Monthly Archives: May 2020

Inquiring Minds, Poetry Work

The Dark Forest

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Jump in the river and let it carry you out of the dark forest you are in…

Who cares where it flows if you are already lost….

Fearing anything is inevitable,
so face it headlong at a dead
run.

I hear most outcomes cause
you to grow beyond what you
thought of as a once heeled truth,
allowing you to leave that dark forest
far behind,
as you continue
to flow on, and on, and on.

By Philip Wardlow May, 2020

 

 

Inquiring Minds, Poetry Work

I like the Way

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I like the way
she casually calls me Darling
to get my attention
from across the room.
It makes me smile inside
in the nonchalant way
she shows her love for me.
I like the way
she trusts in me to protect her
in any instant,
Hand in mine, anytime;
on a dark street or
in a crowded room.
Even though it saddens me,
I like the way she says
she wants to go before me,
because she says she’s not strong
enough to see me go.
I like the way
we create together these
small places of paradise,
thrown like sand on the wind to drift and drift as we
waft in the hours, minutes, and
lazy seconds
of each other’s company
with no thought of tomorrow.
I simply like the
many ways of you
as I always have
since the very
start of us.
by Philip Wardlow  May , 2020
Inquiring Minds, Poetry Work

Skin Hunger

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If you had told me I would have
yearned for a simple handshake,
months from now,
I would have scoffed at such a silly notion.

If you would had said a hug from
a loved one was a distant memory
and that only through dreaming in bed
at night could such an implausible embrace happen,
I would have laughed in your face.

No light touches, no manly shoulder to shoulder hugs,
no holding hands, no fist bumps,
no incidental brushing of skin against
skin in the everyday going on
of life.
None of that.

I am bereft and unaware of the warmth
or coldness of a cheek or simple palms of another,
stolen is the smile behind
a mask that might have touched my soul
as they looked my way in the incidental
happenings of a mere
day.

There is a gnawing
Deep
A pang
Inside
Screaming
A hunger
threatening to consume
To feel
To know
the innocent
intimate
touch
of another.

by Philip Wardlow, May 12th, 2020

Inquiring Minds

We can’t run

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I have heard many people state over the years, months, and weeks as of late in various media platforms , “Why don’t you just leave your state, or this country if you don’t like the way it’s being run?”

First, I would say, “I was born here, it’s my home.”

Second, I would say, “Some of are us are not so mobile, and not as well off to simply pick up their whole lives and begin anew.”

Thirdly, “What you are talking about is just political self-segregation same as we have had with self-segregation with our educational system state to state across the US over the last 50 years or more. Sure, the Federal Govt abolished segregation at the Government level awhile ago, but not at the personal level with white,  more affluent families choosing to leave certain districts of lower income structures that minorities tended to live in, which later resulted in a higher tax base for those richer suburban neighborhoods while those Urban areas were left adrift,  with a high population density and lower tax revenues generated for their schools.

Also added to that, there were many nefarious but legal state mandates back in the day,  corralling minorities in certain neighborhoods to keep them at bay if you will from the suburban areas and from getting ahead in general.  Because of all that, we now we have many  failing or depressed school systems throughout the U.S. , while other affluent communities  thrive just a few miles away. We then have this polarizing affect of the haves and the have nots occurring across the nation, creating tensions we could have avoided to a large degree.

I  believe familiarity breeds compassion and friendships, as isolation breeds ignorance and fear on both sides.

Black on black crime is the leading cause of young black men in the US and I point to a lack at a chance at a good education,  and also a mental component of the world saying you are good enough to matter being the culprit to all the violence being done.

My whole point is this, leaving a situation, or running from it, WILL not make this nation better as a whole, there are NO borders here in the U.S. or the World . That’s just an illusion we sell ourselves. The bad or the good will always come knocking at your door from everything that happens here in the U.S or abroad, and I mean everything.

by Philip Wardlow May, 2020