* Farwell Announcement *

One notebook. One summer. One kid deciding they were going to be a poet. I don’t know if I’ll ever find that legendary notebook, but the poems are here, on this blog. And while I can’t be certain I wouldn’t have become a writer without this beginning, I know it helped me become the writer I am today.

As a writer, I will never stop writing. However, I may move around. Yes, this is my over-dramatic is my way of saying I have a new blog.

because words will have my poetry, as I had here, as well as musings and reviews as I had on my other blog, A Smack Of Everything, which I am also shutting down. I am not deleting anything, but I will only be updating my new website from here on out.

In the eight years between the first poem my mom helped me publish on October 8th, 2012, “Mother,” and the one I didn’t realize would be my last, “Love Speaks” on January 9th, 2021, I have published 258 poems. That's a lot, I think. And I don’t care if they are any good- I am proud of myself.

I am excited to see what I come up with next, what I find, and what I learn.

I’ve already gotten started, so be sure to check it out:
https://becausewords.wixsite.com/becausewords

Love Speaks

We read it in their eyes, see it in their embrace, feel it in their tears that can't be brushed away fast enough- love is something we all understand that we will never understand.

Trying to answer the question: what is the common language of the world?

(to have loved)

there's beauty in the way

we love people and we lose people

and how we sometimes get them back again 

there's tenderness in the way

they come and they go

how they unravel memories from our souls when they leave

but I don't see tragedy

(to have loved)

words align (4)

sweet friend recall always

the honey and storm

in their cry(s) [sic]

you are the sea I am but a dream

lust bitter on her tongue

smear(ed) blood a language they scream

ache(s) whisper(ed)

frantic worship

Magnetic Poetry Kit: Original Edition

"grandmothers"

me: grandmothers are the best of us

friend: I hate missing her
friend: but I love loving her

me: we are better having been loved by them 

- my friend and I

sometime in November 2020

who said cheaters never win

cheaters never win
but what does that matter if winning 
isn't the point of the game?

(there is no tally at the end)

cheaters never win
unless winning means hurting the most people

unless winning means causing the most damage

before you're playing an entirely new game

(they've toppled empires this way)

cheaters never win
but they can still reap the rewards
and for some, that is more than enough

you can't beat cheaters by playing by the rules

but if you become like them, what have you won?

cheaters never win

but everyone else can still lose

Icarus was a star that almost touched another star

flying too close to the sun

he was a dreamer, as am I

he dreamt too loudly, shown too bright

but he lived

he had a dream and molded wax until

it came true

before he died, he lived

as he dreamed, so do I

destined to be Icarus

perhaps I am destined to be Icarus
perhaps I am destined to crash and burn
but, oh, what a gift his
last moments in the sky
must have been

I don't mean to sound cliché

we get (too) close
knots of attachment
tighten (like a noose)
expectations (and big questions)
pile up (fragile like Icarus)

we pull away 

and end up flat on our asses

"in every book"

In every book I pick up,
I'm reading
"let us not conclude"

- my grandmother

10/22/2020