Xena

Happiness is never a choice
You can move things around to put yourself in situations that might make you happy
You can tell your brain to force your heart to smile but your eyes never lie
You can try
And sometimes, that is enough
The courage to try, is enough
One day, maybe, you'll catch your lips smiling and your heart grinning
Your brain will remind you that you forgot to instruct it
And you'll know from the feeling in your eyes that happiness has arrived
And it will be beautiful
So even if you don't feel it right now
Even if you choose happiness but it's decisions don't match your desire
You can try
And it will be enough
You can try
And your heart will conquer today

Snaggled Hearts

Hate is not a pretty look on you

There is strength in vulnerability and your mind is yours for the conquering

Beauty comes from within and it makes the things around you beautiful too

Yes, love is contagious

Hate is not a pretty look on you

Be better

All ways

Always

Gridlocked Scars

While no one is interested in people who haven't lived and died a couple of times, what has savage solitude done for anyone besides creating broke poets?

Dear heart, who told you you could feel so much?
Catch feelings when you haven't caught the drift?
I can't think over the sound of you breaking
It's the crackling of broken promises, buttered truths, and misappropriated trust
It's the mosaic of open wounds and broken mirrors
That look how you feel
And you feel too much
Give too much
Go on whirlwinds of emotions through every end of the spectrum

Calm the hell down!
Take a break
Catch a breath
Smile
Be still
Your wounds will soon turn to scars
And scars exist because healing occurred
So look forward to the scars
Love them
Let them be the the road map to self-love and contentment
Let them teach you that you don't need to scratch every itch
Some feelings need to be left unattended
So you don't bleed into things mistaken for love
Let the people who already love you take care of you

New friends are good
But you need to flat iron your hair to hang out with them
Old friends are better
They love that your skin is a riot and laugh at your stupid jokes
Your best friend is the best
You don't need to be special for her
She just loves you
Let the people who already love you care for you
There are too many sad and lonely people in the world
And what has savage solitude done for anyone,
Besides creating a gridlock of scars?

Who's laughing now?

The hardest thing about breaking up is not the break up itself, but everything that happens after a break up. It is seeing something incredibly funny, that's part of a running inside joke, that you immediately want to share with that person, but can't. You can share it with other people, but it takes too much explaining and takes away from the fun. So in a split second, you go from being teary-eyed because you're laughing hard, to being teary-eyed because you're stuck with a screenshot and a stupid joke you can't share.

Pride and... never mind

Y'all.
People!
Please, before you go out of your way to be offended by things that have nothing to do with you, check yourself and ask yourself "Self? Why you mad, hun?"

If I say "I'm proud to be skinny" with or without explaining that I'm proud to be skinny because people think I need to eat a burger or that a dress would fit me better if I gained a few extra pounds or that I look like a chicken (all of these things have been said to me)... If I say I'm proud to be skinny because people go out of their way to make me feel ashamed for something I have no control over (I eat like a pig and manage to still look like a chicken), does this mean that I think people who are overweight are ugly? No. My statement has nothing to do with those people, my statement has more to do with me reassuring myself that I am okay, I am enough, I am beautiful despite what other people may think of me and other skinny people. In the same vein, except if expressly stated, just because something is pro-black does not mean it is anti-white. Peace and love.

Vindictive

I feel
And I feel
And I feel

Dear heart
What did I ever do to you?

Enough

There is poetry in the way some people look at you

...like you are the only star in the sky

And you don't need to shine any brighter to be enough

Because you are enough

Strange as you are

Exactly as you are

It's the nerve to dive into feelings that don't make sense

Make room for reservations that fill you with faith

Become a living paradox but balance the equation

Laughter, tears

Simplicity, complexity

Beat poetry, slam poetry

Not-so-good poetry

Music

Art

Love

Love for the things that make your ears flutter

And your eyes water

Love for the things that make your heart want to give till it hurts

And then give some more

Love for the things that make you smile

With tea-stained teeth and olive-filled cheeks

Love for the things that are only perfect in their imperfections

Beautiful in their ugliness

Long reaching in their short comings 

Some people smell like love

Without even trying

These people

Treasure them

These people

They are enough

Strange as they are

Exactly as they are