How To Write A (Sad) Poem

I write many, many poems.
Some are happy—
The sparkle of the sun
On the sea
Or the shimmer of sunset
On the ocean.
And then there are some poems
That are angry—
Red and furious and hot
Fire that burns
As if heart and soul
Have turned to sparks
And started a wildfire.
And then there are poems,
The poems that I write
At two a.m.,
The poems that I write
When I am at my lowest, most lost moment,
The poems whose pages
Are transparent because of my tears
And those whose pages
Are made to match my soul—
Those are the poems I write
For my demons and for my sadness.
And they are not easy to write—
No. They are a process.
To write a sad poem,
One must break one's heart
To a million pieces;
One must pick out a single shard
And place it in a glass case.
One must taste the words upon one's tongue
And feel them turn to tears and rain—
And one must tear the paper in half
Until it becomes whole again.
 

Silent Wolf

MA

19 years old

More by Silent Wolf

  • Bandaids for Bad Dreams


    Bandaids for Bad Dreams

    I wish there were bandaids for all the cuts on my arm,
    but there’s no bandaids, because I can’t tell anybody
    that I’m bleeding.

    I wish there were bandaids for all my scars,
  • Just the Villain


    Villain

    I tried to say hi to a girl yesterday
    Can you tell me why she was so afraid?
    I know I’m fine—not disfigured or two-faced
    I promise you guys that I’m perfectly sane.
    My teachers don’t seem to think I’m all there
  • Enough


    Isn’t it enough?

    Isn’t it enough for you
    That there have been 102 mass shootings
    In the past year?

    Isn’t it enough for you
    That most of them have been hate crimes
    And have gone unpunished?