ToBeHeardScholarshipSlam
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My name is Jada
I am not your video slave
I am a young girl
Boys raped me on tape
Sadly the tape went viral
Now everyone knows
I chose to stand tall
I was a victim it’s true
I see something wrong with the fact that
From the time we are young we are instealed with our parents view toward the police
From the time we are young we know how the police view us
Oh tell me why
Such a tragedy has foretaken
just like that,
It has left the country shaken
I need an answer
Why did you shoot a poor boy?
He didn't carry a gun
He didn't run
We're often asked for our opinion or thought but yet we are failed to be seenIt's as if though were a secondary choice, to give satisfactory to those whom ask
My love
You have come
Without words
Tongue less in the night
You see me but I cant
I've been bestowed a couple of times
but never by a goddess
Your crippled hands stretch
Sometimes at night I wish I could turn down the volume on my mindI wonder who hears the whispers that
Some words will never be heard, but it doesn’t mean that they will go unsaid.
It is in the speaking of the word, not the hearing, that the word comes alive.
So please, oh please, I beg and pray,
Use affect as a verb today!
The effect that is caused by your
Mistakes is very, very poor.
we've all heard those words "speak what you believe, no matter what"
in the world of school, work, facebook, twitter
you can't always speak what you believe
most of these people will call you out and say
I feel as though life is racing past me and i am powerless to stop it. I'm trapped in a sea of emotions with no purpose. Who am i you ask? I am the average girl who almost had a future.
One September night you say to me
Something shocking that I couldn’t quite see.
“I know this is sudden and it seems kind of fast,
If the world is strange,
Then be stranger.
If the world is hard,
Be harder.
The crowds will jeer,
The eyes will linger.
You will hold out your hands to them,
And you will smile.
It hurt.The past hurt.The past did things to me that I may never fully understand.It left cuts on my arms,and burns on my legs;marks on my memory that blurred the lines between perception and reality.
If time could stop:……1,2……..How fast would it take for you to come to my side?…….3…..4……5-----------------------if time had a heart would it beep to its final breath?Am I willing to finally close the door?
I miss all the memories that never happened.
I miss all the memories that made me whole.
I miss the days we sat by the lake.
I miss the days we stayed out too late.
I miss you being my shoulder to cry on.
A man, deemed a demon for seeing beyond the fogBetrayed by the people and rules he swore to followPlagued by the harsh cruel world in which we liveFeeding us a truth too hard to swallow
As I look into mirror, I see a girl but not just any girl--
a mix girl.
The colors of black and white.
As I look into the mirror, I see the past of my peoples.
Life is one giant adventure and I am an avid adventurer.
I want to be heard by the cities that have been calling my name since I was born.
To a certain extent, I want to stay sheltered in my hometown forever.
Life is gift from God
But you have to earn that gift
You can’t just expect things to happen
Or else they never will
Life is about persistence
Hard work and dedication pays off
Last night I saw your face in my dream
Woke up thinking about what it could mean
Together at last / You and me
Too good to be true was what it seemed
What it felt was exactly that
We only got one time, our life is defined Behind eyes of the man whose never had blood on his hands. They teach us virtues in class, but tell us to stab each other in the back when the time comes and there's only one spot open.
From the age of zero, starting at birth, where have you been? Did I do something wrong? Do I deserve the Hell and confusion I've been put through? I longed for the love of those whose blood is running through my veins.
I sit, thinking quietly to myself
People mill about, chatting and laughing
No one approaches
No one even notices I'm here
Alone
In a room full of people
I plaster the same smile on every day,
Hiding the hurt and burying the truth.
I didn't expect anyone to listen,
But you did.
You heard my pains and reality,
And you still adored me through it.
Do you know the definition of distance?
When I can't turn around and see you
or walk down the street and be near you.
I go throuh everyday looking for something that isn't there but all I find is my shadow.
this self mutilation is getting out of hand
every night i break down i know i cant stand
to stay here much longer, im am beaten and damned
to rot away slowly with nothing in hand
Heavy hearted
I can barely breath
Some how it seems like you're choking me...
With lies and deceit
That you do
I hope and pray I do not lose
my life.....
Which you wanted to control
I wonder if I scream loud enough will anyone hear me?
How many poems do I have to write?
How many scholarships do I have to look up?
How many colleges do I have to search before anyone notices that I mean business?
So this is how it all begins,
with wondering limbs threatening to leave their skins
There's a systematic pattern in all our sins
see we all have these opinions but then what we know
that the world is flat and it revolves around us
Don't adjust...
Let me write to say what others can’t.
Let me write to make vowels into flowers,
To make consonants into power.
Let me write the words that others chant.
Let me write to ignite fire,
Step outside yourself for a moment, look at yourself in a different light. Not just any light, but with the Light of Christ.
My person. Several and one. I write to
Inspire. Create. Happiness.
Pieces of me spread to clouds
where I hope I won’t fall to soil.
My person keeps me in arms, holding me in safe warmth.
I'm amazed every day by the things you do....
When all goes wrong ..I lift my head and look to you
For all the things you've gotten me through
i knowest not what else to do?
Fear is a source of vengenance
Powering all to ingnite in its glory
We are weak and fall frail
We allow this to overcome our thoughts
Making us into something we never even imagined.
I am bittersweet,
Bittersweet and scared.
I am unable to let go
Of all my fears.
Interested in the journey,
But very wary of the road,
I'm worried by upcoming decisions
It doesnt matterThe words that leaveMy lipsOr how loud im screamingTo the heavensIt doesnt matterHow my Rosy red cheeksare tear stainedOr the sadness in my eyes
Teen
Who are we?
We the nameless, shameless
Youth of everlasting sameness?
So similar yet so unique,
Our secrets seemingly forever,
And promises we strive to keep.
Sometimes I imagine
That when you have died
Words dribble from your lips like vomit
Wade through falling time
Crawl stickily into the ears of children
and choke you back to life
Now I said,
"This is strength. This is how you plow through.
With a baby on your hip,
and a husband packing his bags.
Leaving forever.
Forgetting how much he loved you.
Leaving nothing behind,
I write for the lost
For the broken
For the 3 am cigarette smokers and Netflix Addicts
I write for those who tell themselves they can't
For those who convince themselves they are only worth their faults and cracks
I write to the Little Girl in the Future.
In case you have forgotten...
In case you have forgotten the beauty of the swirling passions of the primitive past
With a swift brush of the breeze, you are beautiful.
Soaking in your everlasting scent, I can see you.
The ability to taste your bountiful lips is euforic, in the sense of purity and love.
Anyone I have ever loved is a ghost I keep alive in my notebookBy feeding them the ink from my ball point pen,And let them sleep between the college ruled lines likeSome sort ofInhumane bunk bed.
I felt it crackIt cracked only halfway...I was still wholeThen I felt it crack some moreIn other places it fell apart...But the middle still tore
What makes me tick you say?
Its the help I say.
Financial help is what I crave
Student loans are what I grave.
1000 dollars is a lot you see.
it can help me pay off college for at least my bachelor's degree.
I felt it when his eyes first locked on my own.
Electricity, surging like volts, straight to the bone.
The man who you are suppose to be able to trust and love turns out to be the one you have to look out for the most.
The man who was suppose to love you and never hurt you turns out to be the one who can't be trusted.
today's your birthday and Fathers Day
with everything that's happened i know you'd be speechless
it's hard to think of what to say
I feel like since you've been gone our family has been a mess
I think about how we used to be
Then I get stuck in my misery
I still remember the way you used to look at me
& how all those feelings came free
But now things will never be the same
Let my love fall down
In your heart
Let it sway in the wind
And dance within
I don't want it to hurt anymore
Let alone myself
Don't let it burn
I've taken the bullet for you
All I ask
I Bet you don't know how some of us youths are trying
Consistently attempting to filter and rebirth the "already drugged" mind
whose views are confined to material wealth, sex and guns
The blood stains
of true love
promises the skin
that one day
they will dominate
themselves once more.
Flawless,
yet so perfect
that it doesn't matter
if your eyes turn
It is confusing you see
This path with which we seek
No map and no roads
Just a forest of untolds
They say it will be easy
They say it will be fun
And yet here I sit as they stand
The winter soldier comes home to find his gentle flower desecrated, tarnished from all purity. The flower was an elegant beauty that glisten in the harsh sun's smoldering light, that coddled his intentions and insecurities.
Not much with words
but I can give it a try
I want to express my love
but words go far and by
We are on the same page
on the same line looking at the same word
What is it that you want?
What is it that you need?
My only wish is to make you happy
Can’t you see?
It troubles me when we fight
I ache when I see you scream
And it kills me to watch you leave
Appearances really are misleading.
I do not look dark, yet I am not light.
My face has the complexion of many hardships.
When you see me, your eyes are blinded,
not by light, nor the dark,
Dear me,
What do you see
When you look into the mirror
Do you see the beauty hidden behind the mask?
Today we talked.
Not about what had happened.
We talked about random things.
We laughed.
I smiled.
I never thought i would be able to laugh and smile around you again.
But i did.
I want my time back
Every minute wasted
Every feeling that I invested
For a love that's unrequited
I want my peace of mind
Sleepless night working creating scenarios
I don't ask for a lot
But I ask for a lot
And what I'm asking is for me to be what you need
Someone you don't give up on
Please
Though i am selfish , and Possessive
The watermelon is sticky between my fingersInfinite hues spread across the mountainWhere i lay my head on your chestWe press our bodies togetherTight.
All I can hear is silence
and my feeble heart with its feeble beat,
And a muffled sort of laughter
as you parade around the street
With your sparkling eyes
and love overflowed-
I'll work hard, Mom
to buy you a house
a house you would always admire
when flipping through house catalogs
but could never afford
I'll work hard, Dad
to fill you with peace
Social destruction
from world corruption
I write to uplift the depressed
The world says,
“No space
for every race”
but I write to free the oppressed
I'm more than my GPA, awards, achievements, and brain,
I'm more than your malevolent words that slips through my finger nail,
I'm more than your sat scores and application requirements,
I guess there was something about her
Something she posses that I didn't have
Or maybe it was your statements that I just couldn't grasp
I know I wasn't the problem so why leave me blind
Dear future lover,
Sorry,
For I've never loved a single bone.
I've never kissed the eyelids of any sad soul.
I've never held anyone at night to tell them
how I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
I am writing this to you.
My love, my ecstacy, the one and only I come to.
You know who you are,
I wish that I could
feel you like the steeping of
my tea leaves; diffuse
you into my veins. Sadly,
I’m not worth your precious time.
You are quixotic.
Let me tell you what bullying is
Bullying is mean words that get under your skin
And the only way to get them out is
By tearing open your arms and legs and extracting them
You know when you meet that someone
That someone that makes your heart skip a beat every time you see them.
No matter how long you've known them or have been around them they still make you nervous.
She wears a face full of makeup to match her perfectly styled hair.
This woman is beautiful, although she is not aware.
To write a poem helps me say things I can't normally say,
I don't hope for one to hear it
But I write because I am in disarray
My mind is the reason for this disarray I admit
I write to take out feelings,
Does anyone hear me?
Can you hear my voice?
The last 6 years I have been trying to make some noise.
There is a generation underneath us with young ones rising up.
Every child reaches the age
When their thoughts need no consent.
When hearts twist and writhe,
Simple encounters evoke torment.
Days pass as moments,
Slipping through the tightest of grips;
"Listen"
My mom is going back and forth
Between my dad and a man
Always working hard, fussing, and complaining
But I make her happy when I can
My dad has gone back to school
Coming into a placewhere we live,real world,reality,life. where we have happiness,sadnessand everything in betweenwho ever knew that this thing called life
A short Poem by Stephen Strausbaugh
Lie, Steal, Blame, Kill
You look down at us atop of your hill
Writing bills, but seeking thrills
Only you have a license to kill
Only you have a license to kill
While money, fame, and power reign in today's society
I will never need it,
Because love is the essence of true life.
While society values wealth, popularity, and influence,
Am I still a child?Still having to ask for permission when no one is aroundAnd being told "You're grown", but always being shut down?
This one is true; but I’m sure you’ve heard it before.
The story goes that I was walking in the hallway of my school,
and as I passed through the galleria, I saw a good-sized boy lying on the ground.
You know that it’s stupid if you over-analyze it.
You know that it’s stupid if it is extraneous.
For this reason, what happened four months ago is stupid.
I remember how late it was, almost dark for that matter
The day started normally, Like it always does,
And nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Not until 3rd period when I decided to make my best (or so I thought) better
I remember the days of April, and the sadness that never came with them.
I don’t remember, however-and somewhat ironically for that matter-,
the way that you smiled at me, even as I pushed you across the floor
Every day we all pile in that room with the tile floor,
Room 302 I think it is,
And we sit in a circle and talk about our problems.
We talk about our feelings, we talk about love,
I am lost in this lonely world
With my troubled past
And I can't escape from these memories
That will forever last
They ask me why I write the words that I do,
What are my intentions?
To be heard
In the seemingly inescapable noise of societies chaos and noise pollution,
I wrote a poem for my mom but she didn't read it.
I receited it to my father but he couldn't hear it because he was talking louder.
Then I showed it so my sister whose nose was so high in the air she couldn't see it.
Why is it her fault?
What did she do?
He didn't hear her words,
Didn't accept her saying no.
Why is she to blame?
Curled up on the bathroom floor,
No hope,
My child’s name is not Disability
He is perfect in my eyes
Able to do anything
Limits beyond the skies
I am open to the world
a smell of fresh cut summer grass
circulating the air like silk
Once in a while I'll admit
The bathroom is the perfect place for tears
The darkest shadows are filled with light
The deepest holes are inches deep
The thickest blaknet won't cover
I've dreams of where nothing but joy, love, and knowledge exist.
Followed by a sudden wake and a burst of reality.
The crop that you grow is the one that you step on.
You may not see it, may not acknowledge what you do.
You're so selfish in the way you love me
You get angry when I cry
You put me in a position to have to calm you down
You tell me I'm not the only one, when all I want is for you to
Shut up.
Hug me.
Across the ocean I see the light,
Beneath the moon I stand.
Beyond the shore, searching, wondering about the task at hand.
Off along the horizon it all seems so clear.
Brown like a beautiful book of stories. Everything you told me. In this life I thought I would believe. A romance, a sparkle and a diamond ring. For that moment we were together. I thought that you would be.
Heart broken by many
Body used by all them
All that I can remember is that they loved me for my face and body
They didn't care for who I was but only just as a prize
You’re beautiful…for a black girl
You’re the hottest black girl I’ve ever seem
You’re so gorgeous and dark
You are independent black women
You have beautiful black skin
I write to no direct audience.These words are not racist.These words do not discriminate, or mistreat.
You can’t expect me to be fine with everything that’s happened.
My heart is beating ten times faster than it should.
It would be much easier if we just stabbed one another.
Instead of breaking our resolve
A tiny cell has formed at the intersection of two sets of genes
Accumulated to form a new being with a tiny heart beat at just five weeks
White teeth, long hair, pretty smile, perfect skin
Yet no one knows what lies within.
The girl with a pretty face
Longs for the day when things will fall into place.
It's time to let go and let God, literally
you're blind without faith
cause it's the source in which you see,
it leads your intuition and utilizes ambition,
faith creates an image so we can imitate Jesus,
My heart grows weak from the pain and the suffering of this cold hearted world i sit back and wonder why
The Cycle
Pain keeps us afloat.
Pain keeps us sane.
It allows us to feel something.
Without pain, there is no love.
Without love, there is no sacrifice.
Since the years have passed
and the past has blurred
she burns less, while the blunt
realization that people don't
always change edges ever closer
and with moments draws
nearer. She refuses to
Connections I make
The faces I take
for granted
Moving with purpose
Showing only surface
gestures
Of good will
I hope to fill
a void
Every step brings me further
You are beautiful; no matter what they say.
‘Cause words can’t bring you down...
But they can.
And they have.
See, we’ve got these things in our lives that we call a mirror.
My knight in shiny armor
Is but a mere common man
Who I learned to intensely adore
By taking me to worlds no one else can
He entered my Spanish world
Opened up a new book of knowledge
Human; my thoughts are lost in a void of too many voices
My soul’s deepest cry is clouded by a child’s tantrum
I am a mute in a world built upon thunderous noises
As a human, I’m slowly dispelling into oblivion
I look outside my window I see a man
This man is your average man, yet he is not
this man is holding hands with another man
He is kissing and hugging this man
I see people, people staring and laughing.
I've been crying for so longand writing so many songsbut no one gets itI've been feeling so much painso I put it in a paintingbut no one gets it
Death
We all die somehow
and take our last breath
but its not something we need to be afraid of right now
Death
Its the only promise in life given
Some by addiction to meth
When my dad left when I was a child
and the thought occurred to me that while
I grew up, he wouldn’t see me smile,
the depression started.
Lord, help me.
As I turned older, it only got worse
There once was a girl; sad and lonely
her dog had always been her one and only.
Never being noticed by any boy,
the girl cried and not with joy.
This had gone on for three years,
And then magically, I was staring in the face of my 14 year old self.A face filled with joy and passion and promises of love.And a handful of butterfly's for the hopeful ones.
He gets a call from the hospital saying you got hurt. He rushes right over to be by your side, and while you're crying not knowing what to do and you're terrified to go into surgery.
I have given you everything.
Now I feel as if everything that I have given you
Is being thrown away.
I wanted all your jagged edges
The pieces left splintered by your past
I approached you with no gloves
Knowing the consequences
With no regard for myself
Because wounds from the past
Every word I speak to him drops before it reaches his ears
It falls heavy onto the floor smashing into a million pieces
as if the words were as fragile as glass. When they splinter and fall
Lost in a sea of thought and confusion. I search for the truth and for my own voice and path in it all. I must fight and shine to be heard.
In the Alabama Rain I feel so all alone.
In the Alabama Rain I feel it in my soul.
But I know that I can't go home.
And I know I will breathe again.
You make me cry.
You make me lie.
I love you.
How could this happen?
I did everything right
How could this happen?
I did what I was supposed to
How could this happen?
I followed procedure
How could this happen?
I followed directions
Live. Laugh. Love.
Everyone has words, morals, or some kind of code they live their life by.
Me? I only have 3.
I know this is not the life you wanted for me
I still hope you're proud of me
I've tried my best
Now I'm finally focused on myself
I've always wanted to be the girl
My parent's would be proud of
I always wanted to bethat girl;too brilliant to resisttoo pretty to dis,that girl that stops trafficwalking down the street.That's the pretty girl, I wanted to be
I yearn for the eyes of the world to open,
no longer squinting against the wind so cold
that it would seem to strip the skin from my fingers.
To throw off the covers, no longer needed
Life is a gift,
Or so they say.
Babies are born
And everyone is happy.
But why are they happy
When life is unfair?
Why do we wish this unfair life
Unto innocent babes.
They all wonder why I'm bitter,
When some adults even need a sitter.
I always try to mask the pain,
My attempts for happiness...all in vain.
For no rhyme or reason, I am here on Earth.
I'm throwing punches and giving kicks,
performing all kinds of crazy tricks,
I'm dodging bullets, dodging blades,
In the mirror is not your reflection,
But instead the trader within.
She looks at you in disgust,
Knowing that she’ll win.
Poking at your curves,
Pinching at your skin.
I'm not afraid to admit
I know nothing at all
Even though these memories
Just left broken scars
I gave you a second chance
And you just through it away
I gave you everything you wanted
I never felt so lost like I do now
One moment I am fine
The next thing you know
I'm uncontrollably upset
Here I am, laying in the grass
Watching the cloudless sky above
