Favorite Poems

First I'll post the poems I wrote then I'll post my favorite poems.

It is currently finals week and I'm busy. I'll post some new content after all is said and done.

3/20/12

These are two poems I wrote in tribute to The Things They Carried, one of my favorite books of all time. I talk about Jimmy Cross, a naive platoon leader unable to withstand the responsibility of being in charge of the lives of his men. He continues to think about a girl despite unrequited love and a man dies while he does, and now he is overwhelmed by guilt. Got inspired earlier today to overachieve on the poems.

I Needed Fixing

Forever ago

Before I knew

I signed up for this war

Forever ago

When life was easy

Before life got hard

I signed up for this war

Now I sit in my foxhole

Forever alone

Encumbered by the weight of men’s lives

Feeling the gravity of war

Feeling the immense guilt of wanting

When you lose something you cannot replace

When you love someone but it goes to waste

I tremble

Wrested, pried from my hands

The innocence lost

The blood shed senseless

There is no hope,

No love,

No catharsis;

You hold the in your hands the two halves of my heart

The void that exists

Nobody can replace it

Not her, nor God, nor all of the treasures of the world

Once upon a time,

I didn’t try

The world was in my hands

The stars were an arm’s reach

The moon, the galaxies, the space too

Now I sleep alone

Just the jungle, the earth, the rest of Nam

Desolate, solitary, forever alone
This is the end

When you try so hard but you don’t succeed

The tears roll down your cheek

When the light at the end of the tunnel is a mirage

The tears stream down your face

A million words will not bring you back

I know, because I tried

Neither would a million tears

I know, because I’ve cried

It’s hard to forget

Somebody that gave you so much to remember

A smile can happen in a flash

But the memory of it can last a lifetime

There is no catharsis

There is no hope;

I tried so hard but life gets so heavy

What else is there to do?

I cry, I mourn, and I die

Goodbye.

Fix You

Jimmy,

Every day I sit outside

I look at the sea

Where the tide meets the rocks

And the seagulls come out to play

I look at the trees

Where the wind blows ever so slightly

And the raven sits on the nest just like so

The other day I walked along the sandy beaches

I found a pebble and it made me think of you

I want to love you

I want you to be happy

But as much as you can’t stop loving me

I cannot love you

I don’t imagine you beside me

Not next to the seagulls or the raven

Nor next to the trees or the beach

When you try your best but you don’t succeed

Maybe it wasn't meant to be

It scarred you but it broke me;
Wounds can be bandaged
But the mind is not as resilient

Everyday
When you feel so tired but you can’t sleep

I stay awake

Staring at the ceiling

I am so sorry Jimmy

I don’t imagine you next to me

I want to love you, but I can’t

Stuck in reverse

Find someone else, Jimmy

If you don’t try you will never look

If you don’t look you will never find

If you never find you will never live

It takes a man to hold on

But it takes a better man to let go

Come home, Jimmy

It’s time

The lights will guide you

And I will find a way

To fix you.

===

My favorite poems:

Heraclitus

They told me Heraclitus; they told me you were dead.

They brought me bitter news to hear, and bitter tears to shed.

I wept when I remembered how often you and I

Had tired the sun with talking, and sent him down the sky.

Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake;

For Death, he taketh all away, but them he cannot take.

-

There Will Come Soft Rains

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,

And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

-

And frogs in the pools singing at night,

And wild plum trees in tremulous white;

 -

Robins will wear their feathery fire,

Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

 -

And not one will know of the war, not one

Will care at last when it is done.

 -

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,

If mankind perished utterly;

-

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn

Would scarcely know that we were gone. 

Dreams

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.