OPEN MIC ENCORE II
January, 2005
OPEN MIC ENCORE I
Life Can Be Cruel
Lisa Canfield
Life can be cruel. Sugar coated in sweet lies.
I had to take one of the team
While innocence laid in disguise.
They all thought I loved him still
Which was the furthest from the truth.
It tore me up inside the thoughts
That they abused.
How wicked they were, how evil.
To even think such a ridiculous thing.
That my heart still felt something
That it did not,
That it still chorused and it yet did sing.
To be honest, I really don’t like him at all anymore
I wouldn’t care if I ever saw his face.
But he is still my son’s father,
Something special that can never be replaced.
Maybe someday I will get an apology
Maybe they will get down on their knees and pray
Maybe they will redeem themselves for their dishonesty
But I’m not waiting any soon for that liberating day.
I wish I had the funds for a lawyer at that time
But all money was spent on a house so new.
So that my son could have a home
For being a mother, having a home for her children,
Is the best thing a mother can righteously do.
I have proved my armor of white
By placing a little trap with cheese
She ate it and manipulated it, as she saw fit,
And it set my mind at ease.
That she was the one with the fire.
Allegedly, and personally speaking,
The con artist and liar.
Yes, life can be cruel sometimes, sugar coated
In the sweetest of lies.
But I can finally see, the tears wiped away
From my eyes.
And I am finally, set free.
-0-
The world is an evil place
No Grace
Just Hate
No Fate
Just Race
Look away and get stripped of your dignity.
I go to the other place
No Hate
Just Grace
No Fate
No Race
No Shit
No This
No That
Just You
I go away
Away I go
It’s the end of the world
Someone pulled out the plug
Someone jumped ship
Someone couldn’t cope
Someone stopped it all.
No Anything
No Us
No Them
No Dark
No Light
No Here
No There
Perfect Silence
Catastrophic Consequence
Happy Ending.
Adam
-0-
Someday my confusion will clear
One day my memory
wont be muddled with regret
I can always remember
what I've done
But hardly ever
who I am.
So deep is the pool
of my past
So long does my future
stretch before me
So many lives I have lived
To many songs I have sung
without hearing the song within me.
It seem that life is a sickness
From which I will to soon recover
Heidi Furst
-0-
I LOOKED IN THE MIRROR
By: Meaghan Highlander
The mirror reflection lies
Everyone changes
But I have been erased
I have died.
I have been evaporated…
Smooth air.
She knows,
But she doesn’t know what to say or do
So she just shrugs at me
And breaks
I’m completely condemned
And eternally lost
I sat myself aside
Endless months of pain
I try and look a little deeper
But I am still lost once again
The mirror reflection lies
Everyone changes
I’m erased
I am dead.
-0-
IN THE MIRROR
BY: COMMON ERROR
CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT I SEE WHEN I LOOK INTO THE MIRROR.
I SEE A TRAPPED SOUL LOOKING BACK AT ME WITH NO CONCEALER.
I SEE A BROKEN IMAGE THAT CAN'T BE PUT BACK TOGETHER.
I SEE A HEART OF LOVE EVER SO SLOWLY DIMINISHING FOREVER.
WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME, THIS THING THAT MAKES ME WALLOW IN SELF
PITY?
IT SEEMS LIKE THE SHADOWS ARE CONTINUOUSLY FOLLOWING ME FROM CITY TO
CITY.
WHAT CAN YOU TELL ME TO MAKE MY SOUL STOP BLEEDING?
WILL I EVER FIND THAT KIND OF LOVE THAT EVERYBODY'S BEEN NEEDING.
-0-
Burn This Crown
Kailey Ibsen
Break my heart,
Then kiss my cheek,
You always make my misery sweet.
Build a bridge to my heart,
Then burn it down,
Yet still I wear your Queen’s gold crown.
If this is true love,
Then cursed am I,
Will anyone hear my unending cry?
Don’t pick me up,
When you know I will drop,
Let go so this pain will finally stop.
-0-
Broken Leg
laura
Yesterday I went horseback riding and I told him to tell her to tell
her cousin that I know that she said the secret to her friend’s
friend.
So he told me that she told her cousin and her cousin said that now
that she knows that I know that she told her friends friend the secret
that she is sorry…
So I told him to tell her to tell her cousin that now that I know that
she knows that I know that she told the secret to her friend’s
friend that understand and realize she is sorry.
So then she told her cousin to tell him to tell me that now that she
knows that I know that she is sorry for what she did.
Now my leg hurts from falling off the horse.
-0-
GHOST WRITER
EDWIN FLORES
IN HASTE WORDS SPEW TO SO EXPRESS
FROM MIND AND HEART A SOUL DISTRESSED
BECOMES A WRAITH ONCE HELD BY CHAINS
BREATHING AT LAST A CHANCE TO CHANGE
MAKE RIGHT THE WRONG IT WAS ACCUSED
FREE FROM THE SHELL WHERE ONCE ABUSED
WERE CRIES IGNORED AND SCREAMS UNHEARD
LONG WERE THE NIGHTS IT TOSSED AND STIRRED
BREAKING AWAY FROM BARS THAT BARED
PRISONER TO ONE WHOSE ONLY CARE
WAS TO JUST DEAL WITH WHAT WAS DEALT
A LOSING HAND, HOPE ALL BUT MELTS
THIS SPIRIT FREE NOW WRITES IT'S TALES
OF BROKENESS AND HOW ONE FAILS
TO SEE THE LIGHT IF ONE SO CHOSE
TO LIVE LIFE NOW BEFORE ONE GOES
THE HIGHER PLANE CAN WAIT FOR ME
IT HOWLS AND GRINS WITH HARMONY
FOR PEACE NOW THEIRS IT HOLDS IN HAND
TIGHT IS IT'S GRASP, FREE IS THIS MAN
-0-
Desert Tales
Chelsea
I am one out of many,
Yet I see eye to eye with other women.
I close my eyes and drift off
Into a dream of the ancient.
Feel the heat of the desert,
The howling of small monkeys,
The pyramids of the divine.
I am alone,
So different from my surroundings.
I cover my face with my hands and begin to weep.
I am not accepted as equal.
Every day I am beat because I may not show my face
“You must be covered! You will be beaten!” My mother shouts
No longer do I care...
Now I see eye to eye with the face of death
Girl In The Room
After W.S Merwin
Amanda Maxfield
-0-
After tears
The memories of him
Slither through her brain
Into burning holes
She lies there
On her bloodless sheets
Dreaming sweet nightmares
He is near
And she is made of weakness
The fear of her father
The footsteps of hell
Now in the room
He lays his hands upon her
-0-
WHY IS IT LIKE THIS??
shawn mosley
Why is it like this?
Why can’t people be friends?
Why must we fight?
It’s the means to and end
We kill and curse
And commit so many sins
And then pray at church
And try to make amends
Is it hate or hypocritical
Or just plain out dumb
How those who attend on Sunday
Sin on every other night
Then they judge me
Because I choose not to congregate
But they are the ones
Whose hearts are full of hate?
I believe in god
For he’s led me through this life
He’s held my hand and carried me
Through times of sadness and strife
I believe on the day
I meet him face to face
It’ll be the belief in my heart
That gives me my place
-0-
TILL DEATH BECOMES ME
Till Death Becomes Me
I find my self in the mist
of all my pain.
That sudden feeling of despair
that consumes me from the inside out.
Those lovely feelings of suicide
which evoke my every word,
hold me well within thy grasp.
I long for it, death i mean.
The freedom of knowing
that there is none.
Knowing that the day
will never burn away,
this emptiness that I hold inside.
I claw at my self in hope
that this will pacify this awful
singe which was instilled to me by my love.
-0-
LOSING MYSELF
Patty Runyon
Every morning when I wake up,
the stereotype begins
I want blonde hair, perfect skin,
I'd die just to be thin
Once I was a flower, but now
I'm just a stem, I didn't
like my petals, do i did away
with them
To look like all the others
was all I really wanted
Like all the others
who teased and taunted
Like a child who was picked last
for elementary athletics, I thought
I was worthless,I blamed it on genetics
Everything is black or white, why
cant I be the grey, Maybe I'm not alone
maybe the others are just afraid to stray.
I took everything that was me, and
threw it to the ground, with the years
they faded away, never to be found
Now I stand here naked, all my individuality
gone for good, i wish that long ago
I would have understood
That looks can be deceiving and grey,
is not so bad, now I know that I possessed
more than I thought I had
I finally found myself, it was not as
simple as it seems, I got rid of their
ways, and I found my own dreams
I realized that beauty is not only skin deep
beauty is who you are, and who you choose to be
I have found that I am imperfect and i like
me just that way, If you don't then you don't
have to stay.
Now i wake up every morning, the stereotype
is gone, its me I see in the mirror, my
mask has been undone.
-0-
"MURDER"
Written by:
D.A.W.U.
(Derrick Arthur's Wisdom and understanding)
OPEN UP YOUR EYES AND REALIZE
SEE WHAT'S GOIN' ON AROUND YOU
DAY AND NIGHT
DON'T BE SURPRISED
AND ONCE YOU REALIZE
DON'T HOLD IN ALL INSIDE
LET IT ALL OUT
THROUGH THE MOUTH
AND CLEAR THE MIND
'CAUSE IF YOU HOLD IT IN
IT MIGHT HAPPEN AGAIN
TO SOMEONE IN YOUR FAMILY
OR EVEN A FRIEND
OR YOU COULD END UP DEAD
INSTEAD OF ALIVE
IT'S TIME FOR US TO OPEN UP
OUR REAL EYE AND REALIZE
-0-
BLACK ABYSS
by: Amber Stephens
I want to disappear into a black abyss.
I want to leave and never come back.
I am fed up with all of this.
Can you not see my happiness lack?
Do you not hear my cries of pain?
Will you not feel my sorrow?
If there is a perfect picture I would be the incessant stain,
or in a beautiful garden I would be the black crow.
I'm tired of lacking joy.
There is so much I miss and want to regain
I used to be full of joy,
but now I am full of sorrow and pain.
Oh how I want to disappear into a black abyss,
because I am so fed up with this.
-0-
rain drops of memories fall down on my face as I cover up with an
umbrella of fear I look into the puddles to see a reflection but all I
see is a faceless man afraid to express himself so he does it threw
paper and pin knowing that someday someway he'll have to find someone
to tell how he feels or like a time bomb exploding throwing scraps of
my thoughts into peoples minds so that maybe then someone will know
how I feel
zach green
-0-
NUMB
Schaeffer
It's times like these that i realize that life isn't fair,
that i can never be good enough and that nobody cares.
I look at him and all i feel is pain,
I tried so hard but i can't get off of sorrow lane.
Without him there, nothing feels the same-
and it seems as if i only have myself to blame.
The numbness is growing with each lonely day,
it continues to grow-rejection is affective that way.
Is nobody there? Can no one hear my cry?
They tell me i need to love myself, but don't they see that i try?
For how can i love myself if no one loved me first?
It's this kind of thing that continually hurts the worst.
In this world there's no such thing as always and forever-
instead all you're left with are unfulfilled dreams and nevers.
Is it too much to want someone to love me?
Is it so bad to want someone to unlock my rigid heart with their key?
The people i love the most are the ones who let me down-
Why do they hurt me so, why do they break my crown?
The one thing i fear the most is being alone,
yet strangely this is the cause of the numbness that i seem to
condone...
-0-
THAT SEA OF SIN
Charles Turner
I was drowning in that sea of sin
Sinking deeper than I had ever been
Slowly dying I couldn't swim
I couldn't yell just deeper in
Yes deeper in that sea of sin
Desperation now is setting in
This because of all my sin
I could feel the life flow going
But no life line none was throwing
Then a hand reached down and pulled me up
Now with Him I will ever sup
No more sea surrounding me
At last I am truly free
Praise God for His holy son
I'm so glad He's the only one
-0-
If Only
Charlotte Clark
If only they knew me,the real me, not the show me.
If only they understood what they see is an act.
If only I could explain I'm not really the way I pretend.
Then maybe they would know the real me, not the show me.
Nobody knows or cares about the real me.
The fact that I have feelings like the rest.
They judge me without knowing me, the real me, not the show me.
If only people knew me, the real me.
But I don't help at all!
I try to hide the real me. The show me is all they see.
I feel that if I show them the real me they will walk all over me.
But I guess that is just the show me talking. NOT the real me
-0-
WINTER
Sumalita Bhuyan
The moon is smiling wryly at her grave today
The same moon she took solace in,
Whenever
her heart refused to sing
The birds had come back after the storms
But it was too cold here for a comfortable home!
It must have rained for I see droplets around her eyes
And who has ever heard of a dead soul that cries?
Its dark inside, she's yearning for a flicker of light
I did light up a candle, alas! The winds rushed in- such is my
plight!
But there was a time when even her heart used to sing
Yes when he was around, every winter turned spring!
The waves made merry, while time stood still,
That the earth was warm, even the birds could feel!
O' how she wished those dreams would last
But not to be, he couldn't keep the trust!
Not a rose, but this withered lily draped in blood
That to me holds the meaning of love!
Hopelessly I wish-joys to her I could bring-
But to her now, winter is winter spring is spring!
-0-
The Madness of Jeffery Hardin
He was there with that
stare,
Always looking at me
with that evil glare.
The smell of booze on
his breath,
Made me feel I wanted
death.
I had to be quiet as you
see,
I knew he would put his
fist right into me.
I always knew when he
was near,
Emotions in my body
struck me with fear.
People heard my cries
from day to day,
But they would always
turn and look away.
I remember the time
all too well,
The day I escaped
from my hell.
As I look back on
that day,
My heart has pain
that never went away.
-0-
the cold blade pierces the skin to ease the pain i bring upon myself. again i wrecked my life...i fucked up again. sometimes i wander if im known out of pitty. the pendulum of my fate draws nearer and nearer shinning brightly i see my bloody soul a mess from all my self afflicted wounds. my end draws nearer drawing what little soul is left in me. a cold blade clears my fate. the end has come...the pain is over.
josh
Agony fades as time moves on
A Life of pain
Wade -
-0-
AGONY
Tiffany Simpson
Tiffany Simpson
Agony fades as time moves on
Our faces change
Time holds us in place
Our lives end
Slowly and painfully
We try to move
Our feet are shackled
Bound to this wretched earth
By icy fetters
Frostbitten bodies
Converge on lifes streets
Bruised,bleeding
Torn apart
All we can do is wait
Bodies screaming in pain
Blood pouring like tears
Acid burns our flesh
Eating away our bones
Killing our memories
Our minds are broken
-0-
When ur in a solitary mind ur only tru friend comes from within
Ur insides starts 2 die off and all of lifes
burden begins
Ur minds turbulent & its hard 2 control
The bitterness & ruthlessness that flows
throughout ur soul
Tribulations r daily u quarrel every minute
Wondering y u have 2 leave this world the same way u came in it
Lonely, naked, not knowing the purpose of life
Should we live 2 die or die 2 live the night?
Ur brain rages in confusion all good memories u once had fade away
And everytime u try 2 do right trouble automatically comes ur way
Ur heart hardens violence becomes tranquility
In the end no friends no love just me.
Jordan S Walker
-0-
The Lost Mind:
Darschand Raiford
In my darkest hour
there's a lost mind
somewhere,waiting
to be found
by a person who
underdstands me
who can handle
the lost mind
like i can
who can accept me
for who i am
and love me
right now
if only the lost mind
was human.
-0-
If You Don't Like What You See,
Then You Don't Have To Look.
If You Don't Like What You Hear,
Then You Don't Have To Listen.
If You Don't Like What You Smell,
Then You Don't Have To Breathe.
If You Don't Like Someone,
Then You Still Don't Need To Hate.
If You Don't Like Me,
Then You Don't Have To Show It.
If You Don't Have Big Lips,
Then You Don't Need To Kiss.
If You Don't Like To Care,
Then You Don't Have To Share.
If You Never Foud Someone You Love And Lost Them,
Then You Would Never Understand Me.
young_tipsy
-0-
ALONE
written by Emily
Still won’t hear me,
crying, screaming, pleading,
Falling,
The night air around me,
quiet, truthful,
Silent.
Now...,
Or never?
Rage, pain, hatred.
All bottled up inside,
with nowhere to go.
Any second now,
it’s gonna burst out.
A volcano,
the secrets, the tears,
Alone.
-0-
Poem inspired by Stars
Beren Ward 12/22/04
One moon sits motionless
spread light upon the open lands
where once hunters moved
with glinting spears
survival of the generations
-0-
why do people laugh
well others cry
why are people tough
well others are weak
why do people live
well others die
justine marshane
-0-
warped and twisted
Lindsey
harsh words and violent blows
hidden secrets nobody know
eyes are open hands are fisted
deep inside im warped and twisted
so many tricks and so many lies
to many whens and to many whys
nobodys special nobodys gifted
im just me, warped and twisted
sleeping awake and choking on a dream
listening loudly to a silent scream
call my mind, the numbers unlisted
lost in someone so warped and twisted
on my knees alive but dead
look at the invisible blood ive shed
im not gone my mind has drifted
dont expect much, im warped and twisted
burnt out, wasted, empty, and hollow
today is just yesterdays tomorrow
the sun died, the ashes have sifted
im still here warped and twisted
-0-
What do you think you're there for?
Kissing up some ass, getting yourself stoned, trying to get home?
You're remembering the suffering of every depressing moment of
your life
How you always came back here to lose the fight.
Who really does care about you?
You sure as hell don't.
Why don't you just release yourself now?
Don't live on if you're just gonna let yourself melt
You're addicted, twisted, a lunatic at most.
You're going to try to fly up to the sky
But you'll fail because you insisted on sniffing down that coke.
Think about the people who do care or did care about you
And you're giving them up cuz you thought you had nothing left of
hope.
Falling, crashing, standing on the last bit of rock on the cliff
You're body's shifting, the gravity is pulling you down off the
lift
But you know not how to pull yourself up from the dirt
You don't know how you're driving everyone around you bizzerk.
Stop giving us pain, stop trying to wreck this train
Just leave, just breathe, just shut up and see
How we loved you and how now we can only be giving you our pity.
Stop believing in all that shit, look up and just try to think
About this here, about how we care enough to share
How we feel about your creep, how you're getting no sleep
Cuz you're trying to get a smoke, dumping it all just to get high
on dope.
But what do you know, you've got nothing to hide, nothing to show.
C'mon look outside, look out that window and you'll see no one is
here
No one's here to care about what you're gonna be
So try and see now, try and get us to see now
But I don't see how cuz no one gives a flipping shit now.
Jeff Hon
-0-
Blind Me To Death
Sandra Flood
The glare in your eyes
It grew brighter and brighter
As you fed me your lines
Come on, and blind me with new lies
Your words are taking me
And ripping me apart
I looked around at the emptiness
I hear your voice in the dark
Am I confused, or am I dying?
The hollow sound of your thoughts
Get's me screaming out in anger
I'm sick of listening, I need to speak
Shut your pretty mouth for just one moment
And hear the words I favor
They may not seem like much
But mean everything to me
I'm staring at the ceiling
And tearing at the walls
I can't bare to be around you
So eager to make you fall
Faster and harder, onto your knees
You made me cry so many times
Now I'm making you bleed
-0-
WRITING HAIKU
..by Spiros Zafiris
moon, this time,
'tis you who must wait
—the haiku's third line
-0-
A Poem: 12/19/2004
Murder in the Congo
Blasts at the Hotel.
Slaughter in Baghdad
Illness befell.
Roaming the streets of Long Beach
Empty pockets in hand
Watching the long speech--
of Glory, prosperity in the land.
Disconnected wanderers
Walking idly by
Beaten, battered stragglers
Asking, why, why, why?
Fly over the oceans
Tap of the key
Steel, silent emotions
Turn away from me.
Close, sterile watchings
Touch the blank screen
Voice's distant laughing
Laughing over, under me.
Why bother seeing
That we never see?
Why bother being
What we'll never be?
Human.
Free.
Maryam
-0-
Hearts break and bleed
Tears dance and fall
Pain of love says it all
First kiss;First love
Last forever?or last for long?
A dareing hurt;of love past gone.
Blushing heat
smiles worn and fade
Once morning light;now painfully made.
Searing bliss;has long past gone
winter mints;misting orbs
chilled breath;now scorn
Beneath the rose;wilted and dead
vile scents of abuse;grown
to be buried and long forgotten;"we are the dead
of past love's,gone"
Brittany
-0-
I lay in the dark waiting for the inevitable
bittersweet end to a road less traveled by
people I fallen to a deep slumber awaiting
the nightmares to come and abuse me I hear a
haunting scream and that's when I know I'm
in the venomous world of non-reality the
feelings are just as strong as when I'm in
the waking world they frighten me the most
brutal fantasies are played out like a film
strip in my mind
JT KEEN
-0-
Leaving him was hard
Coming back was easy
Seeing his face after so long,
takes away all the pain.
My love for him is strong as can be
But how can that be
Less than a month
I'm here
and in a blink of an eye
I'm gone
No more kisses
No more hugs
Just tears declaring my love for him.
Tia Barrett
-0-
A Life of pain
Wade -
Is this what it should be like to become middle aged?
Mostly a feeling of loss
Loss of physical appearance
Loss of memory
Loss of possessions
Loss of friends
Loss of family members
Loss of happiness
And the most painful, even after all the years, the loss of love
They say it’s better to love than to not love at all
I have to say I very much disagree
The hollow feeling of knowing what you’re missing is at times
unbearable
It is said that time heals all wounds
I don’t feel healed
Many times I take myself back in my thoughts
To the time that I was whole
To the time we were together
I know it’s my fault that you left me
And now all that’s left is pain
Bitterness, anger, and hopelessness is now all I feel
No longer do I have the bounce in my step
No longer do I have the constant smile on my face
No longer do I have you in my life
Life? No not life….
Existence
-0-
"I Feel..."
"What Happened - What Went Wrong? "
Julie M. Agor - Mcilvaine
Julie M. Agor - Mcilvaine
I feel so sad and all alone and now I act out so bad,
Because I am so mad and sighing with some quite groans.
I feel like, "Why am I even Here?"
I have so many fears and I want to go back to drinking my beers?
I feel so much like I want to scream and cry,
But, my eyes have tears that are dry and again I feel scared and shy?
I feel so used and abused, and yet with all that is wrong,
It is still me to be accused, and I am so very confused?
I feel I want to run, cuz all this is no fun, the pain is so deep,
I feel, I wish I could sleep and not feel no pain for at least one
week?
I feel so drained and so very tired of all this,
It all hurts way down to the bone, and I felt, all I could do was
write this poem!
-0-
