What a month it has been. The rapid pace of change; the stress-inducing events that have taken their toll on us. We are all in need of release and the opportunity to express our deepest feelings about the world as it is and how we want it to be.
Poetry has the unique gift of bypassing conventional attempts to explain our innermost thoughts, passions, and fears. Its therapeutic power engages the senses and allows access to the hidden world of our souls. Whether you write your own personal poetry, read the gorgeous classics, or stumble upon a poem written by someone you've never heard of, it all resonates on a deep, meaningful level. Poetry allows for a healing of the wounds and offers a friendly common ground for us all to meet.
Flapper Press is honored to present original poetry submitted by our writers and readers from around the world. This month's submissions highlight our ever-changing world with its challenges and silver linings.
Please submit your work to Flapper Press, and we will publish it in next month's post.
Revolution
Freedom is a fragile illusion for many, and a broken promise to the rest.
A tale of the unattainable spun throughout the course of centuries.
Divided, we are fractured.
Divided, we are falling.
Pawns in a game we never agreed to play.
Pitted against one another by careful systemic design.
Our faces are lost within the numerous many.
Our voices suppressed to whispers in attempt to silence.
Against all odds, some manage to overcome the design.
Some dare to dream a dream.
Some look beyond what is shown to seek truth for a better future.
Change is born of one, and that one becomes many.
“Me” and I” become “We” and “us. “
We are now a vast sea of collective faces, demanding to be seen.
We are a chanting collaboration of voices, screaming to be heard.
We are finding our way through a moment in time with a broken compass.
The voices of the past now guide us through present storms and troubled waters.
With that guidance, we find our way with newfound strength in knowing we are not alone.
We are mending the fracture and healing the great divide.
We are exploiting the flaws within the design.
We raise our voices in unison and our clasped hands to the sky.
Victory comes to the dreamers who dare to dream together as a united force.
Together we are seen.
Together we are heard.
Together we are hope.
Together we are change.
Together we are power.
Together we are revolution.
— Shan O'Connor
Wind is wild on the hill and yellow balsam root nod their wide smiles as breathy grass plays backup, lean like old men and cigarettes, like the time before we knew all the bad things. You're in the air hush, and I think you'd even let it ruffle your hair like that day in the poppies, your skirt looped across the orange expanse, the way you printed the picture again and again so we could all be there too.
You were of the before time when all we feared was earthquakes and tunnels, before it was our very breath that kept us separate, that held us back.
— Gillian Kessler
Winds of Change
The winds of change
Swept through the valleys
Tornadoes unrooted the trees
Earthquakes pulverized the mountains
Fires destroyed the quiet meadows
Animals raced for safety
Searching for food in destruction
Birds on frantic wings of escape
Sought deliverance from the scourge
The tectonic plates shifted reality
Seeking solidity and quiet
To find, again, a balance in nature,
Inhabitants scurrying before the end
Searching for a new beginning
Waiting for the other ‘shoe’ to fall.
The winds of change
Swept through the valleys
Leaving death and destruction behind
Creating a time for regeneration
In the pandemonium of disruption
A time to wait for the power of life
Waiting for the resurrection of living
To bring forth a new normal
To this valley of tears,
Waiting for a new day of vision
When the trees have grown again
When mountain meadows blossom
When the land grows in silent gestation
When animals graze in quiet forests
And birds bring back their songs
Creating a new ‘shoe’ to fit the birthing.
The winds of change
Blow from devastation to creation
The old normal of the ages
Continues to revitalize the new
Bringing a normal not yet seen
Requiring time and commitment
Demanding a shift in perspective -
The new Mountain range is magnificent
The quiet Forest glens are full of life
The Rivers sing a happy song of freshness
The Animals find the new invigorating
The Birds orchestrate a new song of joy
As the New becomes normal
As the old slips away into reflection
And life continues to evolve out of chaos
Into a new beauty that transforms the old
A balance not yet seen in the chaos
A balance always there to be touched
Seminal in being, pregnant with growth
By the magic of change:
A wind blowing through the valleys
Inflating the world with a new breath
Touching the heart with a new pulse
Opening a fresh future out of the old past
Bringing fulfillment to wishes and dreams.
— Roger Desmarais
Submit your poetry to Flapper Press! We'll publish it in next month's post!