Category: Uncategorized

Frida Kahlo Tribute

I have decided to go back to writing tribute posts to certain writers, poets, artists and those I find inspirational. This post is dedicated to Frida Kahlo whose birthday is right around the corner. She was a very influential artist of her time. Her paintings are quite unique. I remember seeing a Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Portland Art Museum. It really opened my eyes up a lot. I have seen a lot of her work over the years. But here is a poem inspired by one of her quotes. Here is the quote I was inspired by. Frida Kahlo says the following. “Fall in love with yourself, with life, and then with whoever you want.” That is about it for this post. Here is a poem to enjoy.

Do Whatever the Hell You Want To

I hope you look in the mirror and
Fall in love with the jagged, broken
And imperfect pieces of you. Your hair,
Body and skin may not be perfect, but
You, my darling, were never handed
A map for perfection. You have awoken
From a deep slumber as your love affair
With yourself is beautiful. Trust your gut

Instinct life is beautiful and so are you.
Your mind and body go to war, but fall
In love with your life instead of worrying
About who is going to love you. Some
Day you will fall in love with someone who
Is meant for you, never letting your wall
Crumble like a castle. You are freeing
Yourself from expectations. You are the sun.

Betrayal

Betrayal is one of the worst feelings in the world. Sometimes we think it comes from those we do not know or people who we think are our enemies, but the sad truth is that it could come from someone we are familiar with. That leads me into my first quote of this blog post. “The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies.” In other words it comes from people we know and love, whether that is family, friends or our partners. I think that is why betrayal hurts a lot because we trust those people, but then they betray us. It could be intentional, but it could be unintentional as well. Either way it still hurts and causes a lot of pain, especially for those who feel betrayed. There is another sad truth to betrayal. It can be explained best by the following quote by Arthur Miller. He says, “Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.” I think he means that betrayal is the only truth that sticks and lingers. I know this feels like a sad post so I will try to keep it short I promise.

There could be a positive side to betrayal as well. You can learn so much from it and it is a reflection of who the other person is, not yourself. That leads me to my last and final quote of this blog post. Well… actually three final quotes. The first one is the following. “When someone betrays you, it is a reflection of their character, not yours.” I think that quote is pretty self explanatory, but I will try to explain it the best I can. Betrayal does not show who you are, but it shows who the betrayer really is and has nothing to do with you. Betrayal in other words is not completely your fault. So you should not have to feel guilty. The second to last quote by Sherrilyn Kenyon says, “Everyone suffers at least one bad betrayal in their lifetime. It’s what unites us. The trick is not to let it destroy your trust in others when that happens. Don’t let them take that away from you.” So in other words, do not let that one bad betrayal destroy what you hold so dear and give to others… trust, which is one if not the most important thing in this world.

In conclusion, betrayal is one of the worst things anyone deals with, but we just have to keep moving on no matter how hard that is. That leads me to my last quote of this blog post, I promise. Carmen Harra says, “Betrayal leaves us at a fork in the road… we can become stuck in a bad moment forever or we can put it behind us for good. We decide our path.” In other words, betrayal gives us two options. One is to let it linger and fester. The other option is to move on and leave it in the past. In all honesty, it is better to choose the second option of moving on and leaving betrayal in the past because it does no good to keep a hold on it for our present or future. I hope that everyone enjoys the following visual poem about one form of betrayal.

“Betrayal of Love” visual poem. Image by Jills from Pixabay.

Game of Chess

I have never been particularly good at playing chess. It definitely requires concentration and strategy, after all it requires to win the game by check mating the king. That leads me to my first quote of this post by Garry Kasparou who says, “Chess helps you concentrate, improve your logic. It teaches you to play by the rules and take responsibility for your actions, how to problem solve in an uncertain environment.” So in other words, chess can help us in so many ways in real life. It teaches you survival and problem solving for example.

I am going to do something interesting here by comparing life to a game of chess. That leads me to another quote, this one by Allan Rufus. He said, “Life is like a game of chess. To win you have to make a move.
Knowing which move to make comes with IN-SIGHT and knowledge, and by learning the lessons that are acculated along the way. We become each and every piece within the game called life!” He sums it up perfectly for why life is like a game of chess.

Like I said before, in order to win the game you have to capture the king and be able to say checkmate which is when the other player is all out of moves. This is another way in which life is like a game of chess. A lot of the time you have to make moves in silence. That leads me to my next quote which is pretty straightforward. “Move in silence, only speak when its time to say checkmate.” So in other words, do not announce your moves to anyone. You do not want anyone, especially your enemies to know any of your moves ahead of time. You just want to keep them guessing.

Some people might think an important piece is a pawn or maybe the king because that is who a chess player wants to protect, but I personally think that one of the important and powerful pieces is the queen. That leads me to these next quotes, the first by Karim R. Ellis who says, “A king may be the most important piece on the chess board however the queen is the most powerful as she performs more moves than any other token. Men take notes.” The other quote is by Tiffany Reisz who says, “The king was the strong piece, of course. The most important chess piece and the most vulnerable to attack. But the queen… the queen was the most powerful chess piece. More powerful than the king. And the queen could move any way she wanted…” Those quotes sum it up perfectly of why the queen is the most important and powerful pieces. She can go in any direction she chooses and is not limited in how many squares she can move in. Horizontal, vertical, or diagonal. It does not matter.

Let’s move onto the king and the whole meaning behind chess. Like I said before… the whole point of chess is to capture the king. This next and final quote sums up what chess is all about. “In chess, the king is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent’s king so that its escape is not possible (checkmate). If a player’s king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If it cannot be done, the king is said to be in checkmate. Although the king is the most important piece, it is usually the weakest piece in the game until a later phase, the endgame.” So in other words, the king can be an important piece as well as being the weakest piece too. I know there is a lot to absorb and remember here, but the main thing is that although chess is just a game it can teach us a thing or two about the real world. I am including a poem here. It won me runner up for a competition I participated in on DUP. I hope that my readers really enjoy this one. Cheers!!

Game of Chess

Make your moves in silence as one does
In a game of chess. Watch out as pawns
Become castles, knights, bishops, queens
And kings. Do not second guess because
In those moments of weakness the swans
Take advantage. Mirrors or smoke screens

Will advert you from the truth as you keep
Your guard up with your knifes sharpened
And ready. Calculate your moves so your
Enemies do not see you slipping or asleep.
To them you are like a decaying carcass,
But little do they know you won the war

And the game they came to play. My dear,
It is already check and checkmate. They
Should just give up the game as you are
The true queen. They should not only fear
You, but also underestimate. You will stay
Useless in their eyes, but you are the star.

Where I Bloom & Come From

I have really taken the time to reflect on where I bloom and come from both personally and as a poet. I have to say that I have come far. I think for both they have changed for the better. When I look up bloom on the dictionary one of the definitions is the following: “to flourish or thrive” (from dictionary.com). Or it could mean the following as well. “Bloom (noun): A beautiful process of becoming.” Either one of those definitions is correct in my mind. However, blooming is not always a beautiful process I feel like because sometimes it can be downright messy, but still you are becoming someone or something. That is what blooming is all about and at the same time you do not forget where you come from. I think this next quote by Jacqueline Woodson sums up my writing and poetry perfectly. She says, “My writing is inspired by where I come from, where I am today, and where I hope to go some day.” So in other words, my writing is an essential part of who I am and where I want to go some day in the future.

We all bloom for a reason, even if there is rough patches along the way. That brings me to my next quote. “Flowers do not bloom without a little rain. Everything has its purpose, even pain.” It is like what I was saying before about everything having a purpose and reason. A lot of time there is purpose to rain and something that is painful. Some of my work and poetry blooms or comes from a place of hurt and pain. There are a lot of incidences in which I came from a place of being broken or torn or angry or sad or upset or whatever emotion I am feeling, but my poetry has saved me time and time again. I tend to bloom I feel like from everywhere including places other people tend to overlook like the pain and something that might feel uncomfortable. That brings me to my next quote. “When you’re in a dark place, you sometimes tend to think you’ve been buried. Perhaps you’ve been planted. Bloom.” In other words, bloom from where you have been planted.

It is the best feeling in the world when you can look back and see how far you have come. I feel like blooming is a sign of growth. You bloom to grow and literally blossom. It takes strength and courage to grow, blossom and bloom. A lot of the time we tend to grow or bloom in unknown places. That brings me to my next quote by E.V., which says, “Like wildflowers; you must allow yourself to grow in all the places people never though you would.” So in other words, grow in places people would never expect from you. Yes, they will be surprised, but it is okay for things to be different. If we were all the same as we were before then we would not be growing or blooming very much at all. I know that this is a super long post, but thank you for hanging in with me. I hope that my readers take the time to really reflect on where they bloom or come from because that is something VERY important. I hope that you enjoy the following poem about my own blooming process. Cheers!!!!

Where I Bloom From

I bloom from all the cracks in the sidewalk
And where people step all over me, but do
Not take the time to admire the little things.

I bloom from the imperfections people balk
At and are too scared to see. I bloom into
Words flowers are jealous of. One springs

And blooms from all the light, but I bloom
From the darkness too. I bloom from the ash
As it led me to have new skin, hope, and life.

I bloom from a sacred and protective womb.
I bloom from the choices that left me to crash
And burn, but allowed me to learn in strife.

I bloom from the words, torn and tattered,
But yet it is poetry that becomes my savior
When I still would have been too broken or

Hurt to move on. I bloom from the splattered
Messes. I bloom from my success and failures.
Lastly, I bloom from everything people ignore.

Old Drama

Remember when I talked way back when about leaving things behind? Well… one of those things that we have to leave behind is old drama. I do not know about you all, but I got teased relentlessly throughout middle school and high school. Those people who teased me, I do not associate myself with them anymore or at least I try not to. The worst thing is that they pretend to be your friend and do not remember that they treated you terribly back then. Yes, I am a person who loves drama, but that only comes in the form of theatre and performance drama. Trust me, I have dealt with drama, especially coming from a huge family, especially on my mom’s side. Someone is always talking about someone or not speaking to someone or spreading rumors. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Sounds like high school all over again. Please, I know we are back in high school with this bullshit, pardon my language. Two things I will not tolerate; those are fake people and old drama.

That brings me into my next point of combing the two. I do not have the time, nor the patience to be dealing with those kinds of people. That brings me to this…which is best explained in this quote. “Sometimes those who don’t socialize much aren’t anti-social, they just have no tolerance for drama and fake people.” The worst assumption that people can make about me and people who are very similar in this regard is that we are anti-social. We still deal with people, just not those who are trying to bring us down and I will take more about the type of people we should be around in a different post…later down the road. That is why I only associate myself with some people from school, especially middle school and high school. That brings me into my next quote. “Drama just does not just walk into your life. Either you create it, invite it, or associate it.” In other words, do not let drama come into your life. It will give you headaches and things you do not want in the long run.

I know that I keep telling people this, but walk away. However, this time I am saying to walk away from drama. You should never try to associate yourself with drama. That brings me into my next quote which says “Real people avoid drama. They know their time is too precious. and choose not to waste it on unimportant people.” Sometimes I should take my own advice. Do not walk right into drama either. Those people who create drama thrive off of it, so do not give them that satisfaction. I just wanted to thank an old friend of mine from middle school, Ms. Sareena, who inspired this poem. You taught me a valuable lesson of never entertaining or being fooled by old drama. The best thing to do is to extend an olive branch and forgive. However, if they do not take it and want to bring up old drama, then walk away. Keep walking and never look back. I hate to be harsh, but those people do not deserve to be in your life. Cheers and remember that you should try to live your life as drama free as possible.

Leave the Drama Behind

Do not be fooled by the old
Drama and by people who think
They know you. They acted cold
Towards you while they wink
At you now, thinking that you are still
Friends. Darling, they are dumb
Enough to want to catch up and fill
The space with stories, but some
People never change. They want
The gossip and the latest scoop,
Not knowing that every taunt
Still echoes. Go ahead and snoop
Because you have nothing to hide.
In fact you have been way more
Successful while they want to ride
With you to the top. They swore
To be your friend, but they
Have become masters at telling
Lies. Never let them get their way
And become manipulators. Swelling
With pride is their way of being
Secretly envious. They want your
Life because they are finally seeing
They are going nowhere fast. Before
You let them watch you fail, succeed
So hard that they have to doubt
Themselves. You will find no need
To satisfy them. Their drought
Is your garden, watered with hunger
And motivation to live above
The drama. You are not any younger,
Living in a world lacking love
And respect because those people
Will still love you, but you also find
Forgiveness under the same steeple.
Leave the hurt and scars behind
Where they belong. Right their
Wrongs even when they are
Far from being sorry. Clear the air
And leave it at that. Be a bright star.

Dealing With the Players

I am going to apologize ahead of time because I know that this is a topic that I am sure a lot of people are tired of hearing about, but I am going to talk about it anyways and I am sorry if I offend people or if any of this comes across as cruel. It is a subject that is important to me and should be important to everybody (especially the girls and women here because we deal with it on a daily basis). That topic is guys who are players (I am not talking about guys who play sports like hockey, baseball, basketball, etc.). These are guys who are smooth in terms of knowing what to do and what to say around women. I am sorry to say that these guys do not care about other people because they only care about themselves and their egos.

They manipulate women and try to (and for the most part succeed) get what they want. They are selfish and sometimes insecure. Trust me, I know this stuff because I have dealt with a guy like this before back when I was in college. Let us call him A (the same guy I talked about when I went to my friend’s wedding back in May). He has changed now, but he treated me so badly when we were in school together. We were on and off again for about 2 years before it all ended. Sure, he treated me pretty good some of the time and a lot of the time he treated me pretty terribly. I ended up getting hurt, but I am glad that it ended before it got super out of hand. The problem was that I kind of knew he was a player. I heard all these stories about him and other girls. In the end, I chose to ignore what people were saying and I pretended like everything was okay, but in the end, none of it was ever okay. I did not deserve to be treated that way. Of course, at the time I did not know who I was dealing with and in fact, before those experiences with A, I never dealt with someone like him before.

I am bringing this up because I had to talk through with my BFF Marcia (I will not go too much into detail, I promise) about a situation she was dealing with that brought up memories with A. She would be telling me about these things with that guy and it would remind me of A (in fact they could be twins or friends in real life). I gave her advice and told her that she should not be wasting her time on this guy (I know that she deserves someone better). The last thing I want to happen to her is to see her hurt. It sucks, but that type of guy would never care about us or how we feel. Let them deal with whatever they are dealing with and leave them alone. In the end, they are not worth our time and energy. I wrote this poem for my BFF Marcia, but this is for all the girls and women across the word who deal with these types of guys on daily basis. Cheers!

And to those guys who this post is directed towards, I hope that you know that you are doing yourself and girls you hurt a disservice. I hope that you gain a new perspective and realize that you are not only hurting yourself, but you are hurting girls who (for the most part) do not deserve it. I am also leaving this poem and quote for you. “Dear Players: Go ahead and play your deceitful little games – lying and manipulating women to get laid – because that’s the only way to get them interested. Maybe you’ll have a different perspective when you’re wiping the tears off your daughter’s face…because she dated a man like you.” (Charles J. Orlando) I really hope that would not take you that long to figure out what you are doing wrong. Take a look at yourself and think about what you should do to change. We are not play things and in the end it really hurts (especially our hearts). I hope that all the guys and girls take what I have to say to heart (no pun intended) because although these types of situations make good writing material, we would rather not see everybody getting hurt because it is painful.

Better Things

He is saying all the right things
And he is making all the right moves,
But you somehow know in
Your heart that he is doing the
Same thing to all the other
Girls too. It is not your fault
And it certainly is not their fault
That he is charming. He is a player
Because he has done this before.
He says that he will change,
But both you and the other girls
Know that will never happen.
Do not be fooled by his
Old fashioned ways or by
The way he treats you
Nicely because he only
Wants one thing. He wants
His fill of you and then
He will be done, leaving you
Heartbroken. I do not want
To see you hurt because
I know that you deserve better.
You deserve more than
Someone who only wants your body.
He will want your mind, body,
And everything else in between.
Although you are hurt now,
At least you know. So I hope
That you do what every strong
Girl does, hold your head up
And keep moving on to
Better things.

Hello world!

One of my first loves in life was poetry. I remember when I first started writing poetry when I was at Willard Middle School. I first started writing poetry when I had Mr. Evans for English class in 6th grade. The two poems I remember writing were “My Green Eyes” and “Standing Tall.” It wasn’t until 8th grade that I realized that writing poetry is something I wanted to do. I always credit my 8th grade English teacher, Mr. Rose for encouraging me to keep writing. I kept to myself a lot, especially through middle school and high school. I felt like people didn’t always understand me because I can come off as shy and reserved. Other times I could be crazy and silly but that’s just who I am much like how writing poetry is a part of who I am. That’s why I always connected with poetry. It was like writing in a journal or taking photos for other people. That’s always the best way for me to express myself. It was an art form, but more personalized. If people wanted to know who I am or how I’m feeling or what I’m thinking about all they have to do is read my work.

I don’t always like sharing my work with other people but I do share them with people I trust. When I write poetry I feel like there’s no judgment and there’s nothing better than writing pen or pencil to paper. I almost always carry around some type of journal to write, even if it’s just the start or an idea for a poem I have running through my mind at that moment. Or if I don’t have a journal or paper I write in the note section on my iPhone. It comes in handy because I don’t always know when an idea will strike. Whenever I share something with a friend or a family member they almost always say I have a knack for it. That’s why I like sharing my work because I know how much I connect with my own work, but I know other people might have a connection to it too.

That’s how I came up with this idea to start a blog. I know that we’re all different, but sometimes we all have common threads. I’m not here to judge anybody or to change anybody’s beliefs or values. However, I do believe that we all need something to put our minds at ease and to realize that we’re not as different as we think we are. Hence the title “Messy Ties” because I’m always interested in the connections we have with other people and the different types of relationships we have throughout our lives, whether they’re romantic, friendships or “family” relationships. When looking up the definition of “relationship” online at dictionary.com I came across this: [a relationship is] “the way in which two or more people, groups, countries, etc., talk to, behave toward, and deal with each other.” Another definition of relationship is the following as well: [a relationship is] “the way in which two or more people or things are connected.”

Another reason why I wanted to do this blog because it’s the New Year. One of my new year’s resolutions was to try something new and that’s what I’m doing with this blog. I’m trying something new but I’m also stepping outside of the box. So this is my sharing with you, enjoy!! I’m also sharing a poem or two with you.