No Sadness in Goodbye

To say goodbye often
Means tears; sadness; loss;
What often can be missed
Are new beginnings
It creates for those
Going their separate ways.

Goodbye can become
A time when
Life can take one
To places that may have never
Been imagined before

Saying Goodbye
Is not a final farewell
It is an occasion
Where different paths
Are taken:
Different journeys
Are forged.

Though goodbyes
Can be tinged with sadness,
The chance
That one shall meet again
Means there is the possibility
Of future opportunities
To share the tales
Of each person’s life
As it unfolds.

No Sadness in Goodbye by Allison Brown is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License. Based on a work at allisonbrown.blogspot.com.

Rights for all…

Call out:
What’s on your mind!
Shout out:
What makes your blood boil!
Do not let time sweep away
What you believe
Is yours by right:
Rights fought for over lifetimes.
For when you grow complacent
Your rights vanish
Into what once was.
Fight for what is yours
Creating a world that will exist
Beyond the here and now.
A world that believes in:
Rights for all…

Rights for all… by Allison Brown is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License. Based on a work at allisonbrown.blogspot.com.

Speak again

Let me remember you,
Let me see you in my mind,
Let me accept
That you are gone.
I know that we shall not speak again,
Yet I know there was still
So much left unsaid.

Even if I was given
Another chance to speak
I would not know
What to say
What to do.

How can I ever explain
That even when
I think about you now
There are still no words
That can fully explain
The impact you had
Upon my life.

Even though there are things left
To speak upon
There is now nothing left
That I can say,
That I can do.

How do I explain
That even though I knew
That you would soon be gone,
I did not seek
To find the words
That I could speak
Before you were gone.

Yet now that you are no longer here
I find it hard to say the words:
That would mean I have accepted
What has come to pass;
That I have embraced the reality
That you are gone
And that we shall never
Speak again.

Speak again by Allison Brown is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License. Based on a work at allisonbrown.blogspot.com.

To keep your place

When did you begin
To believe
That you need to
Protect your place?

What will you do
To keep your place;
How far will you go
To protect what’s yours?

Whose shoulders
Will you stand upon,
When you reach for
What you seek?

Why do you believe
That you need a place
To keep and protect
Within this world?

How much sand are you
Able to hold within a storm;
Can you hold your ground
As it quickens under your feet?

Where is the limit
Of how far you will go,
To keep what
You believe is yours?

To keep your place by Allison Brown is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License. Based on a work at allisonbrown.blogspot.com.

Change // Swinging Moods

A while ago, a friend sent me 3 different poetry challenges. I have so far answered the first one, which was the haiku challenge. Let me know what you think of the next 2, or better still: have a go at them your self.

1. Write a poem inspired by ONE of the words from this list. It doesn't necessarily have to be about it, it just needs to be inspired by it:
Peach
Candle
Sand
Mirror
Star
Winter
Castle

Change

Within the heart burns
An idealised belief:
That action and reaction
Can change the world.

Yet before the world can change
First look into your own reflection,
And ask truthfully:
Are you capable of
Changing yourself?

Within is the ability to change,
And to become more than you are:
The internal capacity
To change the world
That you inhabit

Each change,
Each word spoken:
That comes from the person
You have now become,
Can be a greater influence
Than simply demanding
That others change for you.

Do not stand behind the wall
Bricked in by what you believe
The world should become:
Only change within yourself
Can change what the world
Has the potential to become.

Guide yourself;
Guide those around,
To become an architect
Of what our full potential is:
Accept that your guiding light
Will burn brightest
Beyond the life you live,
Long after the sand
That your life is measured by
Runs out.

2. Write a poem as you usually would (or use one you have already written), but cut out all instances of these words: a, the, and, of, to, for. Try to make your poem make sense without using any (or at most, two or three) of these words.

Swinging Moods

Swinging moods
Happy, sad,
Angry, mad,
Slightly crazy
Very lazy:
Doing nothing,
Wanting nothing
That will mess with
This lazy mood

Being slightly mad
Can make others quite sad,
Or even slightly scared,
Why scared?
Ask someone
Whose mood is never
Slightly mad.

Having swinging moods
Makes time rush by,

By creating amusement
At others’ expense:
As others never know
What your mood will be;
What your mood will become
What mood will be coming next.

Consider my swinging moods
Like riding rides at amusement parks:
Do you enjoy riding roller-coasters,
Or do you prefer
Something more tame?

Change // Swinging Moods by Allison Brown is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License. Based on a work at www.allisonbrown.blogspot.com.

Paint Me

Too quick to judge
To see me as
The world has
Painted me upon a wall

To quick to say
This is how
The world hears me
And the words I speak

Too quick to taste
The bitterness
The world has carved me into:
Eat what you have made me

Paint me
Judge me
Say what you will say
And taste the bitterness
Burning upon your tongue.

Put me into a corner
That is the furtherest away
And watch me rebel
Taking you with me

Reaching out
I will pull down the wall
The world
Has placed around me

I will blaze
And bring this world
To its collective knees:
Watch me as I rage

Paint me
Judge me
Say what you will say
And taste the bitterness
Burning upon your tongue

Let me be
And watch with awe
As I take what you see
And turn it upside down

Don’t paint me
Into what you
Want me to be
I am me, not you

I can be many things
But I will only be
What I want:
What I paint myself to be

Paint me
Judge me
Say what you will say
And taste the sweetness
Of rebellion and delight.

Paint Me by Allison Brown is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License. Based on a work at allisonbrown.blogspot.com.

Walk the line // Tall Tales

Walk the Line

Walk the line
Between truth and tale
Yet the line in the sand
Was washed away
By the ocean of stories told
To help the naïve sleep
With dreams filled
With the belief and justification
That any action is acceptable
When you are beyond
Seeing the stains
Upon your hands.
Stains that you
Have painted upon another
And then you blame them
For sleeping through life.

Wake up,
Do not justify a closed mind
And act surprised,
It is only your ignorance
Of why
That explain away
The reason
A nightmare was placed
Upon your door.
Innocents die,
Yet whose life
Is given more worth?

===//===

Tall Tales

Sentence me
To live in a place
Where the shadows
Overwhelm the brightest of suns.

Live within
A place that exists
In a whirlwind of tears,
Yet my tears are now lost upon the wind.

No loss left
That has not been lost before,
Let innocence bleed out
From the wounds inflicted by tall tales told.

Walk the line // Tall Tales by Allison Brown is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License. Based on a work at allisonbrown.blogspot.com.

Twilight water stars

Across the surface.

A blanket of rippling light.

Twilight water stars.

Twilight water stars by Allison Brown is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License. Based on a work at allisonbrown.blogspot.com.

The nature of haiku continues...

The tradition of haiku is to describe the seasons and more recently nature. The following haiku describe different aspects of nature.

• The light disappears. In a fiery defiance. Into night’s embrace.

• Fade into the light. You seem to be forgotten. Waiting for your turn.
  
  
• Exposed to nature. No way to find protection: From the steps of life.
  
  
• Drifting quietly. Coming and going unchanged. Captured by the Moon.
  
  
• The merging landscapes. Entwining incestuously. Existing as one.

Also, in what seems to be a continuing tradition, the following are looking at people around me.

• Our Persian Princess. Radiant and gentle soul. Compassionate heart.

• Vivacious woman. Bringing joy to all our lives. Laughing up a storm.

The nature of haiku continues... by Allison Brown is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License. Based on a work at allisonbrown.blogspot.com.

Some of my friends...

Crafter of stories. With words so smooth that they croon. Mistress of the word.

Quilt me a pattern. Composed of darkness and light. Blending many sides.

Seeing in pictures. Shading of colours and shapes. Depths hidden from sight.


Other Haiku
For my Mother

The most precious gift. A Mother's embracing heart. Treasured by their child.

Traditionally a haiku described the seasons. In both Australia and more specifically Brisbane the weather and nature can be quite extreme.

Dreaming of rain fall. Growing thirst of the land. Life wilts in the sun.


Purple explosion. Electrifying the land: bringing it to life.

CC BY-NC-SA
Some of my friends... by Allison Brown is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License. Based on a work at https://poetry.behinddreaming.com/.

Poetry Challenges

Back when I first started this blog a friend left a comment about giving some challenges to complete. I have finally found myself recently undertaking 1 of those challenges.

Construct a poem in the form of a Haiku (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku). Write one haiku each describing three or four of your friends. Concentrate on giving the impression or feeling of the person, rather than simply a visual description.

It may seem strange, but I have never really tried writing a Haiku. So in my next Post Some of my friends... I will submit some of the haiku that I wrote about the impression or feeling that my friends give.

Melt me

Melt me with your touch
Then sweep me up
From the pile
You have left me in

Watch me
As I see you;
Imagine you:
Against, over, within

Melt me with your words
Make me see you
In ways that tempt
And leave me wanting
What good girls
Would deny they crave.

Sweets in a candy store
Ice-cream on a sweltering day
Ice melting to cool one's skin
Chocolate flavoured by sweat.

Melt me with thoughts of your touch
And I will send you reeling
With sweet words
That will make you crave more.

Melt me by Allison Brown is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License. Based on a work at allisonbrown.blogspot.com.

Let your smile be for me

Tempt me with the words
You utter to me.
Catch my attention
With that look that you give.
Make me breathless
Every time you smile my way.

Let me capture you
Hold you close
And keep you safe.
Let your smile be for me,
And no one else.

You see me,
And understand who I am.
The words we speak
Lose track of time.
Let me hold you close
Before you spin away
Upon the cloud of your light.

Let your smile be for me by Allison Brown is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License. Based on a work at allisonbrown.blogspot.com.

Sway

Sway and draw breath
Find room to walk away
Turn back, drawn in
Hold on
Sway and hold my breath
Cannot seem to withdraw
From your look
Addicted to you
The sound of your voice
Caressing me
Swaying to your tune
Inhaling the sweetness of your touch

Sway by Allison Brown is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License. Based on a work at allisonbrown.blogspot.com.

Will you? I Will…

Will you? I Will…

Will you cry?
Will you shout?
Will you stand up
For the child?

A child who can no longer
Cry out for themselves
From the pain they possess,
As they take flight
From this world.

Will you shed tears
For the mother whose heart shatters
As her child flees
From the pain within?

Will you feel pain?
Can you comprehend?
Will a fire burn within
Propelling you to speak up,
Shout out, stand up
For the child who has taken flight?

And what of the mother of the child,
Whose world blurs
Into disbelief and bewilderment
Who has only begun to ask:
Why???

===========####===============

I will hold you
And show you the way
To weather whatever comes your way,
Embracing you and protecting you
From the storm that is rushing your way.

Stand tall
And remember a truth.
I will protect you
Until the time comes
For you to reach with arms open wide,
And ride what ever is thrown your way.

With an inner strength,
You will meet the challenges
Of those who strive
To grind you into the ground

Stand tall, and call out:

I am strong
In spite of all that I have faced,
And I will weather any storm
With a smile upon my face.
Do not hold me back
For I am on my destiny’s path.
I will face this.
I am strong.
And now, I will protect you.

Will you? I Will… by Allison Brown is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License. Based on a work at allisonbrown.blogspot.com.