Some Poetry For Your Monday

I don't write a lot of poetry, and most of what I do write is pretty bad. I did write a poem last year when I was in the Philippines that I kind of like. (I mean, it's not perfect). But I like it because when I read it, it brings me right back to sitting over the soccer field at the school, listening to the sounds of the city.

sounds of manila

I sit

The city
a giant star-pricked quilt
folds over my knees
and covers
the feet of my ears

I listen to the percussion,

Barking dogs
obnoxious horns
the phlegmy roar of
motorcycle engines

Together,
an indistinct monster of noise

and above that,
the tinkle of children laughing
as they play
in the streets
tsinelas slap-slapping on the bottoms
of calloused brown soles

and the music:

operatic women exalting Mary,

skirt-twirling Spanish celebration
braided roughly
into one
 
My heart does not swell at the sound because
there are no violins
 
yet
 
this is not a symphony
but the sound
of people

---

The other poem I like is not very good with language or really anything, but I like it because I figured it out that you read each line down, and then back up again to the top and it actually makes sense. It actually took quite a long time to figure out. (I think it's called a palindrome poem?) To read it, you read each individual line down and then read each individual line back up to the top.

Letting Go

Leave

I want you to never
come back
walk out of sight
don’t
tear your eyes from sunlit horizons
while you are trudging onward
open your eyes to the world
never
think of me
always
warm your heart
with the sunlit horizon
forget everything you once held here
but don’t
leave.