Avoidance

 

Maria-Theodora Andrikopoulou

Avoidance is my game.

It is not a result of shame or blame

Only my name,

That keeps me away

From you.

Avoidance is my dance.

So we can change our stance, twirl, and prance

And from the side sneak a breathtaking

Glance.

Avoidance is my treat.

Succulent and delicious and sweet

Perfection of perfection,

That is what makes me

Elite.

Avoidance is my pride.

My joy, my happiness, oh how many times have I lied?

There are rules, I must not tell,

Only abide.

Avoidance is my downfall.

I twist and turn and crawl

To your feet, I only stall

What is in store for me after all.

Avoidance.

And when it comes to an end,

The game, the dance, the hatred,

All feigned to hide truth,

I bet life on death and all sacred above,

That we two children,

Are undeniably,

In love.

Francesca Redlich

Life Doesn’t Frighten Me

 

Anna Kollor

 Shadows on the wall

Noises down the hall

Life doesn't frighten me at all

Bad dogs barking loud

Big ghosts in a cloud

Life doesn't frighten me at all

Mean old Mother Goose

Lions on the loose

They don't frighten me at all

Dragons breathing flame

On my counterpane

That doesn't frighten me at all.

I go boo

Make them shoo

I make fun

Way they run

I won't cry

So they fly

I just smile

They go wild

Life doesn't frighten me at all.

Tough guys fight

All alone at night

Life doesn't frighten me at all.

Panthers in the park

Strangers in the dark

No, they don't frighten me at all.

That new classroom where

Boys all pull my hair

(Kissy little girls

With their hair in curls)

They don't frighten me at all.

Don't show me frogs and snakes

And listen for my scream,

If I'm afraid at all

It's only in my dreams.

I've got a magic charm

That I keep up my sleeve

I can walk the ocean floor

And never have to breathe.

Life doesn't frighten me at all

Not at all

 Not at all.

Life doesn't frighten me at all.

Maya Angelou

Busy

  

Sara Kazemi

I am busy, so busy

I don’t have time to think

I am busy, so busy

So close to the brink 

I am busy, so busy

I can’t face the demons inside

I am busy, so busy

So I can allow them to hide

I am busy, so busy

Just keeping up with life

I am busy, so busy

Trying to keep out of strife

I am busy, so busy

That’s why I don’t call

I am busy, so busy

So close to a fall

I am busy, so busy

There is no time for sleep

I am busy, so busy

That’s why I say bleep

I am busy, so busy

Please be kind whilst I am away

I am busy, so busy

It’s me, not you, who cannot stay

I can’t be controlled

But I am in a rut

You can’t make suggestions

I will just say ‘but’

So please be kind

Let me speak my mind

And one day I will reveal

What I can no longer conceal

The loss, the pain, 

the grief from the past

The sadness, the despair, 

the disappointments that last

I need your love

Your listening ear

Your kindest words

Some jolly good cheer

I just need somewhere safe

To deal with this stuff

I don’t want to fear

An unfortunate rebuff

When I find it within

Or through people who tune in

I will start to heal

And begin to be real

I might slow down

Or completely stop

For a moment

A month or even longer

I hope it doesn’t take a major disaster

To get off this train that keeps going faster

For my heart truly knows that it is just an excuse

To avoid slowing down and making a truce

To once and for all

Forgive and grieve

Everything unresolved

That is hidden in me

Little by little

I can change my pace

And find new ways

To enjoy my own space

Then I won’t be so busy

And I will have time to think

To plan what to do

Without turning pink

Harmony will return

As I find a new rhythm

With stops and starts

On my very own mission

Then one day I will look back

On my busy phase

And wonder why

I wasted so many days

Chasing, pushing, fighting, sighing

Tired, lonely and nearly crying

It’s time to stop being so busy

And live a life that’s much more cruisy!

There is no need to be perfect

Or wait until when

Live life right now

The door is open…

Accept those tears

And face those fears

Take a quick look around

To find what you have already found

 Sue Ellson

The Busyness of Life

  

Sergey Kichigin

We are too busy in the moving bus that we forget our bus stop

We are too busy in the moving train that we forget our train station

We are too busy to find happiness that we leave it behind our shadows

We are too busy to find freedom that we find the freedom in boxes

We are too busy to fly that we leave our compass

We are too busy on the journey that we forget our destiny

This busyness has left us all in the ocean of complexities

All on a journey of no return

It only takes greater will to find the anchors of hope.

Athan Oparaji 

Leisure

 

 Laura Martinez

WHAT is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare?—

No time to stand beneath the boughs,

And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

W. H. Davies

Go to the Limits of Your Longing

 

Pranab Basak

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,

then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,

go to the limits of your longing.

Embody me.

Flare up like flame

and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.

Just keep going. No feeling is final.

Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.

You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

Rainer Maria Rilke

in, Book of Hours: Love Poems to God