Luxury

https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2026/01/friday-writings-212-luxurious-feels.html

I stretch my limbs - warm under the stars and moon

Flexing and tensing, feeling the luxury of being comfortable within myself

The clock ticks away the minutes and the hours

A gentle heartbeat of what is, what was and what will be

It is good - to have time

I like watching the sky transition between night and day

It makes me feel at once small but present 

I wonder if I mean anything (does it matter)

Outside the wind churns and moans

I huddle lower under my covers

At breakfast I will eat toast and honey, a piping hot cup of tea.

It never fails to surprise me that I’ve had a second, third, fourth time

To feel comfortable with this base -

To luxuriate in its building.

Heart

https://newwhatsgoingon.blogspot.com/2026/01/help-for-hurting-hearts.html

With every beat - Lub-Dub - my heart heals

With all the scars of inner wars coating it

Maybe it will be strong enough to weather a few more storms 

I like that healing has a beat - 

Sometimes regular - sometimes slow - sometimes racing

But always working towards a more regular and soothing beat

If I close my eyes and steady my breaths 

I can tune into the rhythm I need to follow

I close my eyes, sit up straight and let the air flow in and out my nose

I imagine my heart as a tender rose that needs care and gentle loving

If only I could look inside to see that it was red and soft

Bright as a rose placed on a window sill

As it is, I feel it in my chest and head 

My hurting heart is a gift that needs re-wrapping 

Tied compassionately with a bow and given to my soul. 

  

Dream

https://dversepoets.com/2026/01/27/poetics-dream-interpretations/

In my dream, I see your sign - ‘Believe’ -

Open the window, step on the ledge and jump

So certain that I will fly

I look down at you one last time and let myself smile

I know that I will never see you again

That I no longer need you in order to find my wings

I am growing perhaps - in confidence, hope and safety -

Casting aside the magical thinking that helped me survive -

But also stopped me being (real)

As the air wooshes and pink-ens my cheeks I feel alive

Of course I must thank you but perhaps the best thank you 

Is to take a lesson and turn it into each baby step forward 

I like the feeling of being free in so many ways

It is like unshackling the chains around my chest and being able to breathe

When morning comes I will step back down, close the window 

Open the door and be. Whisper. Thank you. Good bye. 

I am having trouble commenting on Word Press accounts to return comments. 

Trip

https://dversepoets.com/2026/01/26/quadrille-240-fill-zip-trip/

I am on a happier trip - not tumbling down a hole

Not skip, trip, fall

Rather, skip, trip soar

My toes sink in the grass

The rain clears my eyes

Am I happy?

Better than before

It goes without saying this trip is all.

My Best Time Of Day

https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2026/01/friday-writings-211-night-and-day.html

I like bedtime when my eyes fall drowsily like warm honey

I like to feel the bed sheets, clean and crisp 

Underneath my limbs as I drift off into sleep

Fresh as a deep breath on a sharp winter’s day

This is the safety I have created - a wish slowly coming true 

Up and over the soil, tender shoots of green and white

Waiting to bloom like a blush - pink and purple

I am learning to relish the twilight hours

When all is asleep and I have the freedom to be

I feel gravity, the skies, if I am lucky the moon 

Increasingly, time rolls along quickly

But it does not feel like a runaway train - set on a dangerous path

Perhaps making the best of each hour naturally leads into a comfortable bedtime

Some days dreams will work, others they will struggle

But all is meant to be - and that is the best feeling to understand.  

Peacefulness

https://newwhatsgoingon.blogspot.com/2026/01/peace-january-21.html

Peacefulness is not a constant - 

It comes and goes like raindrops down a window pane

It is warm as an embrace or silent as a whisper

It almost feels tangible, warm bread and butter held in the hand

Perhaps it is what we all seek as the years turn

Peacefulness is feeling still inside - safety (at last)

Sometimes days are darker but I trust in the knowledge that it will always return (if I let it)

Peacefulness is a ghost disappearing and smiling in night time wanderings

She smiles and I know there is nothing to fear when the time comes 

The rain drops dry, leave a pattern, I wipe it away with a checkered cloth

Look through the trail it left and mark it in my letters.

 

Snow

https://dversepoets.com/2026/01/20/poetics-new-year-snow/

I remember the snow, how it packed my knees like ice cream in the freezer

Something delicious but fleeting

I imagine the flavours - chocolate, strawberry and vanilla 

Your kiss melting, my world collapsing - I lost everything to the snow - I lost you

Perhaps that is why I fear falling - the extra bruises and shame

What if I had been different, what if we had seen each others vulnerabilities

Just as snow melts, turns to spring and heat there is no going back - no changing things

Things can only be written and made as they are - as they will be 

The why’s and maybes lost like snowflakes -

Everyone a little different as they fall to the ground  

I still do not fully understand why you chose to leave, not even after all these years

I do not understand why I loved you -

You did not treat me well and I was too young to know what love meant

I remember the snow - the cold and bracing breaths

The gritters driving on the street in the early hours underneath my window

Making things safe in the land of my dreams - 

Maybe I was happy that I made it there at all

It was a fleeting place, a flurry, and one I did not treasure quite enough at all

All to soon beautiful and then melting. 

Remember Me

 https://dversepoets.com/2026/01/19/dverse-prosery-monday-bury-me/

I look out of the night-time window, hear little cricket(s) and ponder. Bury me with the lies I told, and remember me for my truths. The lies and truths are not balanced. Everything I have said or done has been meant with truthfulness and candour. The biggest lies I have told have been spoken loud and clearly and only to myself - you are not worth life - you are not worth living (well) - and even that thought shifts and blinks like stars and clouds. All to be carried away. 

It is not important whether I remembered or not. The biggest gift of death is that lies and truths sink into the earth and are long forgotten as the days shuffle on. When I go, she will go and our energy will feed the plants and so the birds. And those birds will soar forever. 

A Sweet Combination

https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2026/01/friday-writings-210-great.html

A Sweet Combination

Peace and quiet is the most delicious combination -

Like pink and white marshmallows melting on hot chocolate 

A dawn-time treat and a sweetness that seems to linger

It is only in the dark-quiet hours that I can feel a connection -

To myself and to the world

The owls in the tree outside call and sing

Sometimes, there are stars and a crescent moon

After silent mornings, I love sinking into bed in the afternoon -

Finally feeling safe, and able to sleep and dream

Perhaps this is my (second) favourite combination -

Comfort and dissociation 

Today will be a pattern I follow, neat as stitches

Tomorrow, likely the same - perhaps this is my (third) favourite combination

I stretch and try to smile - In this moment everything sinks

Colours, flavours, feelings and thoughts

Far better than falling down the Rabbit Hole (perhaps).

A New Beginning

https://newwhatsgoingon.blogspot.com/2026/01/a-new-beginning-jan-14.html

In this new day I wish you a full deep breath

Eyes sleepily opening onto a fresh morning

I wish you stars and flowers and peppermint creams

I wish you would love yourself as much as I love you 

I wish to hold your hand for eternity

As we teach ourselves to sing and dance happily

I wish for apple trees and summer skies

Ice cream and salty waves

I wish not for more days, but better days 

Minutes gladly spent not endured

Mostly, in our new beginning, I hope we learn how to forgive ourselves- 

And love our individual lives as much as we love one another. 

Prison Blues

Prison Blues

https://dversepoets.com/2026/01/13/folsom-prison-blues/

I have been locked in prisons inside and out for too many years

Not seeing sunshine or the sounds of trains moving on

Losing my way and my dreams

Perhaps it taught me how to write - 

To find my own rail tracks and chug-chug-chug along - 

Own way, own pace, own destination 

I remember feeling so sad being trapped in with other people 

And so terribly alone - I craved privacy - and respect 

I had done nothing wrong - I was sick and confused - not bad

I did not deserve the punishment they defined as care 

But whatever happened to me, in spite of the keepers, I kept myself alive

And wherever I was locked up, I melted the bars with my mind.

Smile

https://dversepoets.com/2026/01/12/quadrille-239-smile/

My smile is fragile, like a mayfly

But it is there - waiting like kindling 

Daring to glow 

I like how it changes my face

Makes my eyes shine a little - with hope perhaps 

I hold it gently - like a dream

Daring it to grow. 

All Just A Story

https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2026/01/friday-writings-209-start-where-you-are.html

‘Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.’ Arthur Ashe

 

I remember her saying - everything is a story

If that is true there would be a beginning, middle and end 

Here is my beginning - I am still working on the Middle - and hope for a contended End - 

Alice

I started the book. The one which weighed so heavy. The one I thought would mean everything. I un-pulled the stitches. Peeled off the glue. Licked up the red and began. By the second page I breathed and I saw that letters are only shapes. Black marks. You can turn them upside down and this way and that but that’s all letters are. Shapes. Some days the black marks eat you. Some days they feed you. Some days they hold you so tight you can’t breathe and the blood inside you turns to acid. Acid and rust. All the seconds inside acidify into nothing. A poison you can’t hold. Or swallow. You want to capture everything. Turn the shapes into symbols. Turn nothing into meaning. But letters are the holes in the net. Not the string. It is in between the letters that the story can be found. If you dare to look. I am not sure I want this book now. The weight tires my hands. A stone carried too long in my head. I don’t care what signs are left on my wrists. On my heart. I will catch them as they fall past me on the way back up the Rabbit Hole. I smile. It is all such nonsense. There is no beginning middle or end. The Cheshire Cat comes together licks his paws savours the jam. Alice dances with the candle. Her little letter feet inside her little letter shoes. Weightless. And I dream a thousand dreams knowing she is inside of me. That she never left. Alice is always there.

Living An Alphabet

https://dversepoets.com/2026/01/08/mtb-first-to-last-letters/

All is quiet within my head - it makes a pleasant change

Because normal for me was busy

Candles light my way and

Darkness only follows me in my sleep

Everything is outside is wild

Flowers bend and twist (in the)

Ground, grinning and smiling 

Happy little things

I think silently

Just in case I wobble, I think about them - (they are)

Kindness and strength 

Love and losses - all -

Mine, like dropped pennies

Numerous and shiny

Of course I count them up

Perhaps they make me rich inside (they make me)

Question what is

Rolling thoughts

Sadness and happiness

Teeth white, like Rabbit’s tail

Unusual but - 

Very familiar 

What was, what is

X-rays of existence 

Yes indeed I am alive (no animal in a)

Zoo.