Category: Poetry

This is a beautiful poem by filmmaker, Andrea Dorfman (FB), and poet/singer/songwriter, Tanya Davis (FB). I encourage you to watch the entire video. Consider watching it alone.

I recall childhood dreams
And the adult in me
Misses them
So it seems
All I have left are
Daydreams.

[n.b. 1st draft of an incomplete one that’s been sitting on a piece of paper far too long]

There’s a crowd in here
With so many voices
   and so many noises
How can one be so alone
In such a crowded room

There’s a party in here
Everyone is having fun
Except for one
Who knows
It’s an artificial light.

With a flicker flutter
   Pop a fizz
We’re all aware
We all know
It’s an artificial light
   about to blow
And the darkness comes
Because all artificial lights
   burn out
The light has to go.

The sun is shining bright
Birds are singing
Daises tickle the bellies
   of cats playing with dogs
Rain has washed the clouds away
Only fog in the shadows remain
The sun is shining bright
It’s an artificial light.

A shiny man lies in my closet
He wears the clothes
   that no longer fit me
The light in the closet
   burned out long ago
The shiny man does not care
He lives in the darkness
   with nothing to fear
But an artificial light.

The Past cannot be undone
And will always haunt The Future
We extol ourselves,
“Learn from the past”
While brooding with regret
Frustrated, lacking the ability to forget
The desire to move forward; hampered
By our bygone action which shackles us
Immobilized
Frozen
Unable to escape its grip
The Past is one with us
No separating from it
No forgetting
Perpetually haunted by its ghosts
When at last, you have forgiven yourself
And believe yourself to have moved on
The Past latches on like a Tigress
Pouncing upon Her prey
Not even Death provides absolution
For you take The Past to your grave
And worse
Leave some for those left behind.

The simple solution to keeping The Past at bay
Be inhuman
Never make a mistake.

Don’t be fooled
Live has no deep meaning
We are simply a cog
In someone else’s machine.

I used to think that there was no challenge I could not beat
No malady I could not overcome
No loss from which I could not recover
No misguided step from which I could not correct
No betrayal which I could not forgive
No pain which I could not withstand
No negative which I could not make positive
On all accounts, I was wrong.

The thing of it is
I did what I did
Ten years, no twenty, got behind me
Thought I was a dreamer that did
But I’m just a dreamer with wishes
My many opportunities, all misses
Those dreams all gone now
Replaced with struggle and survival
Life gets in the way
Of living