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Young Writers Society


lost stones, old address books, and spreadsheet weeds



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Sun Apr 24, 2022 6:48 pm
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niteowl says...



13. the paradox of abundance

As an ordinary person today,
I live better than most kings have
throughout history.

After all, no amount
of medieval wealth could buy
air conditioning for a castle,
let alone a magical device
that could summon food within minutes
and spill your every thought to the world
with lightning speed.

Certainly my ancestors
were far more worried
about not having enough food
than the perils of having too much,
and my grandma's need to stash
plastic cups and ancient pantyhose
comes from a time
where you could get rid of nothing
because nothing was easily replaceable.

and yet here i am
trying to have less and eat less,
wondering when we fell into this paradox
and if, indeed, we will survive
its inevitable collapse

Spoiler! :
ugh this one is giving me serious "I'm 14 and this is deep" vibes but whatever it's written
"You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand." Leonardo Da Vinci

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Sun Apr 24, 2022 7:40 pm
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niteowl says...



14. foraging for forgiveness (cw:death)

Spoiler! :


one day, i will be lost for the last time
in the wilds of the in-between--
the tower of the life i built
but a pinprick in the distance,
but there is no tunnel yet,
let alone a light.
it's partly cloudy out and might be pleasant
if it weren't for the ever-swirling wind
ensuring you can't stay warm.

and the soundtrack here
is a cacophonous mixture
of laments from those who will mourn me
and old cassette tapes of weapon words
i could never forget (let alone forgive),
even as i tried so hard
to over-write them.

and every scar that had healed
becomes a wound re-opened
as what is left of my blood
becomes the ink of apologies
that were never spoken and can never be read.

i cannot eat here,
and yet i am picking berries
as offerings of forgiveness to the ghosts,
for whatever lies on the other side,
i suspect it's best not to walk in with enemies.

and then, for one glorious moment,
i am no longer heavy
with weight or with words,
my skin gleaming as if it had never been broken,
a perfect version of myself
unachievable on earth.

and now there is a tunnel, a light
and though my agnostic mind
has denied me the certainty of believers,
all is well, for what's done is done
and it was good.


Spoiler! :
okay I had no idea what to write today so I went clicking around the NaPo prompts page looking for something and i saw the F-title prompt and we kinda went from there.
"You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand." Leonardo Da Vinci

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Tue Apr 26, 2022 1:11 am
niteowl says...



today's entry is short and...not particularly sweet. Looks like we're back to cynicism again yay.

15. trust

trust anyone else, they'll let you fall
trust only yourself, you'll drop the ball
so can you trust anything, anything at all?

and yet our world is built on trust
that bridges won't bend and buildings are safe,
but slowly time turns steel to rust
and floors collapse what's left of your faith.
"You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand." Leonardo Da Vinci

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Tue Apr 26, 2022 1:34 am
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niteowl says...



16. on promises

on promises

sometimes, you see yourself
as you really are,
on the wrong side of a broken promise.

perhaps you meant it at the time,
but at the last minute you realize
you overestimated what you can deliver.

perhaps you were too afraid to say no
even if saying yes would break you,
but now everything is broken
and there's no one else to blame.

perhaps you didn't even realize your failure
until someone points out all the missing pieces
and you wonder how you didn't see it.

and now it's just you and the mirror
and for all the ways the mirror can hurt you
at least you can't hurt it back.
"You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand." Leonardo Da Vinci

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Thu Apr 28, 2022 3:20 am
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niteowl says...



17. on ice skating

When I was little,
I wanted to be an ice skater,
leaping across my mother's bedroom floor
as I watched Tara Lipinski in Nagano--
a young sprightly diamond,
she made it look easy, flawless, beautiful,

unlike me, swaddled in snowpants
and trying not to crash into small children
at the local ice rink. I was in lessons for years,
but I just couldn't make the waltz jump work.
I know I would have never made the Olympics,
but sometimes I still hate myself
for giving up so easily.

Spoiler! :
"You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand." Leonardo Da Vinci

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Thu Apr 28, 2022 3:38 am
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niteowl says...



18. on ice skating-part 2

As I grew older,
I watched my peers skate through life,
some nailing every jump
(college, wedding, house, children),
others fallen so many times,
they've forgotten what their legs look like unbruised
(flunked out, fired, divorced, just trying to survive).

I thought I was cursed to keep falling,
that there was no re-training these swollen legs,
that the only spot for me in the rink was the penalty box,
though I'm hardly the fighting type.

But one day, I landed.

It was shaky,
no perfect 10s, not a soul in the bleachers,
but I was upright, and that was something.

And it's easy to forget
that even your heroes fell once--
they've just gotten better at hiding the scars.

Spoiler! :
a sequel to all the thoughts you wish weren't real [/url]






[spoiler] This is a sequel to all the thoughts you wish weren't real
"You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand." Leonardo Da Vinci

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Sat Apr 30, 2022 9:35 pm
niteowl says...



19. the definition of insanity

Last day of NaPo--
can I write eleven more
poems in hours?

Or will this be the
end of yet another pledge
to redeem myself?
"You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand." Leonardo Da Vinci

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Sat Apr 30, 2022 10:01 pm
niteowl says...



20. on co-workers

Life tip:
don't be the sort of co-worker
where people throw a party
once you finally leave.

Spoiler! :
ok I'm not literally throwing a party, but like omg I'm so relieved. Like this isn't going to make my job easier overnight but it's going to be a massive improvement for sure.
"You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand." Leonardo Da Vinci

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Sat Apr 30, 2022 10:24 pm
niteowl says...



21. now what?

sometimes I feel
like the fish at the end of "Finding Nemo",
the ones in the dentist's office tank
who had dreamed of one day
finally reaching the ocean.

And now they've made it,
rolled their bags all the way
over the edge of the pier.

"now what?"

They had not realized
that the ocean is big and scary
and their bag is small and safe
and they're not sure if they could break through
and even if they could,
they're not sure what lies beneath
and they wonder if all of this was worth it.

But we cannot go back to safety,
and so we must find peace with freedom.
"You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand." Leonardo Da Vinci

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Sat Apr 30, 2022 10:38 pm
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niteowl says...



22. poems speak louder than pretty thoughts

it would be wise to stop now,
to stop spewing out words carelessly
so as to meet an arbitrary deadline.
one should, after all,
consider their words before speaking, yes?

but i have spent a lifetime considering
and much less time speaking
and even less time doing,
and look where it's gotten me.

So today, if I do nothing else,
I will write.
"You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand." Leonardo Da Vinci

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Sat Apr 30, 2022 10:43 pm
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niteowl says...



23. on memory

i tripped upon a memory in the dark
and i picked it up expecting jagged edges
but it's not as sharp as i remembered
and it feels prettier somehow
now that it's further away.

It looks quite nice upon the nightstand
but for now, I will drift back to sleep
and decide what to do with it in the morning.
"You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand." Leonardo Da Vinci

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Sat Apr 30, 2022 10:55 pm
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niteowl says...



24. on time blindness

i have a complex relationship with time.
i say i don't have nearly enough
but i have more than many
and yet i fight my way awake every morning
and fight myself to sleep every night.

and every time i had five more minutes
becomes another day i am ten minutes behind,
rushing my lunch into a grocery bag
and praying i remembered my power cord
and taylor swift becomes my lifeline
as I work my way into the fast kane
and pray ten miles over the limit
will get me there by eight
(or if it doesn't,
at least that no one would notice).
"You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand." Leonardo Da Vinci

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Sat Apr 30, 2022 11:19 pm
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niteowl says...



25. on endings (cw: suicide reference)

Spoiler! :

this isn't the first thing
I've wanted to end at twenty-five,
but somehow I've made it
six years past that imaginary expiration date
and if I've bothered to live this long,
maybe I need to to go get dressed
and actually live
instead of just writing
about wanting to live.

and I understand endings
even less than I understand beginnings.
I don't know what to say to make you miss me,
but I don't know if it matters,
for I will write again--
maybe tomorrow, maybe next year--
and all I can hope
is that I wrote something worth reading.


Spoiler! :
so like I actually do have a meetup to go to and I'm going to be late because see poem 24 but it'll be fine and maybe pushing for 30 at this late hour was a bad idea anyway.
"You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand." Leonardo Da Vinci

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Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
— Mark Twain