Reminded several weeks ago about my old poetry books by Jenny Hansen when she talked about poetry being her coping tool, I dragged them out. I remember never going anywhere without a pretty journal book so that I could write down whatever poem popped into my head. Looking back on those poems was like going through a time machine. Sometimes funny…especially looking back on how far I’ve come, sometimes painful. Then again, teenage years are an angsty time.
I thought I’d share a bit of the funny along with the angst today.
Melt Down Written 2/12/91
You took an iron chain
And linked it through my heart.
I couldn’t pull away
Or my life would fall apart.
But my tears were like acid
And you caused them to fall
So by your own mistakes,
I gained my freedom afterall.
Shot Written 4/14/91
She loaded the gun,
checked the back,
then took aim.
I heard the trigger
as it clicked.
I closed my eyes
then felt the metal
as it seared
through my flesh,
causing it to throb
like my heart.
Then she held
a mirror to my face.
“How’s that?”
she asked
as I quietly examined
My newly pierced ears.
The Storm written 7/24/91
Inside a great darkness
that only knows pain,
the sound of the thunder
the feel of the rain
A small fleck of sunlight
has broke through the wall
an alien object
in a stormy night fall.
The darkness is constant
while the light is so new.
The white is not trusted
in a world of dark blue.
The pain is too common
to accept the sun.
The closer it gets,
the harder I run.
Yeah…there’s something beautiful about youth…and looking back. Seeing how far you’ve come. What about you? What were you like when you were younger? What was your escape? What brings back those memories? Those nostalgic smiles?
Here’s a little secret. As much as I wrote…and I did lots of that… My escape came through music. All kinds of music. It still does. Like I told Jenny…it’s my coping mechanism.
I also want to share some people who’ve really wowed me with their poetry lately… I encourage you to just take a peek at their work. It’s amazing!
Renee Jacobson wrote an amazing piece on Learning Shame. Karen Robiscoe writes on Talking Shop that completely wowed me. Clark Kent 07 proves exactly why he’s a Superman in the advice he gives on how to treat a woman. Maybe Hasty Words and how she gets from A To Zero will impress you the way it did me. Personally, I found V’s poem, Flare, to be quite a great reminder that there’s perfection to be found in imperfection.
Every day I find something new and different that excites me! What treasures have you found? Share!
Ahhh wow thank you. I love this post and your poetry too 🙂
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Thanks! That was a few decades ago…LOL! I like to think my poetry has matured with me. 😉
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I read some of mine from high school and ran screaming.
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LMAO! Somehow I have a feeling you’re being hard on yourself. Found out from my mom I’d been trying to write stories and poetry since I was 4-5…I can only imagine what those were like.
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My daughter is 8 and has written (on napkins, or small pieces of paper) song lyrics. I am keeping them forever…lol.
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Protect them in a photo album or scrap book. Imagine what it will mean to her if she becomes a writer of some sort when she grows up and you gift them to her…
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They are beautiful. I even have her first boy crush note haha. I found it in her backpack. It was two stick figures holding hands with a heart and labeled with their names 🙂
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Awww! That’s awesome.
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I haven’t read the poetry from my teen years since my teen years. Most of it is probably best left buried. I love “The Storm”.
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LOL! Emma, you’re funny. I bet if you looked, you’d find a few gems. Trust me…a lot of my stuff is overly angsty garbage, too…LOL!
I’m so glad you liked it. You were probably practically a baby when I wrote that! 😉
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Nope. I’m older than people think. I may still get asked for ID every time I got to bar but I’m afraid I’m not that young 🙂
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That’s quite ok. Regardless of your age, I find you charming. 🙂
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All three were great! Some people (or maybe me) sound tacky when they try too hard to rhyme, but yours just flow so naturally!
And the second poem was funny indeed. Started out dramatic and then gave me a laugh. 😀
When I read back through my old poems, I feel ashamed…my young teenage poems all sucked, lol. 😉
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LOL! Actually, a teacher told me something similar a long time ago. He said that poetry that rhymes often comes out forced, but I had a gift for finding the flow. Thanks! I’d forgotten about that. Glad the second one made you laugh.
As for your old poems… I wouldn’t be so hard on myself. We’re always our own worst critics. And it just goes to show you how much you’ve grown. I’m sure that you have a few diamonds in the rough that could now inspire you to write something similar but from a more mature, more polished point of view. 🙂
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Thank you for the kind mention! A lot of people tell me that even my prose is poetic. I guess it probably is. I can’t help it.
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I would agree with that assessment. It takes a special skill to make prose flow like poetry. Personally, I find that style of writing to be compelling. 🙂
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Oh what a nightmare my life was when you read my teen poetry LOL or so I thought at the time.
Yours was very telling of how well you could write even then and you have grown of course. Very nice one this KItt:)
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Isn’t it funny how when we look back on what we thought was the end of the world we now get nostalgic and thing “If only life were still that simple”?
Thanks for the very kind words. By the way, did you get a chance to read I Bled For You? It’s my post from a couple days ago. I thought it may have special meaning to you.
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Oh I must have missed it..I read all of your posts most days but the eyes get tired and I sometimes miss nut I sure will now:) and thank you so much for following and commenting on mine. It’s the cyber world wonderful?
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It really is. And of course we miss some here and there… How could we not? If you’re anything like me, you follow a bunch of people… 🙂
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Ha, you really got me with Shot, and I do like a surprise ending. So glad we are following each other’s blogs.
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Thanks! I’m glad I managed to amuse. Glad we’re following each other’s blogs, too.
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Melt down felt very young 🙂 he, he
And shot was a nice twist at the end…
91!!! omg :-O
he, he
I was quite a studious guy when I was young. Tried to excel in whatever I did. I didn’t even know I was doing it till later… 😛
But I was quiet even then… and shy.
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Oh, the innuendo I could infer into your statement, LOL! Glad you got a kick out of Shot. And yeah, it’s funny how we overblown everything in our youth…is it any wonder there was a Meltdown? Hehe!
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Was there? 😦
And where’s the innuendo? out with it! 🙂
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Something to do with trying to excel with whatever you did, but that you didn’t know what you were doing…and you were quiet. My one track mind hit the gutter, LOL!
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😛
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I had to laugh at Shot, very unexpected! Especially after that heart-break first one (which really does read like teenager, but still…). I totally agree that your rhymes are so natural that I didn’t even notice it rhymed until I read them the second time!
When I read my teenage writing, I’m almost always shocked that the themes and pictures are still the same, although my writing has improved by a thousand percent and luckily I don’t sound so “angsty”, as you call it, any more. But thematically I’m still running around the same old circles. A bit frightening.
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Aww! Glad I startled a snicker out of you. 🙂
As for writing in the same subject matter/circles as you did in your youth… I don’t find it all that surprising. In fact, I think that we often find where our interests lie (wheel houses) around that age. Consider my last poem… I don’t think the message is so far removed from Doubt…a poem I posted on here a few weeks ago. I just come at it from a different angle or viewpoint.
My biggest interests are still fun, love, family, nature and sex…with music as the constant undertone. 😉
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I see what you mean. I just hope that those different viewpoints also mean that I’m (we’re) growing and learning new things. 🙂
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I think it does. Before, whatever the “darkness” was…well, it was ambiguous, as was the root cause. As I’ve gotten older I’m more able to recognize the deeper parts…doubt, fear of failure, fear of not trying… You get what I’m saying. 🙂
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You are so talented Kitt! Music is definitely my passion too. It has gotten me through so much in my life! Great post!
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Thanks lady! I may have to go back to your blog and reward you for always being so awesome. 🙂
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Awww…thanks!
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Love this track …. never heard it before.
I have come to the age that … I want my 30th body back, be 45 and have my 64 years of life experience. My youth – was very exciting … when we girls were able to behave as the boys.
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Thanks! It was actually a song from an old ’80’s movie, Streets Of Fire.
Speaking of girls behaving as boys…I miss playing tackle football in the yard when I could hit the guy as hard as I could and there were no sexual undertones. 🙂
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But … I had a sexual undertone. The pills were out. *laughing.
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Oh, LOL! And that’s what makes the spice of life…the differences. (Never used pills)
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Good for you !! They are more safer and lighter on the body today when in the late 60th. Still the safest.
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🙂
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This brought back so many memories. I wrote so many poems in my youth ~ still have a bunch kicking around. Music was great too (I dabbled with bass guitar). Lots of fun. Loved your poems, Kitt!
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Aww! Thanks, Mae.
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Great poems Kitt! I really liked the twist ending in Shot. I used to write poetry in my teens too. I have 9 journals on my bookcase filled with angsty stuff. You make me want to take another look at it. 😉
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You should! It’s great to look back every once in a while to see how far you’ve come. 🙂
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Your poems aren’t too embarrassing! When I go back and read my writing from junior high/high school, I typically can’t make it through a few lines without cringing or feeling my face get red. That’s just how it goes when you’re younger and writing though, I guess!
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It’s a learning experience. You learn what you do well and what is better left to admiring from afar, LOL!
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I just went back and discovered this post. How FUN to see your poems!! Can you believe we’ve known each other this long?? 🙂
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I know, right? Time flies when you have awesome company to share with. 🙂 So glad we’re friends.
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Me too, Kitt. ME TOO!!
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