,

it is soon out of sight

over the horizon or into the night.

Emotions are not readily visible,

a kiss, a caress are symbols only

of a feeling so often unsaid and lonely.

Our thoughts, desires and ideas

are manifest in deeds...

Read and leave comments (2)

Also by keith jeffries:

Youth | Autumn | Holding Fast to Life |

the teacher, wife, mother, elderly lady, stranger

we met on the upper deck on opposite sides, at the front of the bus,

she said it was her first time, after a long time. 

the old lady was at that fine wine age that made her look twenty years younger,

an elegant and fashionably dressed woman with a pink leather bag, 

but still seemed quite sad.

 

a reminicial expression on her face, 

as this was her moment to emotionally embra...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Sophie H:

universe | them vs self |

Sweet Home

We were sitting by the fire.

Healing our wounded memories

By sharing what we all remembered.

Laughing at what was serious, now funny.

We were whole and home. Home sweet home.

Read and leave comments (0)

Addictive family's parts 1,2&3 recording

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Luke:

Sometimes |

Heavy and Tired

I brace myself against the wind

I hold tight to the blades of grass

But the wind is too strong

And I am too heavy 

 

I bury my feet in the ground

I find the roots and don't let go

But the soil is loose

And the tree is dying

 

I lock eyes with the sun

I sing my praises to the moon

But it's too bright

And the moon is tired

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by purplemoon:

Open Tides | Will You? | Blurry |

Periscope (with poetry performance film)

https://youtu.be/S7p8S0RsJKU?si=VPnTuCWx6OajMUdn

 

Climb aboard the 704 to Windsor

Great Grandad Ronald James is at the wheel

He drove the same Green Line bus every day in the Forties and Forties

Smog and chimneys gradually replacing the Kent and Sussex countryside

Walked home alone at 1am from where he left his bus at Woodbury Park Road in Tunbridge Wells

only to return a few...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Lee Campbell:

Chariots | Beards and Bananas (Hands All Over Mr Grover) | Hunk in Trunks | Disgusted |

Highly noted

When a pure note breaks into true rhythm

When a song is sung for the wisdom

A high refrain makes a claim

Too beautiful for this world to sustain

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Jed:

Time to get it on with silicon |

"Mondegreen"

How do you react when you hear your favorite song? Mumbling words that you don't know on the car ride, Dancing out of context, Experiencing eutony.. You remember how that song goes right? Mumbling words that you don't know on the car ride, Messing up the lyrics on karokee night, You remember how that song goes right? Moving to the groove with alot of attitude Messing up the lyrics on karokee...

Read and leave comments (3)

Cat

stop throwing baseballs
for my neighbour's cat
his swing just isn't in it
and besides, I'm a little
worried for his fragility
he, being just porcelain

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Clive Culverhouse:

Lovers | I Grew A Hat | Muse |

catmental illnesssanxietydepression

Sewn To The Page

Out on the balcony, they stood together
wind wild and rummaging through the trees
She wore nothing but the moonlight
So many wishes she could have made that night
As he wondered how she’d like it here
sewn to the pages of this brittle story

A character in a poem
timeless in a way
with him when he reads
but gone
when he closes that book again

One last act before their stories parted
...

Read and leave comments (5)

Also by Tom:

Afternoon Café |

estrangements

seaside dreaming

You bring turmoil and chaos
to my sea of tranquillity 
deaths of many courageous sailors
who battle hostile waves
and brave the angry tides
the memory of your face makes me blush
all the more because I dreamt it drowning 
in between my thighs.

Read and leave comments (0)

September 2023 Collage Poem: Hallways of Life

Sharp eyes gleam from yeasty bread

Suspenseful stars trick savage horses

 

Sephardic interlopers run thru the hallways of life;

tears are driving their day

creating my own judgement day again

 

All the world is weeping for the broken dreams

A distant ghost wandering the wilds

closing down behind us

 

Thinking grim thoughts on dark grim nights

Folding the piece ...

Read and leave comments (1)

Hallways of LifeLittle DalbySeptember Collage PoemStockport Write Out Loud

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