IT'S ALL UP TO YOU (SCHOLARSHIP SLAM)
Learn more about other poetry terms
Behind ev’ry face,
There is a room;
A room filled with
Tons of drawers.
Hidd’n in these drawers
There is no room in my life for bullets.
There's no room for rifles, not for handguns, not for anything that fires.
I have seen too much.
I spent my childhood afraid of bombs,
There once was a shoe,
the color of blue.
Worn by a man,
by the name of Stan.
He use to work,
as the local clerk.
Until one day,
A normal day like any other,
You smile across the room.
I make my way to talk to you,
Then screams erupt, but whom?
Our eyes dart to the open door,
Where classmates hurry by,
Me
I am one of a kind
I should have been an actor
with a poker face like mine
As I wake to the rising sun every day,
i prepare myself for the battle
which lie and mask am I going to use today?
Life is full of wonders some that we just can't face
war and hatred among each other never seeks to fail
but yet life always seems to move on
we never stop to think and wonder about each other
You never thougt about me
You never considered me
In your little escape plan
Your bags were packed
You hit the road and
Never looked back
I stood home alone
With an exploding pain
Am I smart?
Or are you stupid?
Am I funny?
Or is your sense of humor muted?
I live because I have to,
I'm dead because, YOU. MADE. ME.
Generally
Life is bliss
The warm sun wrapped around the cold-hearted girlAnd shared his light to melt her iceBut it didn't quite work and she slipped awayBecause it was her favorite vice
Numbness overwhelms me
Memories still taunt me
Feels just like yesterday you were still right by my side
Yet there you go like everythings fine
Here I stand breaking inside
Screaming for help yet no one knows
My mother used to have her mother's things.
Art, collectables and such.
She use to have these things,
But yesterday is gone.
Now, she does not have these things,
A ceramic rooster and precious art.
It’s never really easy to go against the grain.
To turn your back and shut your ears, to step onto the lane.
A lane filled with hardships, distractions, the unknown.
Look at me, what do you see?
A picture of average nationality,
American girls in picture books.
Come here, come closer and take a look!
All you see: brown hair, blue eyes,
Coming in at five foot five!
With the green on the trees and the blue in the sky;
Sometimes I sit and just wonder why.
Why things happen the way that they do,
One day a child, the next day in school.
Curled up in a shell
Tired, stretched out, worn down
Knees tucked underneath me
Half-dead tortoise
Hard-earned sweat stains the mat
Eyes droop closed
Arms behind, forearms flat to the ground
My mother built a house of books.
She raised up walls of sturdy spines and plastered them with knowledge.
Candles lit our wordy home, casting shadows and bringing the stories to life.
I am powerlessin a world of choicesI am kept asideand voicelessas a womenas a colorI am in the demographic as an "other"I am forever labeled to be discardedLike my mother and her mother
Horrible landlords many have them.
Remember the sour smell in your bathroom.
Mushrooms growing from the root of your bathroom floor.
The unknown black spots sprinked throughtout your tub.
Poetry and rhyme
are my greatest foes.
When given the time,
I’d rather write prose.
Nevertheless
I’d like to pass,
so, I guess
I’ll fret over this task.
Minutes speed by
That truly is the question, isn’t it?
Not just regarding the life or death bit;
It can be what you want to be doing,
Or not doing, like viewing, or wooing.
I once knew a girl
Who smiled like the sea
Warm and dynamic
Blushing to me
She had a brother
His name was Sonyatter
He held his darkness
On a platinum platter
And when the day ceased
I was suspicious at first.
Denying the imminent hurt
I didn’t want to believe it.
My mind wouldn’t conceive it
Maybe it was my lack of knowledge
Or the pain that came with knowing,
School year commences,
College funds sap hard-earned cash,
Parasitic task.
Winter break fun ends,
Disgruntled sighs in the air,
Emptied wallets cry.
Summer's sun shines bright,
Sitting on the bus,
flip flops and business attire.
7 am and hardly tired.
Yesterday the car was repo'd.
But we didn't try to fight
the way they do on tv.
Just grabbed license, registration,
Catch the clouds in your palms,
Molten wisps that speed like trains,
But tastes like violet and two-a-days.
Bathe in autumn, evening heavens at
Seven o’clock in the morning,
Cold that tugs at the down
7.6 millionThat’s how many people die each yearbecause of cancerbecause they fought and lost
Realizing this is it, the beginning of college in Puerto Rico.
Not having my mother on my side telling me to do this or that,
Kindness is feeling
Pain and not wanting someone to go through that
Kindness is seeing
Someone who's hurt and wanting to help
Kindness is showing
Love and kindness
Kindness is knowing
Whatever you want it to be
What ever can you say
You say it's all about seizing the day
The day which was tomorrow
Tomorrow which will be oppurtunity
Oppurtunity which will be another day
I try to move on the the future, and forget about my past, I don't' wanna waste my life away so fast, you say i have a heart so strong, so everything I have done wasn't all wrong? I have made my mistakes, So I try to forget about the pointless he
I once read a book that said "Life is difficult"
Those three words hit the most out of just one page I read
Those three words taught me a small life lesson for my future ahead
That life is difficult
I thought I saw a smile,
Though I know it can’t be true
Seeing you try so hard,
Part of me died with you
You lived for family, God, and country
The Red, White, and Blue
So class is now back in action,
The teacher creates groups to memorize new terms
Not knowing she's forcing the newest faction
Now sit and watch as they all squirm.
Students drone and do as their told,
I drag my feet through the halls.
Tired eyes, stress at home. Please do not fall.
Friends turned their backs.
Feeling all alone, all I needed was a good smack.
That person, who believes...believes in me.
Around here, we love ourselves first.
We cover our faces.
We talk about tomorrow like it belongs to us.
Around here, we ask what we should like.
Her Lord the man in her life ain't got time for her picking up a knife
For some punk ass nigga tryna lay for a night, then leave like vampire scared of sunlight.
You say, “Come to the green fields and blue skies,
they are oh so beautiful and oh so wide.”
But tell me my love…
are there showers in the countryside?
It is fitting that my grandfather should die tonight,
How convenient that this is the very moment I have nightmared about
Most people call it busy,
A constant movement,
A flutter in one direction
Get this:
You have no clue you're movin'
Caught in the crossroads
Two paths to choose
But some can't afford
This is MINE.
This is all I have left of before.
I could never be four
I had learned much too much of myself and my body
That with this I possess too much power than my head was prepared for
This is mine.
In 2013people are still slavesslaves to the patriarchy
black boys getting friskedinnocentjust on the streetand they call it"pre-emptive"
Because I've become a stranger to me
And I wonder what you see
When I'm not in your presence
I promise you, life is just a game of would you rather
But, there is something about those who can take your life away
They help and hinder us
Eyes
Full of Wonder and Death
Nose
Smells of aromas and avoid stenches
Ears
Hears of Wisdom and Folly
Mouth
History is the past reflecting to the present, past memories recorded.Sometimes it’s regarded as credible and other occasions, farfetched ideas made up distorting it; the Truth.
She was the ocean, and the waves and the boat.
Her eyes were fixated on the words that he wrote.
He took the salt from her sails and the wind from her lungs,
The fears now a sore thumb.
A princess kissed a frog and he became a prince. Have you heard the tale?
Were you there, did you hear his lungs begin to fail?
The saddest smile I must have never seen.
A note from a friend is wretched with seams.
I lean toward my pen,
Then sigh and fall back,
Landing on soft, solid ground that’s been trekked.
What is anguish?
How does it keep its hold on us? Oh, I don’t know, maybe it’s what keeps us in this world and yet far away.
I’d give away all wealth to be tortured with kindness,
My body a tomb for your style.
I’d steal away my health in the midst of your presence,
If it granted me a glimpse of your smile.
I just awoke from a dream.
You were there.
From a hilltop I rushed to meet you, and waited for you in the dirt,
A sweet surrender
A time for no time
When everything is at a standstill
And there's no choice but to pause in your motions
The only sound is the beating of our hearts
Well lady, I’ve told you a thousand times.
When the river runs cold you’ve gotta dry your eyes.
Pour into the well, cooped up in hell, that you dug with your own clogged pipes.
Oh well.
The rain has a lover.
Sick with passion and tired of words,
She gave him one last dance,
We’re dancing with words that are flammable.
We’re fighting off demons that know our names.
A flinch is all it takes
In your whispers I hear you scream.
On your cold hands I feel your heartbeat.
When you blink I see the color of your eyes,
The same jewels you stare at in the night skies.
If waves could talk, they’d tell stories of the souls lost in the current.
If hearts could speak, they’d count the beats that were skipped.
But if my eyes could no longer see, and my ears no longer heard,
So lay your fears right down.
My demon, my pet, my master.
Set those blades to the skin made of plaster.
I think I remember when she turned the safety off,
And looking back the scratching in my throat was more than a cough.
I think I remember the last verse the swan gave,
I think he asked if her heart has a grave.
“Come down!” said the willow,
“You’re burning my eyes!
And here I am, awake again.”
But no, I said, and it fell again.
Where did the time go. When I awoke I was where I needed to be but do not remember how I got there. I am no longer in control. My body is enduring pain, but my mind is elsewhere in perfect serenity.
The rose petals are my life, the thorns, let them be my sorrow, the leaves are my hope, because I await a better tomorrow, A love as strong as the rose, a beauty so rare, I am gentle, yet prickled, by a life so bittersweet and unfair, "Lord, Help
Another sad story about a high school love,I bet that’s what you’re all thinking of.But ask anyone who’s known this feeling before,And you’d understand why it’s necessary to be such a bore.
What have done again?
My goodness you did that wrong.
Stop stop stop do it this way.
I swear men your killing me.
Is like talking to the wall with you.
Can you ever get anything right?
What have done again?
My goodness you did that wrong.
Stop stop stop do it this way.
I swear men your killing me.
Is like talking to the wall with you.
Can you ever get anything right?
Words can be like birds on wings
Helping chase the stars
But words can also cut like knives
Leaving invisible scars
Words can take the darkest mood
And light it up so bright
I am...strong, loyal, patriotc. I care about my country and my fellow brothers at arms. Brotherhood is significant to me. Knowledge is imperative to me. Trustworthiness is considerable to me. Striving for exellence in all I do. I am myself...
Little Souls, blind death
Christmas was close
But Jesus planned it differently
Loud cry, melancholy spirit
It was a gloomy year
A gloomy december
You will always be remembered
I was born by myself
I do not need anyone else
Walk by myself
Trust nobody else
Go about it myself
Believe in myself
I even celebrate myself
Thanks for giving the time of day
The night of light
The food to eat to see my life
Everywhere that summer there angles
Don't live wishing for wings
When legs can take you just as far
Live life as a nomad
A sailboat without an anchor
Life is too short to allow for ordinarity
Remember opened eyes can be used to see
I had
One choice: two options.
Go to Pharmacy School
according to the parents' doctrines.
Or stay in the shop and expand my skill
On the camshafts and valves constantly drill.
i should write a story.
. . . what kind of story?
i dunno. like, a story.
why is it so important that i have a story?
i dunno . . . i like stories. i wanted to be an author when i was younger.
I find myself waiting… Not exactly sure for what though… I find myself waiting… Wait for that one guy to sweep me off my feet… Waiting for the world to stop dying… waiting for people to stop hating… waiting for people to stop commiting such hanous
To whomever this may concern,Can you guess how smart we are?Do you know what our rank is?Our GPA?Does this great nation care,For the well being of a humanOr the torment of our minds.
Our lives can be stupid
Our lives can be dull
Our lives can be happy
But we may never truly know
Only the cutters know why they cut.
Only the runners know where they run.
Only the dreamers know what they dream.
Only the gamers know how to game.
Someone once said
that we shouldn't wait
for the storm to pass,
but learn to
dance in the rain.
Well, I definitely can't dance,
my rhythm is
weak and my limbs-
clumsy. But I know I
You built yourself a tower, to hide yourself away
And you built yourself a dragon out of paper-mâché
All the knights run away in the opposite direction
I dropped you off at school just like any
other day. I never thought you’d be taken
away. Your smile still burns in my mind.
Nathan, you, must have been so scared that day.
Life is truly a story to be told;
The mix of magical moments,
Combined with the dark and twisting turns
You never know which moment in that you could breathe your last breath,
Or wake to something beautiful
Colors: I love them
Yet it's something I'm afraid to wear
Vibrant and bright - saturation so high it calls to the eye
Or dull and shadowed - strong and firm and filled with control
SplitShatteredOne of many facesOne maskWho knows the answersFrom offenseTo defensePoet at onceFighter the nextLover at daySinner by night
Two hearts, one soul.
Two minds, one thought.
Unbreakable ties that bind
Can never be broken.
Even through the deepest resentment,
The ties still emerge.
No, not even death will break them;
Peanut the puppy is pretty and playful
Pretty as a princess so happy and cheerful
She wears pink pinstriped pants and a parka of purple
And boots on her feet of pure periwinkle
Daddy, don't call Mommy that. Miss Karen told me that's a bad word.
Daddy, I've got all my things packed, and so does Mommy. Aren't you gonna pack too?
I wake up and realize I am in a twilight forest
I begin walking and the twilight of the forest seeps into my vision
Is that you I see, way in the distance?
My body starts shuddering at a glimpse of your face
You handed it to me
As the snow fell around us,
Clinging to the fur of my hood.
Hesitant, I reached out,
Taking the pink and silver tool.
Pulling the silver,
The blade opened up, smooth, so smooth,
The year turns the corner
A page flipped in a book
How many pages does it have?
No one quiet knows.
There are countless books
Old and new
Some are detailed description, definite endings
It’s up to you.
It’s up to you to choose, to decide.
What do you want?
What do you need?
It’s up to you and it always has been.
They come with thunder.
Footsteps shattering the
Skin of the world with each
Step.
They stand tall over their dominion.
Swathed in colors of their creed.
Red. White. And Blue.
I shaped a universe today,
just a little more than I had the day before.
I added rain on another planet,
far from the plot,
and though the souls on earth will never see the rain,
they will feel it.
Words of warning, rarely heeded,
As the cry for truth, and hope stays needed.
Times turn, from great to gray,
But only few stand to pray.
Lights of change, beacons of hope
I want my mind to turn off, but all it ever does is whir and hum to the beat of its circadian drum.
My poor mind is trying to tell me something, but I don’t want to listen.
Death, is a jealous fellow
he has no age, grace, nor liking
it considers not woe, nor sorrow
he displays a complete arbitrary arrival
he does not consider survival
and lingers with denial
It's only been a year,And I wasn't that farBut oh dear,I think I'm loosing youDon't let it be true
Come on,Be the one I know,Just drop the showThis can't be you,Please don't let it be true
Everyday I read though the thoughts of people I never knew
The thoughts going inside their minds I understand
The fear that threatens then eat them whole and the joys that make feel me warm
I think we need a hero,to save us now,can't even tell which way is up or down.We're stuck on this world that wears a frown.Oh no..See we've got anxiety and depression and all that shit,
I Am I am confused and naïve, not a diamond, but a pearl in the rough. I’m a pearl as white as it can be, but I do not shine for just everyone to see. (My Vietnamese name, Ngoc, means “hidden pearl.”) I wonder when it will be my turn.
Today my head feels like it's about to explode. Simultaneously. Maybe even explosively.
So many thoughts and feelings buzzing at once. Like hummingbirds in spring.
God, I don't know if you can see me
From all the way up there
Through all these floors
Or if you even care
But could you remind me that you exist?
Cause when I'm alone, it's easy to forget
Greatness is made of hard work and heart
And a drive to become the best
Refusing to accept "you can't" or "you won't"
And pushing ahead of the rest
After secondary school every boy must be a man; for college and life beyond, I must have a plan. First I shall plant myself, then branch and grow; spread my leaves all around me, a hue of green they will glow.
Confident women we are.
Sassy, But ALways classy.
Excellent in all our ways.
Standing bold in our beliefs.
Exquisite in physique.
Tenacious beyond ALL measures.
Nothing is there
Nothing to ponder
Nothing is there
But it's there, that counts;
Nothing prevails
But nothing itself
Nothing prevails
But something comes out;
My name.
Since the day I was born,
My destiny was owned by others.
They gave me that name,
Tied to their rotting family tree.
I hated to hear it,
For it only meant trouble.
If only you knew the way I feel inside.
If only you knew all the nights that I’ve cried.
I still remember the morning Liz cried and you held her,
you ignored my cries, yet comforted a total stranger…
The river embraced its one true form
To travel its depths through hail and storm.
Through the village and through the town
Through the kingdom that once was crowned.
It's all about you son, it's all about you,
To snag up some assests you can use for school,
You don't want to be homeless I can't afford what's due,
So show me what that 4 point 4 GPA can do,
My future
Is set by
Expectation
The push
Started with
Provocation
“What do you
Want to be?” they
Questioned
I chose an honest path
With a history of
Condemnation
