She’s stronger than stone,
She’s softer than cotton.

I’ve seen her before,
Young and graceful as a dove.
I’ve seen her put a knife under the bed to keep away the nightmares.
I’ve seen her making frilly frocks for me and I’ve seen her dress up like a queen herself.

I’ve seen her before
On a winter morning, sitting in the balcony in one of those folding chairs; A cup of tea in front of her off which the steam rose and twirled around her so magically, keeping her warm.

She was reading the newspaper… the words tumbling off it and into the palm of her hand… I remember she had poured some into my hands too.
I had gone into my room and come back with my own little red folding chair, table and steaming cup of milk and sat down just like her.
My magical mother turned towards me to find herself looking into a mirror. I wanted to be just like her.

I remember a huge patch of colorful paint on the wall just outside my room that stood out to me, so beautifully.
I never understood why I was scolded for that… for running around the house with my freshly painted scenery and smearing it across the wall… For as far as I knew, my mother’s beautiful hair was a paintbrush which filled the world with the brightest of colors for me. That smear of color was no different. It was just as beautiful as the world she had painted around me.

I’ve seen her before walking through the knee high grass with me… plucking berries, catching butterflies with my school bag in one hand. And as I walked with my mother, holding on to her pinkie finger, singing rhymes, I wondered if snow white would want to come into my world like I once wanted to go into hers… because my magical mother had made my fairytale more beautiful than any other I’d ever heard. I saw my mother jump over the meadow’s spiky fence. And then she taught me how… She taught me to fly.
I see her now. She’s chopping vegetables like any other mom… She has been a normal mom since my sister came along. But I know she’s in there… I know she can paint with her hair, I know she can fly over fences and I can still hear horses galloping inside her. My mother is still magical… It’s our little secret!

It is the stench of the distance between us that chokes the tears out of my blood-red eyes every night till the break of dawn,

till the moment the distance shatters every piece of my heart

which moans his name in pain,

which I’m sure he can hear

and I know his heart is red with love and pain and when he cries…

when he cries himself to sleep, sleep greets him with  nightmares

of the distance between us

and it’s worse than awake…

yet he sleeps; and I sleep

and I know he’s with me and I with him, no matter the distance…

And when I cry, I still feel his fingers linked with mine,

his shoulder resting my head,

his lips, soft on my warm, flushed cheek…

and my distant tears wet his shirt;

so he doesn’t dry it…

instead, he accompanies mine with his own

and loves them as he loves me…

so they seep into his heart

to heal the wounds inflicted by the distance.

He envelopes me into his soft white wings,

and cradles me to sleep

so he can be with me and I with him, no matter the distance.

What am I to do when I can’t find myself… When I’m looking, searching everywhere… I’m conscious of my physical presence but where am I? Who am I? What am I looking for? Do you know? Ask yourself. Do you really know?

I do cry when I don’t understand

But he’s always with me..holding my hand

And again I fail to fathom why

Then I look into my heart and again I cry

Because  all I seem to find is him

When my tears are bright but eyes still dim

When I collapse into the trenches of pain

And misery cradles me in disdain

I alone seem to find beauty in shadows

He takes my hand and walks me into my dark meadows

And he stays with me through my sleep and wake… In my pretty little oblivion.

Source: The trance

A selection of recent favorites from Discover’s poetry archives (and beyond).

via “To Plant Words, Not Seeds”: Four Poems for National/Global Poetry Month — Discover

In the glens of my senses, every breath was a crime.

The shadows of one grotesque sorrow

were hidden in my heart, then hollow.

The soul I was a host to,

was sick of me and black and blue.

I  couldn’t move or speak at all

Awake and asleep were both hell’s call

For once, I decided to see the gates of hell

But Earth’s heaven might invite- my heart could tell.

Then I played brave, with all the demons still on toes

It took me ages to stop wasting tears, for I still had some foes

I turned myself to clay and different moulds I tried

Wore a beautiful smile on my face but deep inside my heart cried.

Then I met my angel, who took all my sorrows away

Taught me life doesn’t have to be black or white, it could be grey.

He fell for me so hard, so fast

He healed my heart so well…at last

He treated it well and earned my love

I was no longer a mourning dove.

We dreamt together of our ‘castle in the clouds’

I’d never thought he’d need me to give way for doubts.

He was to be mine till the end of the story

But a third wheel rolled in and reignited my fury.

My heart was a million pieces once again

I had no choice but to accept the unwelcome pain.

He pleaded for forgiveness, said he wanted another chance

So I let the follies flow out as I myself floated into the trance.

The demons withered our love arcane

But that just meant a smile on him, which I felt was worth the pain.

We were distant yet merged, in a way one could say

I called it magic, neither black nor white, we were both grey.

One shines brighter I can’t deny.

A love so real, a love so true

A love that comes from me to you.

The Angels sing when you are near,

Within your arms I’ve nothing to fear.

I love you hon from all my heart

Together forever and never to part.

today is in the past,

Then comes dawn

leaving me lovelorn,

Dusk invites awake

the time I would forsake,

Darkness creeps in,

This battle I can’t win.

But I live; I must

For the magic of love and a bit of pixie dust.

Suddenly, it’s not the earth holding you there.

You’d spend your eternity with that person,

For them, everything you’ll forswear.

When the flowers are still blooming,

Love is a fairytale.

But when it all starts dooming,

you’ll take the burden of the greatest ail.

When you don’t talk to the moon anymore,

not hoping he’ll be doing the same,

There will be stars in your night sky,

And they’ll tell you- for him, it was just a game.

Love is like gravity

Your whole centre shifts

Everything’s dealt with levity,

Distance, pain, longing become God’s gifts.

You’re taken to cloud nine

with utter care

And when you’ve been consumed in totality,

you’re thrown down.

‘Cause in love and war, not a thing is unfair.

At the end of the tunnel,

you’ll see no more light.

But if you yearn to live,

you will have to flaunt your might.

But maybe loving wasn’t a mistake

Maybe you can close your eyes and smile.

Maybe in his presence, your heart wouldn’t break,

Maybe you can dream for a while.

.

I’d take us to a place meant just for two.

You’d see my true colours and all that I felt,

I’d see that you could love me and nobody else.

We’d build ourselves a fortress where forever we’d stay,

You’d be mine and I’d be yours ’til our final day.

Then I wake and realise you were never here,

It was all just my thoughts, my hopes my dreams

But now it’s only tears!