?
The Roller Coaster of Life
I’m going up, my harness so tight that I can already see the mark it’s gonna make. Up and up until finally I’m at the top. I am met with the mesmerizing view and the high altitude sickness. And then I get this idea.
Let’s go higher.
The mountain is steep and my harness can barely hold. My conscience is telling me to go back and embrace the view I had, but my ego pushes me through.
I’m almost there, my earlier sickness about 10x worse when. . .
I slip.
Suddenly my harness is gone and I am plummeting down to the ground. I close my eyes and brace for my imminent death when something worse happens.
I survive.
So here I am, my body a bloodied mess. And now it’s up to me to decide how my story ends.
Anonymous
The Beauty of Being Broken
Life is hard, and sometimes easy. It depends on how you want it to be. It depends on your actions, not anyone else’s. Sometimes life gives you a challenge, and you just think of giving up. Don’t ever give up. God sent you here for a reason. Life will only be easy for ten minutes or so. Don’t expect that you won’t cross a bumpy road as the journey goes on. Don’t drag things out. If you drag them out, you’re only wasting your time. You could use that time on doing fun things, studying, or planning out your career or family. You don’t realize how you can easily miss out on so much stuff if you’re just sad all the time or just mad. I’ve experienced this.
For three years, I stayed alone in my room, barely talked, just stayed sad and quiet. I missed out on a lot of things. I couldn’t spend time with my sister or family. I couldn’t go out with friends if they offered me. I could barely spend time on my education with all my continuous thinking of negative things. I regret all of these things. My reasons for getting depressed were severe family issues, and a toxic person that entered my life. I got over this person after 2 years. I met him on July 4th, 2016. Then in July of 2018, I moved on from our toxic relationship. I had separated from him on September 18, 2016. However, my heart was still hurt from him.
My life before I met this person was full of happiness and brightness. But after I got close to this person, my happiness was sinking into a never ending black hole. I had gave this person many chances after repeatedly hurting me. Even after I moved on, I accepted him as a friend. I moved on from this person after 2-3 years, and the reason I moved on was because another miracle had entered my life. After that happened, I accepted the person as my friend and forgave him for hurting me multiple times and backstabbing me.
The miracle that entered my life is a special person that is still present in my life. This person will always be in my life. However, this person tries to heal all of my pain away, whether it’s family issues or past issues. Except, my pain is not erasable, but I am able to find new happiness with my miraculous person.
Everyday, I tell him that he is a blessing for me. I knew him for 4 years, except never talked to him till June of 2018. We slowly proceeded as friends, and then formed a relation made of love. If we think about it today, we don’t know much about each other. All we know is that we completely trust each other, it’s as if our hearts had a connection once we started talking. His family knows about him and I, except my family doesn’t. There’s many complications in us being together, due to my family. We’re still fighting through. Each day a new problem comes through, except we hold each other's hand and fight each problem.
Throughout my childhood, I didn’t get much attention from my family. However, we all continued to love each other. Once I entered middle school, I started changing. As in behavior wise, music wise, habit wise, and personality wise. I came to a point where I couldn’t take it anymore. In middle school, usually your parents would go with you to open house nights, for me I went with my aunt, or either my friends. Open house was one of the nights I’d always want my parents to come and see my work, except that didn’t happen much. At age 7, my grandpa passed away, so my mom pushed me away to my grandma so she wouldn’t feel lonely. Ever since then, I decided to never leave my grandma’s hand. Each night, I’d sleep with her in her room. I consider my grandma as my mother from that point, she’s basically the one who raised me.
At times, I would think of ending it all. Except I wanted to prove myself to everyone that I can be someone successful, and that I’ll be able to push throughout all the complications. Now I can say, I’m not a victim of depression or loneliness, I’m a friend of it. Except all the complications have changed my mindset. I always tend to have trust issues and doubts on people I love. Including my miraculous person.
Imagine seeing yourself from someone else’s perspective. What would you think of yourself? I know what I would think of myself. I’d think that I wasted all my time being sad on how a person hurt me. I gave attention to a person who was a problem. Never do that. That means you’re giving importance to the person who is a thorn in your life. That’s what scissors are meant for, to cut the thorns off, or just cut off part of the stem that has the thorn on it. You have to solve your own problems, and don’t expect anyone else to fix them for you.
Anonymous
I Hear Not The Trees
I hear not the trees
But the leaves
I hear them fall to the ground
Trying to catch the next gust of wind
That will take them away
A wind that will make their course
The leaves have no choice where they go
But they are ambitious
They are excited
They have left the tree
To embark on their own journey
I wonder
how the tree feels
It grows its leaves
Only to watch them leave its branches
But the tree is stuck
It can’t move
Can’t catch a gust of wind
Can’t find any adventure
Dhanika Pineda
Of All
Of all places
A fellow with no name
I was brought
To you
Of all chances
With coffee and a book
I would pass
By you
Of all days
Mysterious by memorial
Left in thought
Of you
Of all hope
In another life
Love might bring
Me to You.
Catherine Huck
The Mechanics of a Portrait
Walk over to the table as you juggle paint-stained mason jars in your arms, filled with pens, markers, and pencils. Set them down on the cloth, and straighten out the sheet you will use. Place the charcoal sticks gently aside from your white paper. There are forms in which to draw a person; to detail a face. And it begins with studying your focus.
Examine the crinkles of the eyes, the sharpness of the nose. Are the hairs on his scalp neat and organized, or do they tousle this way and that? Evaluate the intensity of his gaze and the direction it looks toward. Identify what is prominent. His brows are defined, but not thick. His lips are slightly parted, but not that the bottom lip appears to be slightly plumper than the top. Allow the sunlight to illuminate the white of the drawing paper. Select a pencil, and map out the form of his features. Draw an ellipse for the face, and a horizontal egg to determine the forehead and scalp. A light line scans down the center of the egg and ellipse, marking where the nose and lips will be centered. From left to right, draw the line that will slice through the corners of the eyes and the center of the pupils. Form corners for the jaw, and slope the neck down from them. Lay out the person’s geometry.
Choose to draw in silence or with music. With music, you channel out the rest of the universe and become only interested in the whites, blacks, greys, and dark greys that begin to appear on your work. Scribble with confidence as you carve out his cheekbones, the spirals of his nostrils. Sharpen the tip of the 2MB pencil, and make the creases of his lips. Allow your hand to dance with the utensil. Let them build a flow and allow the wrist to tick across as you curve the jawline. That gray lump next to your mason jar is not an eraser, but a smudger. Twist it into a shape, and use it to blend the shades of black, and make the charcoal look like skin. Press harder to remove the black and lighten the cheekbones, the middle of the eyelids, the tip of the nose, the corner of the jaw. Erase the unwanted smudges, and deepen the tint of the shadows. Is the forehead brighter than the cheeks? Can you see his emotion? Only you will know when you have finished.
If you have correctly undergone the process of drawing, you will have become enveloped in capturing the existence of another. You will have embraced the lines that were not intentionally made, and allow it to take part in the piece. Your fingertips will be stained in tar pigments. You will have failed to notice at which moment the moon rose up and the daylight dimmed away, transformed into the charcoal black of night.
Laura Lira
Release
Do you hear the song of the nightly lark?
It calls your name, it beckons you.
Welcome it inside your chamber,
Fear not the coming of the dark.
The time has come to shut your eyes,
Sleep, for tomorrow is another life.
Your soul has escaped,
Let your body follow,
With lessons learned, give up the strife.
What else could this realm have left to offer?
When each vibrant drop,
Has been used for simple game.
You've had your fun, and paid with suffer,
Now Mors is here to make his claim.
Let go, my sister, and join the other side,
To dance in health and joyous spring.
Forget what has been left behind,
And embark on that which can't be seen.
Here on this tattered Earth,
There's love for nothing but dead-ends,
Break through the gate that holds you back,
To a beginning that will amend.
Close your eyes and go to sleep.
From your tormented shell, there will be peace.
Let the lark guide your spirit,
It's time for you to be released.
Deb Eskie
Burn
the girl looked up
and frowned at the sun
why do you mock me?
she screamed
full of anger
of hatred
of jealousy
the sun gleamed back
and smirked in her direction
the famous Ball Of Fire
filled with happiness
the source of life
the source of everyone else’s joy
why do you mock me?
she pleaded
why must you show me a life I could have
literally hanging over my head the entire day
just out of reach
where you know i can’t touch it?
everyone else deserves mercy
right?
their sunblock can protect them from your rays
taking none of the pain
but all of the warmth
while i sit here
burning
Anonymous
The Roller Coaster of Life
I’m going up, my harness so tight that I can already see the mark it’s gonna make. Up and up until finally I’m at the top. I am met with the mesmerizing view and the high altitude sickness. And then I get this idea.
Let’s go higher.
The mountain is steep and my harness can barely hold. My conscience is telling me to go back and embrace the view I had, but my ego pushes me through.
I’m almost there, my earlier sickness about 10x worse when. . .
I slip.
Suddenly my harness is gone and I am plummeting down to the ground. I close my eyes and brace for my imminent death when something worse happens.
I survive.
So here I am, my body a bloodied mess. And now it’s up to me to decide how my story ends.
Anonymous
The Beauty of Being Broken
Life is hard, and sometimes easy. It depends on how you want it to be. It depends on your actions, not anyone else’s. Sometimes life gives you a challenge, and you just think of giving up. Don’t ever give up. God sent you here for a reason. Life will only be easy for ten minutes or so. Don’t expect that you won’t cross a bumpy road as the journey goes on. Don’t drag things out. If you drag them out, you’re only wasting your time. You could use that time on doing fun things, studying, or planning out your career or family. You don’t realize how you can easily miss out on so much stuff if you’re just sad all the time or just mad. I’ve experienced this.
For three years, I stayed alone in my room, barely talked, just stayed sad and quiet. I missed out on a lot of things. I couldn’t spend time with my sister or family. I couldn’t go out with friends if they offered me. I could barely spend time on my education with all my continuous thinking of negative things. I regret all of these things. My reasons for getting depressed were severe family issues, and a toxic person that entered my life. I got over this person after 2 years. I met him on July 4th, 2016. Then in July of 2018, I moved on from our toxic relationship. I had separated from him on September 18, 2016. However, my heart was still hurt from him.
My life before I met this person was full of happiness and brightness. But after I got close to this person, my happiness was sinking into a never ending black hole. I had gave this person many chances after repeatedly hurting me. Even after I moved on, I accepted him as a friend. I moved on from this person after 2-3 years, and the reason I moved on was because another miracle had entered my life. After that happened, I accepted the person as my friend and forgave him for hurting me multiple times and backstabbing me.
The miracle that entered my life is a special person that is still present in my life. This person will always be in my life. However, this person tries to heal all of my pain away, whether it’s family issues or past issues. Except, my pain is not erasable, but I am able to find new happiness with my miraculous person.
Everyday, I tell him that he is a blessing for me. I knew him for 4 years, except never talked to him till June of 2018. We slowly proceeded as friends, and then formed a relation made of love. If we think about it today, we don’t know much about each other. All we know is that we completely trust each other, it’s as if our hearts had a connection once we started talking. His family knows about him and I, except my family doesn’t. There’s many complications in us being together, due to my family. We’re still fighting through. Each day a new problem comes through, except we hold each other's hand and fight each problem.
Throughout my childhood, I didn’t get much attention from my family. However, we all continued to love each other. Once I entered middle school, I started changing. As in behavior wise, music wise, habit wise, and personality wise. I came to a point where I couldn’t take it anymore. In middle school, usually your parents would go with you to open house nights, for me I went with my aunt, or either my friends. Open house was one of the nights I’d always want my parents to come and see my work, except that didn’t happen much. At age 7, my grandpa passed away, so my mom pushed me away to my grandma so she wouldn’t feel lonely. Ever since then, I decided to never leave my grandma’s hand. Each night, I’d sleep with her in her room. I consider my grandma as my mother from that point, she’s basically the one who raised me.
At times, I would think of ending it all. Except I wanted to prove myself to everyone that I can be someone successful, and that I’ll be able to push throughout all the complications. Now I can say, I’m not a victim of depression or loneliness, I’m a friend of it. Except all the complications have changed my mindset. I always tend to have trust issues and doubts on people I love. Including my miraculous person.
Imagine seeing yourself from someone else’s perspective. What would you think of yourself? I know what I would think of myself. I’d think that I wasted all my time being sad on how a person hurt me. I gave attention to a person who was a problem. Never do that. That means you’re giving importance to the person who is a thorn in your life. That’s what scissors are meant for, to cut the thorns off, or just cut off part of the stem that has the thorn on it. You have to solve your own problems, and don’t expect anyone else to fix them for you.
Anonymous
I Hear Not The Trees
I hear not the trees
But the leaves
I hear them fall to the ground
Trying to catch the next gust of wind
That will take them away
A wind that will make their course
The leaves have no choice where they go
But they are ambitious
They are excited
They have left the tree
To embark on their own journey
I wonder
how the tree feels
It grows its leaves
Only to watch them leave its branches
But the tree is stuck
It can’t move
Can’t catch a gust of wind
Can’t find any adventure
Dhanika Pineda
Of All
Of all places
A fellow with no name
I was brought
To you
Of all chances
With coffee and a book
I would pass
By you
Of all days
Mysterious by memorial
Left in thought
Of you
Of all hope
In another life
Love might bring
Me to You.
Catherine Huck
The Mechanics of a Portrait
Walk over to the table as you juggle paint-stained mason jars in your arms, filled with pens, markers, and pencils. Set them down on the cloth, and straighten out the sheet you will use. Place the charcoal sticks gently aside from your white paper. There are forms in which to draw a person; to detail a face. And it begins with studying your focus.
Examine the crinkles of the eyes, the sharpness of the nose. Are the hairs on his scalp neat and organized, or do they tousle this way and that? Evaluate the intensity of his gaze and the direction it looks toward. Identify what is prominent. His brows are defined, but not thick. His lips are slightly parted, but not that the bottom lip appears to be slightly plumper than the top. Allow the sunlight to illuminate the white of the drawing paper. Select a pencil, and map out the form of his features. Draw an ellipse for the face, and a horizontal egg to determine the forehead and scalp. A light line scans down the center of the egg and ellipse, marking where the nose and lips will be centered. From left to right, draw the line that will slice through the corners of the eyes and the center of the pupils. Form corners for the jaw, and slope the neck down from them. Lay out the person’s geometry.
Choose to draw in silence or with music. With music, you channel out the rest of the universe and become only interested in the whites, blacks, greys, and dark greys that begin to appear on your work. Scribble with confidence as you carve out his cheekbones, the spirals of his nostrils. Sharpen the tip of the 2MB pencil, and make the creases of his lips. Allow your hand to dance with the utensil. Let them build a flow and allow the wrist to tick across as you curve the jawline. That gray lump next to your mason jar is not an eraser, but a smudger. Twist it into a shape, and use it to blend the shades of black, and make the charcoal look like skin. Press harder to remove the black and lighten the cheekbones, the middle of the eyelids, the tip of the nose, the corner of the jaw. Erase the unwanted smudges, and deepen the tint of the shadows. Is the forehead brighter than the cheeks? Can you see his emotion? Only you will know when you have finished.
If you have correctly undergone the process of drawing, you will have become enveloped in capturing the existence of another. You will have embraced the lines that were not intentionally made, and allow it to take part in the piece. Your fingertips will be stained in tar pigments. You will have failed to notice at which moment the moon rose up and the daylight dimmed away, transformed into the charcoal black of night.
Laura Lira
Release
Do you hear the song of the nightly lark?
It calls your name, it beckons you.
Welcome it inside your chamber,
Fear not the coming of the dark.
The time has come to shut your eyes,
Sleep, for tomorrow is another life.
Your soul has escaped,
Let your body follow,
With lessons learned, give up the strife.
What else could this realm have left to offer?
When each vibrant drop,
Has been used for simple game.
You've had your fun, and paid with suffer,
Now Mors is here to make his claim.
Let go, my sister, and join the other side,
To dance in health and joyous spring.
Forget what has been left behind,
And embark on that which can't be seen.
Here on this tattered Earth,
There's love for nothing but dead-ends,
Break through the gate that holds you back,
To a beginning that will amend.
Close your eyes and go to sleep.
From your tormented shell, there will be peace.
Let the lark guide your spirit,
It's time for you to be released.
Deb Eskie
Burn
the girl looked up
and frowned at the sun
why do you mock me?
she screamed
full of anger
of hatred
of jealousy
the sun gleamed back
and smirked in her direction
the famous Ball Of Fire
filled with happiness
the source of life
the source of everyone else’s joy
why do you mock me?
she pleaded
why must you show me a life I could have
literally hanging over my head the entire day
just out of reach
where you know i can’t touch it?
everyone else deserves mercy
right?
their sunblock can protect them from your rays
taking none of the pain
but all of the warmth
while i sit here
burning
Anonymous