Poetry is what gets lost in translation

I'm Sam. I write poems.

[wordsbetterleft-unsaid]

A jazz trumpet

Floats on a warm breeze

Atop a punk song

Like a bumblebee in a hailstorm

Confused

Notes stumble

But always land right where they mean to

Like plucking an apple blossom off the tree

To land sweet pink petal dew drops to sweet pink lips

We'll hide in the greenhouse

Where the bumble bees sneak in

To find the scent of long forgotten flowers

Blooming where only unfamiliar thorns used to be

Blushing pinks and purple petals

Smear against the meadow and sky

Blonde petals reach towards the storm clouds

Searching desperately for a taste of rain

The drumming of the rain on the clear roof

Like a racing heart

A butterfly is trapped with us

Drinking the nectar and waiting out the storm

She flutters like the melody inside

I wonder if the flowers get the color from

The way the butterfly looks at them

Like when you look at me.

[wordsbetterleft-unsaid]

The winding river departed southbound from the listless lake

His current strong,

Swollen from the heavy rains he brought down upon himself

A knappy jungle grows inward

Spilling over the banks and into his shallows.

Many are the fish in his river;

Many the rocks.

Turbulent and fierce

And joyful in his wake,

I spread my fingers along the surface

Taking in each ripple as they unfold below my hands.

In heat under the summer sun

My boat glides through the river like hands in hair after sundown

He moves me through him

Like air through the trees.

The tide laps the bank

Disolving into him

My secrets

And parts of me i thought i would keep to myself.

I relax and let the river captivate and capture me

Flowing and rushing downstream

Before finally reaching a great ocean

And being overcome with the mighty waves.

[wordsbetterleft-unsaid]

Am I weighing you down?

If I had mailed it It would have shown up Tattered In my own mailbox Several weeks later With return to sender scribbled Across the envelope In your hand I ran out of stamps Trying to mail it back to you Each time to have it show up More and more torn On my own doorstep It sits now On my desk Collecting dust Waiting for me to find the courage to walk myself to the post office and buy some more stamps. My heart is not a paper weight. Don't let it weigh you down.

[sun-spiral-deactivated20210109]

Hey. Don’t just scroll past. Come back and watch this. You need it more than you know.

[fadeintocase]

holy shit.

the time out of your day to watch this will not be wasted, I assure you.

[queersublimeoutcast]

By about the 2:00 I was sobbing.

[khal-blaine]

I scrolled halfway past and then thought “okay i’ll see what it’s about”

Definitely the correct choice. Watch it.

[shanwaters-blog]

They. Were. Wrong.

[nooneyouknowtbh-deactivated2019]

oh god the actual tears on my face

[ttransthirteen]

my english teacher showed us this in class the other day. When it was over, I looked around to see reactions. Half the class had these awkward, slightly uncomfortable grins, and half were staring frozen at the screen. You could really tell who this affected.

[selfharmer-problems]

Oh my… You ALL need to watch this. Very little affects me the way this video did: literally shivers and tears. Please give this a watch.

[underconstruction-did]

It’s back!

[foxherra-deactivated20140807]

I feel like this might be off topic, but guys. I’m here for you! You need someone I’ll be glad to be that someone. Send me an ask it doesn’t matter if you follow me or not I’m here.

[sweetzerlandia]

The comments that tell you to stop and watch this are right.

Seriously.  Scroll back up.

[jaythevoid]

Everyone should watch this. Don’t scroll past this. Watch and remember.

They. Were. Wrong.

[mirinicci]

I almost cried oml I got s h i v e r s. Please watch this ahhhh this is so powerful.

[sourcedumal]

This video. WATCH IT NOW. Because it’s seriously one of the most important things you will ever watch in your life.

[wordsbetterleft-unsaid]

I am slowly writing A symphony In my letters to you Overseas

Measure by measure Line by line Dedicated to your smile And how much I wish You’d come home

Any other musician Wouldn’t have thought twice About my muse But for him My notes float across oceans In a bottle And play my song to you like a music box

Keeper of my heart, Any other musician Would have said Bb When I said A Sharp

[wordsbetterleft-unsaid]

Underneath a pool of cooling lava A carnelian jungle grows Something lurking deep inside you Some things no one has to know There are things lost in the foliage You'll never share at all So if another victim Your carnelian jungle claims I saw the tiger locked inside And only have myself to blame Parts of me are getting stronger But the others still know A sleepy tiger in the early morning Becomes a predator by night Searching my feeble body For something dangerous to fight In mornings when I lie with you All I feel I dread Because one night when I lie with you I might just wake up dead

[wordsbetterleft-unsaid]

Heartwork

I hand you the jagged pieces There’s no handle with care sign On my shattered glass heart I tell you instead To be careful of my sharp points I am more than a little rough around the edges These days, I am nothing but rough edges

You hand it back to me piece my piece Each one polished and smoothed over You take the ugly parts of me and call them beautiful I cannot hurt myself anymore I fit them together A beautiful mosaic No longer clear and crystalline But you and I create a masterpiece all our own You sign your name at the bottom For it is your work of art to claim We hang it up in my gallery And I rope the section off only for you

For a second I wonder what yours looks like And if you have a section roped off for me And who signed their name at the bottom to let the world know it was theirs

[wordsbetterleft-unsaid]

Is this Kadie?

No? My name is sam

[wordsbetterleft-unsaid]

Technicolor Love

My monochrome existence was many shades of grey Afraid of a world I never knew I pushed the colors away Out of darkness, you were light You were nowhere black or white Your touch to me was fire red Burning my desire Lying closely in your bed You held me through the purple night Your arms around me My soul took flight Your eyes were oceans blue and green Sailing off Into my dreams The morning yellow as the sun When you smiled back at me I knew you were the one

[wordsbetterleft-unsaid]

Some of these would be gorgeous songs. I'd love to write some music for them someday. You're a wonderful writer.

I would love that! If you wanted to use any just ask!

[wordsbetterleft-unsaid]

Crawling

Each night I crawl Through doorways and sheets In and out of versions of myself I thought I locked away in years that flew like the birds circling over head They are coming for the pieces left of us There's not much meat left for them to tear But they will find it And take it Like the vultures they are Like the vultures we both are Each night I crawl Out of our bed and into another Hoping to find pieces of myself somewhere Pieces I thought I lost in years that raced like my heart when your hands find my body They illuminate the parts of myself still worth taking They find them And take them like they belong only to you And I let you

[wordsbetterleft-unsaid]

A list of things that make me unnecessarily sad:

The train ride to the shore is lonely Each stop the tears begin to swell As the tide comes inching closer to my feet Destroying everything in its path

The terminal is a place for goodbyes A place where lovers part Saving ‘I love you’ because knowing Would hurt more than broken sea shells on bare feet

The boardwalk, the pier Remind me of times when I smiled When we walked holding hands Before my feet were filled with splinters And the rides made me sick

The sand on the beach like an hour glass Counts down the moments Of my time spent still her Still holding on to sand castle dreams And promises as hollow as the sea shells

Someone left a raft on the shore It is blue and tattered by the waves But still good It is lonely and abandoned

I rinse it off I carry it back up the beach Down the boardwalk Through the terminal And on the train all the way home

The raft doesn’t shed a single tear

“Let me be a blue raft on a blue sea I’ll blend right in” -The Front Bottoms

[wordsbetterleft-unsaid]

I just wanted to let you know that you write beautifully. And I love your poem "Never Date a Musician". You don't need to reply or anything. I just wanted to let you know. Thank you for your poetry.

You are a blessing! Thank you! 

[wordsbetterleft-unsaid]

Growing Like flowers in the back of my mind Exactly the parts where the memories must stay Growing Like the vines up the old fence wall Where we sat facing toward the heavens Growing Like the gravitational pull between our bodies Your hands on mine Growing Like the little girl I once was into the lady in the lake Guiding fish to chew on unsuspecting versions of her former self Growing Like the weeds we used to rip from their roots as little kids Like the ones set ablaze inside of our lungs holding us together Growing Into a cloudy memory of the still clearing storm The first time the sun peaked from behind the clouds long enough to shed light on what almost was Growing Older into a faded photograph of the flowers in the field, the vines scaling the rusted fence, and the newly revealed sun On the day the little girl became the lady in the lake

[wordsbetterleft-unsaid]

I Walked by that house today And the brick steps where we spoke, drunk Have been relaid The windows you broke have all been resaled A years worth of time Allows damage to heal The yard where you told me that you'd have to leave Has new owners now Who don't even grieve The bed where you held me has long been replaced And they patched the walls in the hallway Where you punched me in the face Nothing replaces what four walls can't hold The feelings you gave me Will stay 'til I'm cold

[wordsbetterleft-unsaid]

Self destruction Is the kindest way I can put it When you watch someone you love Break her own heart over and over Lovesick Over a boy who never learned to love himself I cannot sit idly by I will not be the church mouse I must unleash my wrath Upon a sheep in wolves clothing Fire cannot kill a dragon But they clipped my broken wings They trapped me in a cage with wheels As much as I refuse to sit idly by I cannot intervene I blow her smokey kisses Hoping she can learn to breathe her own fire in his direction

[wordsbetterleft-unsaid]

Never date a musician She'll fall in love with you Like a piece she heard in her sleep A piece she'll never write She'll memorize the cadence of your walk How your footsteps become a staccato bounce When you're excited She'll know you like a concert f scale Memorize all your accidentals Your sharps and flats Your highs and lows She'll know that when you're angry, you're a forte piano You hit hard then get soft Then angry and loud all over again She'll know there's a chip in your third octave C# A dusty piano no one uses anymore but her She'll know which keys stick which ones to press to make you sing And which ones she should avoid all together She'll wish she were a Fermata on a whole note At the end of your lullaby So that you'd hold her as long as you could Before tapering off gently to sleep