Category: Poetry

Vieled

~ Vanessa ~ Leave a comment

July 5, 2017

She lost her footing
Once before
Imagining she was imagining
A true scorpion child
In fear
She struck words from the page
Discarded her compass
Deleted celestial lyrics
And cast off her epic tale,

In vain.

Here and now
She cloaks herself,
gingerly tests
tepid water of words
Wanting so much to share
And open a heart, bursting

Fearing a repeat dance
with Maniae
She questions her suspicions
And agonizes
Over understanding
The complex webs woven
by the distant one
she can only love.

Stay

~ Vanessa ~ Leave a comment


July 3, 2017

I will sit here,
For you
Just to be near
Is all I ask
To feel your presence,
Even if in spirit

We are fragile souls,
Older, wiser,
Cautious
But it’s a pull
That keeps tugging
At heart strings

Want,
Need

to be

Able to shelter
The one
Who is unconditionally
Loved
No matter how I might try
to forget

I write my song
For him to hear
I could go
But here I’ll stay
Hoping he may just
listen,
Find comfort in my words
And refrain from asking
My swollen heart
To go away

Where Have All the Hippies Gone?

~ Vanessa ~ Leave a comment

June 9, 2017

“Where have all the hippies gone?”
She wondered
Ten years later she knows
Her ears and nose still sparkle with jems
And her hair blows in the wind
Taking its untamed shape

But she has grown older
And tired
Of the repeat
Battle
Of moving social,
economic, and human targets
political and physical attacks
That are meant to do just this
Wear the warrior

There is a new generation now
Taking her place in the field
And she and her commrads respectively shift roles
Rows of elders behind
Do the same
Keeping sight
Becoming invisible

Camouflaging
She answers her own question.

Dowsing

~ Vanessa ~ Leave a comment


July 1, 2017

I search
In daylight
In the night

In crowds of faces
In the rain
In snow

In the country
In the city
Here
And there

In story
In song
And in legend…

For in my dreams
you no longer come,
As I’ve lost
too much of myself
meeting you there

And memory has fossilized,
been reimagined
in different shapes and color

And yet the same ache returns
Knowing what I’ve known
And may never experience again

But having known it
I still feel the warmth that comes
from having felt love

That lingering feeling
is what makes it
nearly impossible
to let go
entirely

And so without intention
My heart seeks
And unexpectedly
reminds endlessly,
of you

​When Alanis was God

~ Vanessa ~ Leave a comment

December 31, 2006, Revised 2017

When I was 9

Alanis was my idol.

Then came puberty,

that crimson age of loss,

of insecurity,

and I lost it.

I lost it all,

all that innate

proud feminism,

That innocent security,

The accrued will to be,

and certainty

that as long as I tried,

God damn-it,

I could fly.

Then there was you,

With smug looks of judgment,

For me to defeat.

But now I see.

Now I see

Your cynicism

In looks of chauvinism

Masking

insecurity,

inferiority

And I don’t have much more to say.

I’m done trying

To prove anything.

Reach only a little more

No needed boost from you,

No prepared proof,

for patriarchs unknown.

Honest, full-fledged

female identity,

holy intact;

I’ve flown.