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Art Is Passion Gallery


by Suzette Franck
Written in the style of Chicago by Carl Sandburg

Rider of the Waves,
Artist, Painter of Canvases,
Player with Yarn at the Art is Passion Gallery;
Creativity, Good Vibes, Oasis
They tell me you are peaceful and I believe them, for I have seen the sun dripping down below the plaza with silhouetted boats resting in the harbor.
And they tell me you are vital and I answer: Yes, it is true, I have heard the seals barking out as we eavesdrop on their musical chit-chats.
And they tell me you are healing and my reply is yes, through the moist sunny air I have felt the bad energy leave,
And having answered so, I turn once more to those who may not visit the gallery, and I give them back a wink and say to them:
Come and show me another gallery with such optimism and beauty so situated along the waters that run up to kiss the edge of the sand,
With so many familiar as well as new faces, all looking for a diversion to the harsh reality of today's chaotic world amongst the inspirational walls
Constant as the sun shining down and casting its light on everything it touches, Awe inspiring as the colorful shapes held silent and still within each frame.
Gluing,
Painting,
Glittering,
Sharing,
Building, Crafting, Perfecting,
Drinking wine and White Claw, glitter and glue on their hands, laughing with a sparkle in their eye,
Under the cheers and whoots from excited humans having a good time and encouraging each other
Sharing the companionship of lovely gentle souls gathered together to explore their creativity
Getting out about Ventura and enjoying fellow humans and learning new techniques and self-expressions....
Beaming!
Beaming with pride over the crafts they've made, poetry they've heard, and prizes they've won at Bingo,
Creative, good vibes, oasis. Rider of Waves, Crafter, Painter of Canvases, Player with Yarn at the Art is Passion Gallery!

Brand New Day

by Suzette Franck

I wanted to be cool,
Cooler then I was in school
But I could not find my own inspiration
Instead I had night sweats and perspiration.
I'm stuck in my head,
Will I soon be dead?
I have all of these aches and pains,
I can’t remember where I left my brains.
My thumb is stiff when I crochet.
My hair is thinning and flyaway.
My skin is old and wrinkled...
But a spark in my eye still twinkled!
I’m getting tired, is it that time of day?
Focus now, and don't you dare stray.
The days seems shorter as time goes by
yarn, bongos, poetry, hula are things to try
There is so much I want to do
Painting rocks with colors of every hue
But I lived in the time before the Internet
Days at the library I will never forget
When old phones had cords and dials
I walked and rode bikes over miles and miles
I was the TV remote for my Dad
There was no YouTube, it was pretty bad;
With only four lousy channels.
Our living room had ugly wood panels.
There was one TV, not two or three.
It was a simpler time, can’t you see?
Video games hadn’t been invented.
Cartoons were racist and demented.
We played outside but stayed away from the street.
Slip n slide and water weenies were always a treat.
There was no COVID, masks, or global fear.
As I gaze pondering at myself in a mirror
What will the next chapter bring?
Que sera sera, but curiosity is king
I have no kids and my mom is dead
Roses on her gravestone are deep and red
I miss her everyday
My hair… like hers, now turned gray
One day we’ll be reunited
In heaven we’ll all be delighted
But until then,
It will be my trend
Trying different things
with yarn and strings
And learning many skills
Don’t worry about me, I’ll take my pills
And hold on to life and all its joys
I like the silence and I like the noise
The good and the bad, everything I’ve ever had
It’s all precious to me
So much to know and learn,
As vast as the ocean and all its churns
The Universe has been good to me
And because of this my mind is free
Everything has value and I love it that way
As I patiently wait for the Brand New Day.

Never Beaten

by Sissy G

I just don't want to argue anymore
I've had a moment of clarity
Is this what my life has come to?
Silence for solidarity?
You look at me with loving eyes
But incomplete sincerity
You see me as your helping cause,
You see me as your charity.
But don't blame yourself
Let no hurt come from within
I chose to let you pity me
And, with a blind eye, let you in.
With every painstaking word you throw at me
I choose to stand in sin.
Pride allows me to become your target
I choose to let you win!
I know what heartache lies ahead
I know just what you'll say
And yet I stand with my head held high
Never looking away.

My mind is screaming at me,
"Say something back!"
It would be easy to give in
Cause patience is what I lack.
But I continue to stand firm
Keeping my mind on track.
It will soon be over
And all will fade to black.
When I hear him speak the words
"I love you"
I know it's finally done,
I know the worst is through.
We hug, ... We kiss
Just like we always do.
Another crisis averted
We carry on anew.
If only there were words
To describe the pain inside.
Carrying this anguish,
And no one to confide.

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Words Escape Me

by Gabe Criado

Sometimes words escape me
How do I explain how much I care?
How much I need you
How right you are?

I never thought I needed to say more
Those precious three words
What more proof do you want?

I touch you with all my heart
I speak into your eyes
Obviously you are numb to these

Can't you see my soul yearns for you?
My heart beats for you

You say you're confused
Why would I care?
How could I not?

All I can be is myself
I'm showing you the only way I know
If that's not good enough for you then...

It's no use
I'm no good.....

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The Ideal

by Pauline Jane Castillo

Why I am so choosy
Why don't I just take it easy?
Why don't I want the right one?
Yet, I can't see the ideal man.

All I want is to have a partner
A friend or can it be a lover
A companion with me forever
And to hurt me is never.

To love with all my heart and soul
Is definitely his only goal
I want him to be kind yet gorgeous
But his habit will never be hideous.

My knight in shining armor
A man with a rare glamour
His pride never be obnoxious
And for being simple is famous.

A man perfectly handsome
Tall, powerful and wholesome
Never been conceited
And yet everybody's interested.

He's never been ashamed to cry
But to be caring always try
He'll do all the impossible
To show how he's lovable.

He had a strong personality
And a clearer identity
Easily to accept his mistake
'Cause it is for his own sake.

All I want is a man
Yes, a man, a grateful one
A man who's almost perfect
No one will try to reject.

He is kind and loyal
Well, for me, he is the ideal
If my man is surely this extreme
Sad?! 'Cause he's just in my dream.

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The Meadow

by Lindsey Ramos

It is a white afternoon.
The white of indifference, of parts
unremembered in dreams. White the sky,
the sun blares white on spider webs
threatening entanglement.

You read to me from a white page.
“Any man who takes refuge from behind the
excuse of his passions
is not an honest man.”
You drop your book, throw back your head.
and turn your eyes towards me.

I focus on scattered
dandelions. The white day
filters through the yellow weeds.
A nice picture, I decide. Yellow
to relieve the whiteness.

Walking home,
I kick off the white puffs
of dandelions already gone to seed.
Hiding behind my passions, I decide,
Is only a white lie.

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Ode on the Death of a Daughter

by Alan Charles Bennett

She was all alone
In that seedy hotel room,
When death came
And slept with her
Like an unrestrained shadow,
Came not as a stranger,
But as a familiar lover,
She welcomed with abandon,
And breathed her last --
In his amatory clasp.

Prescription meds whelmed
Her sleeping body
The Coroner’s Report
Was clear to see:
“OVERMEDICATED”
When she ceased to be.
No regal goodbye
Nor a memorable sigh,
A cash payment turned
Her ashes into a simple urn.

But my child never died,
She kept the golden glow
Of a better life inside;
Her perilous fight,
Of wounds and scars
Frightened kindred foe
And friend alike;
Yes, gone from sight
But her spiritual stance
Continues to dance.

Was I alone to see
My child’s struggle
To be set free
From the bonds
Of her adult life,
The crippling pain
Of a junkie’s strife
That slashed and tore
At her flesh and soul,
But from an eternal mist
She raised a defiant fist.

Yes, the dreaded call
Came in the afternoon
Ambulance and police
A siren at peace
Would soon arrive
But nothing in words
Could put aside
Her last phone call,
Echoed in my ear:
“I Love you, Dad…”

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O Weep Not For Me

by Alan Charles Bennett

O Weep not for me
When flesh is gone
Look to the stars
Among galaxies unfound
There I will be.

O Weep not for me
A box of bones
An empty shell
Left far behind
Above a tolling bell

O weep not for me
From a pulpit's rhyme
In toast or boast
Or even in jest
Just gone from our time.

O weep not for me
My spirit is gladsome
To wander away
What creations will come
Along my starry way.

O weep not for me
My life of dreams
Will keep me warm
On comet streams
Above a solar storm.

O weep not for me
Shed not your tears
Instead find cheer
No one is ever lost
In my expanding sphere.

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I Am Called Aged.

by Alan Charles Bennett

I am called aged
Life has closed about me
I am wrapped in my own pale shroud
The illuminated shadow of my body appears
My life mask has been laid upon my face
I am called aged
I am not heard - hardly ever seen
The TV left on in the lounge is louder
I lurk and shuttle about the empty hall
No brisk or boldly walk-about
No need for medication - I am always medicated
Eyes are for crying, mine only itch
I am alone, often very alone.
I am called aged
I am called aged.

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Sophia

by Brenda Hall

I believe you hide behind your tough front
When you won't hug me
Or when you tell me you hate me
 
I believe that you are a victim of your circumstances
All those layers of chaos
Lies
And deceit
I know your crying out for help
 
Each time you see me or text me a cruel message
I know you know it's wrong to behave that way to me
I know you want to love me
Love Daddy
Love us equally
 
This is my hope for you
That through therapy
And time away from Daddy
That you will listen to your heart instead of that voice inside your head
And you'll learn to love me
 
Love,
Mom

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Weighted

by Nicole Woodson

All the beauty of this world.
   The mundane and the decrepit,
The diseased and the unfortunate.
   All the evil in this world.
The hypocrites and the greedy,
   The hateful and spiteful
and the indifferent.
   All the sadness in the world.
The dead, and lost and the bereaved.
   All this in the world,
and I exist.
   My drunken passion.
My fearful pains.
   My relentless thought and worry.
My uncontrollable urge to destroy and mutilate.
   A fiery lust for all which is dark and
foreboding.
   I suffer beneath a shroud of an unatainable life force.
All the beauty,
all the evil
all the sadness,
and I merely exist.

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Train 266 Limited

by Nicole Woodson

The foreboding movement through the litter speckled overgrown blur of dimming sunlight.
Droplet trails forming on the ever darkening glass, that is slowly revealing a pale face.
A face that seems un-recognizable.
Torn, ravaged, and worried.
The color is melting away as fast as the sinking daylight.
The ghostly apparition in the glass becomes more and more defined...
The man made propelling hunk of steel carries both I and the figure in the glass,
hurling us through the world un-aware of the next step.
I envy the creature in the glass...
she will remain on the forward bound motion, as for myself...
I will be stepping off into uncertainty.

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Trust

by Brittany Garity

Why is trusting so hard for me
Why must I always think twice?
I think you know the answers to these
my problems that I keep
Buried inside so far out of reach
I think you know you've done this to me
I gave you my heart along with my trust
And you threw them aside
Again and again
No longer I'll love you is what I said
When I tossed you aside
But still you stay in my head
In my dreams night and day why do I do this why must you stay
I wish you would leave my mind for good
I wish my love for you would turn cold as it should
It's been so long since you have been around
But I hear your voice in every sound
Sometimes I catch myself looking for you
And this I wish I could undo
For it makes me feel untrue
Untrue to the one that love's me now
To the one I've givin a vow
To love and honor only him
But still my mind cheats from within
How do I stop this
I do not know
I wish I could just let you go...

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Gonna Be His Moon

by j r hammond © 07/07

She knew she wasn’t ever gonna be his moon.
‘cause the things he did to her were dumber than a loon.
He’d promise her the worl’,
then she’d find him
chattin’ up some other grrl
He’d tell her he’d be goin’ down...town
and she’d see him in the mall.
(You could tell she wasn’t that enthrall’.)
And she’d hear he’d been seen
rubbing faces with some...ditzy human bein’,
blond...
While Jojo languored cooked up
instead of hooked up
somewhere on the softer side of
On...
You here, me...it’s the hold-on grrrl,
you, me, the good man at your side.
These bright wondrous days are for when we love.
Life--y’all--boils down to a few salient days:
the ones when we are love.
You who make me laugh.
You here, me.
The rest be chaff.
Yesterday afternoon
I was sitting/in my car/in the safeway/Sparkling lot
Listening to the snooze upon the radio.
My car’s burnin’ oil just like the nation
(tryin’ to stay ahead of China and Big Oil’s constipation.)
And I’m Thinking,
angry. romantic, and dangerously lost ! ,
of Starting up
Some sort of "Don’t Tread On Me"
to make the Boss man even more angry.
Like me:
romantic, and dangerously lost.
He be some kinda foo’! Man!
He turn my brown ass blue.
now:
She knew she wasn’t ever gonna be his moon.
Because the things he did to her were dumber than a loon.
He promise her the whirl,
then she find him in the mall
chattin’ up some other grrrl.
He tell her he be goin’ down...town
and how he got aroun’.
She hear he been seen
rubbing faces
with some ditzy free for all.
Latina.
While Jojo languored all cooked up
curled
and broke
like some defunct...
Concertina.
It was a day for the audacity of hopes
And I had the paper open to the Sun.
Cuppa coffee on the dash–this was some kinda fun.
I was counting the dead as best I could,
Until the numbers turned to oatmeal
In my head. Or vice versa.
I dug into the billions wasted, stolen, lost...out upon the sea...under desert rocks...
...in bad peep-hole’s pockettes.
Burnt. Manured somewhere. Or forgotten like squirrels lose nuts.
I got all confused.
That led me to a-dreamin’ ‘bout the more manageable simple number
of wars per century, and if ours was not the worst of all the bad...
viewed
from this point of human evo- or devo- or reso-solution.
And a sun-dried killing field where there was only one army not at home
whose jones was blowing
up no one
homes
so that was not a war...exactly.
When my eye caught something all weird and fluttery ‘cross the street
high up on the tarry old telephone pole–slash–dead tree
W’all be darned if they wasn’t a couple a coupling
California Blue Jays up there high above ‘t all,
Kali-forni-cating’ they (dumb little) brains out.
"Omigod! Omigod!" she seemed to squawk
squashed down upon their/her polestand. "Omigawd!"
As her old man went, "Uhnt. Uhnt-uhnt!"
And–finally, "Uhnt...!"
Just like any man.
One more Spring.
Oh. Joy,
High hopes.
You here, me...it’s the hold-on, grrrl,
you, me, the good man at your side.
This bright or gray, illuminated day, when we love.
Life boils down to a few salient witnessings:
the ones when we are love.
You here, me.
The rest be chaff.
High hopes.

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-Love-

by Jonathan Siegel

too tiny a word
to express what i feel
it should, in size, exceed all words
the others should cower in its presence
'never was there life in me
until the day she danced into my eyes
in her arms, lie worlds unfathomable
her smile has effect beyond comprehension
her touch releases unearthly passion'
and it's to her i go
like a fool
armed with nothing
but that small word
-love-

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Attic Rats

by Rozene Logue

I would like to hide my venting book
safe and secure in some small nook,
locked away from prying eyes,
none to read in found surprise.
I need to hide my venting book
where kids and kin can't sneak a look,
buried deep in some small trunk
to mold away above the flurry
of mayhem life and and descendant's scurry.
I want to hide my deepest thoughts
of how I'd like to kick some ass
and stomp the pissants from my past.
I want to tell my deepest thoughts
of how I'd like to cut his throat
and tell the world of what I wrote.

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Love Hurts

by Nathan

When you're finally in love with someone and know you're a person that doesn't let your guard down, but because you're to busy with her, you forget about the world.

Suddenly you never see her again, until one day she comes back and tells you "I can't really see you anymore because something happened, but I still love you."

You still love her too, your heart starts to feel depressed and is straining for someone, but you MUST remain faithful. For that comes a price. As you start feeling a hole in your heart that grows, and desire for that special someone.

So you listen to other things like songs, because they fill that hole, but it never makes it fully whole as you still want for her. She comes back no more than seven minutes and she has to go. Your heart just started filling that hole up, until she had to go, then it sank back down.

Now your heart feels heavy like the hole is filling up with darkness and you start to feel old and lonely.

You know that you could leave her and just be with someone else. She'll never know, but then she could be the one. The one you've been waiting for. You're the only one that must live with the decision you made.

I would want to wait for that person, and I will.

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So Called

by Judy Liza Velasco

You called me your best friend,
yet left me to cry all alone,
now im dying and so is ur soul.
you became a slut and all you do is fuck,
hes not even your boyfriend,
just another fatass with some luck,
it hurts to know what u became,
another dumbass hoe with no fucken brain,
so keep sucking those dicks, its all u have left,
cuz now i moved on and found a new best friend.

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Truth

by Catrina Rose Molina

Must be crazy in your world blonde hair blue eyes crazy girl
Just like me you can see how crazy life remains to be
They look in our eyes but can they see the true beauty in you and me
Do they understand why our hearts weep can't they see it's hard to sleep
No one there while you weep
Will they understand our pain or will they still remain cold and vain
Memories of happy times thought in my mind of sad sorrow rhymes
Is there someone there to love and trust or will it always turn to lust
Another hit of that joint another drink of that beer
Takes away all the fears.

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Feelings

by Aimee Michael

I'm Jealous
Jealous of seeing my friends have such a wonderful life while I think mine is totally useless. Jealous of seeing my friends live life to the fullest when I just watch and wait. Jealous to see them pretend that they hate themselves when I really do sometimes. Jealous to have nothing to look forward for in life but they do. Jealous that tomorrow morning they'll wake up and live their life all over again and I won't.

I'm Curious
Curious to see what my friends are gossiping about but get even more curious when they don't tell me. Curious to see what's going to happen next in life. Curious to find out how much peoples lives have changed through out the years. Curious to see how much I'll change in the future. Curious to see if there is a future for me.

I'm Scared
Scared to see what's becoming of life. Scared of what people say about the future. Scared to see if what they say will come true. Scared that the world will end sooner or later. Scared that I will die sooner or later.