insipid but still
you curl
your lashed tongue
and leap like a leopard
at my feet
©Jay Mora-Shihadeh
Photo by Bogdan Pasca on Unsplash
Source: GRUNTING #poetry by jay – The Artist From The Inside Out
Tag: free verse
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SHIRKED THE MOMENT
Celebrate?
I’ve turned it down
shirked the moment
for stead/ I pretendno need exists
in my human
calendar©Jay Mora-Shihadeh
Originally published August 23, 2022 on The Artist From The Inside Out.
Photo by Ben Rosett on Unsplash
Source: SHIRKED THE MOMENT #poetry by jay – The Artist From The Inside Out
Fediverse Reactions
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SWINGING BACKWARD
Originally published in 2021, “Swinging Backward” explores memory, trauma, and the persistence of the past.
i’m a man of little words
and big ways
i live large in a
Source: SWINGING BACKWARD #poetry by jay – The Artist From The Inside Out
Fediverse Reactions
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HONESTY…I THINK NOT #poetry by jay
honesty is bullshit
HONESTY…I THINK NOT #poetry by jay
it takes sweat, it takes regret, andFediverse Reactions
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DOG-EARED ON EMPTY PAGES #poetry by jay
marking the arms of decades gone
DOG-EARED ON EMPTY PAGES #poetry by jay
dog-eared on empty pages of half-told histories of dime-store paperbacks…Fediverse Reactions
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PINPOINT PRECISION #poetry by jay
The dark cloud looms like a harrowing expletive…
PINPOINT PRECISION #poetry by jayFediverse Reactions
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BLUDGEONING #poetry by jay
and i hung onto nothing
BLUDGEONING #poetry by jay
and i clung to hope
and i hoped for somethingFediverse Reactions
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THE IMPOSTER #poetry by jay
Suddenly
THE IMPOSTER #poetry by jay
he appears
slipping
slitheringFediverse Reactions
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BIRTHRIGHT
April claims the title, we claim the heritage. A poem for the Arab-American experience-
Collective memory lives
like a cesspool
collecting waste
history birthed into (read full poem) -
Happy New Year! First Poem for 2021
BLEED
I don’t really
bleed
the color you want
me to
I bleed green
on days
I believe in aliens
and I bleed blue
only when
the day is gray
and besieged in a
storm of violence
I bleed what
I want to
I only bleed red
to please you
on most days
I bleed
in rainbows
as dreams
do come true
I only bleed red
if I have to.
©Jay Mora-Shihadeh
Photo by Engin Akyurt from Pexels
#Poetry #HappyNewYear #2021 #Freeverse
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Poetry Reflections 2020 #2
In the spirit of my poet friend, Robert Okaji, at O at the Edges , I am going to repost 1 of my most visited poems from 2020 everyday this week leading up to the New Year. After all, this is the time of year we spend regenerating, hibernating and reflecting; and man o’ man, did we go through a lot this past year!
That Day
When the light of day sits
pensive and dull
you begin to mourn the flowers
that yesterday sang
brilliant hues of red
and violet
and the spray of ocean waters
burned salt into your eyes
and you cried
not because you mourned the day
but because the sky was seamless blue
and the day held you suspended
in warm light
high and giddy from the smell
of the sun
you melt into the air
and fly away with the seagulls.
Art and Poetry © Jay Mora-Shihadeh
#Poetry #Freeverse #Beach
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Weight
i sit with weight
heavy upon my chest
in a day gone
pretty shitty
and i recall,
all the others, the days
on end at times
holidays, birthdays
pandemics
the usual fair
of emotional events
and crises, right?
no doubt, i sit
with it all,
A gall of rage
swarms in
as I cower to the floor
feeling irrelevant
and unsure
right now, i suppose
i could count my blessings
but that would ruin the
moment
i’d rather sit and
measure the weight
of this iron ball
bearing down
on my soul,
masked in an anger
from this,
holiday pandemic hell
the grief, the surge
of this pan-continental
dis-ease,
a deep despair
unable to let up, or ease
this virus, this crises
this global affair,
seems to be mutating
every damn where.
©Jay Mora-Shihadeh
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
#Poet #Poetry #Freeverse #Grief #Mourning
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Great Story
It’s a great mind
that tells a great story
but,
it’s a Great story
that feeds the mind.
©Jay Mora-Shihadeh
Photo by Dmitry Ratushny on Unsplash
#Poetry #Micropoem #Storyteller
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Rescue
Rendered and spent
I relax into the gray
The air feels thick
and I sweat out
the sorrow of
lost days and hours
I wonder if it matters?
The days, the hours
they stack up and I
compile Time, as if it were
Fine Minted Dollars,
A collection only
meant to admire.
Not spending Time
in celebratory exchange,
bartering the days
for play, not pain
Of dreams drifting
away, as battled
and brittled gray
ships we lay,
hopeful as we are
for a finer day, for
the rescue that
will come, at long
last we pray.
©Jay Mora-Shihadeh
Photo by Zukiman Mohamad from Pexels
#Poetry #Freeverse #Shipwrecked #Rhymes
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Squander
I squander
this day
it feels so fragile
yet, I choose to
mingle among the silence
and squander the brillance
why? I must feel
it is the only one
promised.
©Jay Mora-Shihadeh
Photo by Kunj Parekh on Unsplash
#Poetry #Micropoetry #Time #Procrastination
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The Black Veil
Cotton mouthed and shirked
by the night
your light always eludes me
why is it the moon glows
upon your hips like
heathen red? and
the bled of night
escapes through
the black veil
of love.
©Jay Mora-Shihadeh
#Poetry #Micropoem #Love
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Overtaken In The Rain
overtaken in the rain
with nowhere to go
i try to release the uneasy pain
restrain, pulling back in vain
it lingers, follows me
throughout my entire day
set free!
my drenched sorrow
today
i try to release the uneasy pain
reaching high for someone
something, somewhere
the weight bearing down
buckling knees
refusing to fall
under/down
catching my small
burdened frame
the sights of tomorrow
seem
so far away
take this day and
put it in its place
i try to release the uneasy pain
“out of sight, out of mind”
sounds nice-
you think?
forget that there’s sugar
and spice
shove it to someone
who care’s
acting a frozen smile
and all that’s nice
i try to release the uneasy pain
somewhere, somehow
the lump in my throat
is growing by the hour
black, blue, gray
all day
separate the facts
from fiction
completing
my uncontrollable affliction
lay me head
down to rest
in hopes for
my soul to contest
i try to release the uneasy pain
missing, hoping
for a better day
take it!
Instead-
shine the moonlight
inside my head
jumpstart my low
and sagging spirit
to see the brightness
around, behind
the sweetness
and kisses
I try to release the uneasy pain
but, i’m overtaken by sorrow
in the rain.
©Jay Mora-Shihadeh
#Poetry #Spokenword #Grief
Photo by Lily Banse on Unsplash
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That Day
In the same time period of my memory of my sweet Chocolate Lab, I wrote this poem when I lived in St. Petersburg Florida and the oil pastel was inspired by the beach there.
#Poets #Beach #Florida #Art #Poetry
The Artist From The Inside Out
When the light of day sits
pensive and dull
you begin to mourn the flowers
that yesterday sang
brilliant hues of red
and violet
and the spray of ocean waters
burned salt into your eyes
and you cried
not because you mourned the day
but because the sky was seamless blue
and the day held you suspended
in warm light
high and giddy from the smell
of the sun
you melt into the air
and fly away with the seagulls.
Art and Poetry © Jay Mora-Shihadeh
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Unshook
I saw you stand up
You are a mountain
You are an eagle
You are this pen
I saw in your eyes
the world, they spoke to me
of “forever”
the time that passes
through one’s pupils
and into another
I saw the vastness of
the black universe spill
into someone’s coffee cup
and they drank, and You
You stood there, a rock
unmoved. It was as powerful
as this moment
UnShook.
©️Jay Mora-Shihadeh
#Poetry #Universe #Freeverse #Macrophoto
