WHAT RISEN PHOENIXES LOOK LIKE
INNER-CITY ARTS CREATIVE WRITERS | FALL 2018
Angie O.
Bryant G.
Elayna M
Esmeralda P.
Haajarah A.
Jasmine S.
Karenth O.
Leslie A.
Marrah M.
Melissa B.
Sarahi M.
Seth J.
Creative Writing Instructor | Jesse Bliss
Co-Editor | Karenth Octaviano
I PRESENTED MY FEMININE SIDE WITH FLOWERS
by Karenth O.
I presented my feminine side with flowers.
Petals fall as I walk down the aisle.
My long dress has flowers growing on them
to my shoulders all the way down to my feet.
I remember wanting roses but displeasured them because of the thorns and stems.
The rose reminded me of the beautiful people who caused me to bleed.
My sister gave me the suggestion of scraping the thorns off,
but I told her no because you're just leaving them scars.
I presented my feminine side with flowers.
I remember wanting daisies because they looked so pure and innocent.
But then I remember my crimes and sins
and there was no way that I contained that kind of purity.
My desires and temptations making me lose my sanity.
I presented my feminine side with flowers.
I remember wanting sunflowers, but they didn't go well with my skin color.
He told me he didn't like the yellow, to go with another.
I presented my feminine side with flowers.
So I got every kind of flower and let it land on my dress,
like a shower of flowers.
CULTURE
By Leslie A.
My culture gets tangled in yours.
My tongue doesn’t seem to dance
the same way as yours does.
My hair flows a different way.
We have so many more differences
but one thing stays the same;
Our Love.
DREAMS
By Leslie A.
My dream was to love before
snow covered my mountain.
To love before my spring ended.
I don’t want an endless summer,
I want an endless spring night
so, my dream can stay alive all night long.
my dream is now a reality, I loved before
the start of winter
my endless night, my self love.
MARVELOUS YOU
By Marrah M.
Life is filled with marvelous things
Marvelous people, animals, and creative beings
When you walk into the world for the first time
You are welcomed and also unwelcomed
You come into a marvelous world with new and unique ideas
By being in this new world, it will sometimes give you fears
Why is this marvelous world filled with discrimination?
With people who support you and people who want to drain your determination
It’s not worth their efforts
To try to take a marvelous idea and then turn it into something not so marvelous
When you too have something marvelous that you wouldn’t want anyone taking away from you
Your marvelousness is a part of you and something to share with the world
But not for others to steal and to make theirs
Take pride in the marvelous things you can do
For marvelous things will happen
A YOUNG BOY'S LOVE PROBLEM
By Angie Ortega
Did you know how much pain you caused me for months that felt like years.
I loved you more than I loved anyone else, I only thought of you. you were so perfect to me. I only wanted you to be happy.
Whenever you were upset you only pushed me away and isolated yourself. I didn’t like that, I constantly asked if I did something to make you ignore me. You told me “no and that everything was fine."
As months passed everything between was toxic. Arguments and Arguments constantly. You started blaming everything on me. I told him “let’s end this already we can’t be doing this” for the first time tears were dripping down from his beautiful face that I’ll never forget.
RISE UP
By Elayna Martinez
If you think you can stay there, In that emptiness, So vast and so dark and so deep, Then you are a fool to your own mind; If you think you can give up on everything you have ever done, On everything you have worked for, On everyone who has ever been there for you, Then you are an ignorant fool to your own heart; If you think saying those things has convinced others to accept what is to come, Then you are a naïve fool to your own mouth; Rise Up Rise Up from this emptiness, Rise Up from this vast, dark, deep trance, Rise Up from this loneliness you are in, Rise Up from this deep undisturbed chasm of sorrow, Rise Up from this now, as you hear these words echo through the night, This may not be the easiest thing to do, but you will need to do it soon, I know you can do it, And if you can’t do this for yourself, Do it for the trees, Do it for the air, Do it for the sun, Do it for the stars, Do it for the moon; Just do it. You will feel better. Trust me. I did it. And if I didn’t, this piece would not exist
UNDERSTANDING HOW TO LOVE
YOURSELF IS HARD
By Esmeralda P.
Her smile is a lie
Her mind as innocent as it once was
She wants someone to hear her not make fun of her
Making her feel worth of living
But she knows that she isn’t worth it
She needs someone to help her escape her pain
She just wants her friends that she once had to be with
MY HEART BURNS HOTTEST
By Bryant Gutierrez
Your heart might be negative one thousand degrees
But I can take you on for as long as I please
For I come from the hottest depths of the universe
There which lies the most scorching of all chambers
You challenge me with your power to freeze
Just know, I can take you down with ease
For thou heart is not stronger than thee
You cannot survive even a minute with me
My heart burns over one thousand degrees.
5 POEMS FOR TROUBLED SOULS
By Seth J.
A MATTER OF SELF-WORTH, NOT PRIDE
As I laid asunder,
I thought I asked
for help loudly.
But I had really risen
by myself, proudly
THE REST OF LIFE AWAITS
My life has had its share
of misery and woe.
Though I hadn’t asked myself until now,
“So?”
These draining pains
all of them profane
have indeed taken their toll.
But I will not,
I cannot,
allow them to take my soul.
VICES
If you kill a person’s vices,
and leave them to their devices,
they’ll be frightened,
but, eventually, they’ll be heightened.
FOULNESS OVERBEARING
If pride is like a knife
That cuts deep inside,
and foul words are like weapons
that wound sometimes,
how can one live
each and every day
and let foul words and pride hold sway?
BREATHE DEEPLY NOW
A calm,
clear mind
can cleanse
all calamity
WHY ME?
By Melissa B.
We love when there’s hate
We hate when there’s love
I say “I love you”
But the next day am covered with bruises in my body
I try to cover with long sleeves and makeup it doesn't work
The feeling of your fist, your knuckles against my body is recorded I mind
We love when there’s hate
We hate when there’s love
Your breath is the smell of alcohol
The number of shots you take is the number of bruises I will get
Every time we go to a baseball game and you yell
It makes my body tense up, my shift, hard, cold body
Like as if I were a rock in the jungle trying to hind from my predator
When I try to run, you grab me by the hair, pulling me back until I can’t breathe
Why have me when you can’t love me?
We love when there’s hate
We hate when there’s love
You blame me for the wrong of doing
But I don't’ think you notice the wrong you’re doing
Your hair is so soft, your smile is what grabbed my attention
When I first saw you
You made me think you were my prince charming,
but really you are Darth Vader
We love when there’s hate
We hate when there’s love
LIFE IS NOT ALL WAR AND FIRE
By Sarahi M.
Life is not all war and fire
And ruins and raising
Voices and parties
Sometimes it’s the power that lies
In the whisper falling from
Your lips and the quiet
Night in
They’re loud and wild
And you are no, and it tears
Your heart in two
Stay a sunflower, a daisy
Because the thorns don’t deserve
To make you bleed
Like it does them
Stay soft, babygirl, stay soft.
I see the interest in your eyes
The little clues that fall like petals
So much I want to say to you
So much I want to express
But don’t mind me, I’ll be over
There letting the roses in my mouth
Whither and the thorns
Tear my throat a part/until the
Vengeful stems wrap around me and
Turn me into a garden
REMEMBER?
By Haajara A.
You say I only write about the bad things, say I can't remember the good things, say I couldn't remember all the bad, He say that I was too young.
Say I'm writing ‘bout old stuff, guess I ain't got over it yet. He say that he don't like how I write him out to be, like he ain't s*** like he ain't raise his kids, like he don't love us still, like, like he ain't ‘cause me, my mama and brother's to sneak out the house when he was sleep November 14th at 4:07PM… but I got a bad memory?
Says that he tired of not being hero in my poems, I say, “me too”. I write what I know he don't like: the memories he left me with, but I look in the mirror and have his face, reminds me of him.
He say that I'm bitter, I say that's what happens when you don't put sugar in lemonade. Where I'm from, that s*** hurts.
He said that you ain't gonna be successful. I say, “you made damn sure of that, and if I am, you ain't gonna have s***to do with it.”
He said, “remember I came to your karate tournament that one time? Remember I use to take y'all out to hometown buffet? Remember I took you to the movies? Brought you ice cream a few times too, Remember? Remember? Remember?”
Well, after the tournament, you weren't there when I broke my ankle. Guess I was only hungry once. I can't watch the same movie for the rest of my life and you only brought me one flavor of ice cream, but last time I checked, Baskin Robbins got 32.
But I was too young to remember, right?
Remember?
LA MUSIQUE
By Jasmine S.
How do I live my life?
How do I get by?
Music, it’s the answer
And that’s not a lie
When I’m down and when I’m up
It helps me, and the path isn’t rough
It’s smooth as I nod and sing to the tune
Doesn’t matter if I’m not the only one in the room
Music keeps me grounded and gives me strength
It even gives me the confidence to go great lengths
Badadum, as I think of songs
And hum, because I feel strong
And rise above
As the song changes, onto the next
A new beat and rhyme scheme
And as the song starts, I deem
Music is my life, and this is my song
And that will never change
Because without it I’m nothing
But with it, I’m everything.
