Poetry has gotten me through most situations that arise in my life. Sometimes life is good and sometimes life is hard to deal with– that is okay. I have been writing poems since I was in the 5th grade, it is an important piece of my soul. I wanted to create a list of common feelings and provide a poem that I have read that resonated with me based on that feeling. Throughout life there will be so many obstacles but also so many great triumphs to induldge in. My hope is that this list will give you some clarity, inspiration, relatability, hope, or even just an outlet to feel. Everyone’s emotions and day-to-day feelings are important and essential to how we view ourselves, through these beautiful works I encourage you to let go, give in, and allow yourself whatever it is you need. <3
- For When You’re Feeling – Happy
-
How Happy is the Little Stone –
How happy is the little stone
That rambles down the road alone,
And doesn’t care about careers
And exigencies never fears —
Whose coat of elemental brown
A passing universe put on,
And independent as the sun
Associates or glows alone,
Fulfilling absolute decree
In casual simplicity —
~ Emily Dickinson
- For When You’re Feeling – Sad
-
Sadness –
They say happiness will find you,
But I think sadness will find you too,
It sneaks up on you in darkness,
Just when you think you’ve made it through,
It opens holes in what was solid ground,
The kind you never know are there,
Until you go to take another step,
And find you’re standing over the air,
The world around you passes by,
In blurs of color and sound,
Nothing around you making sense,
As you continue you plummet down,
You can’t remember how it started,
And you don’t know when it will end,
But you know that you’d give anything,
To stand up on your feet again,
Sadness is that feeling,
When the falling doesn’t stop,
And you look back up at the sky,
What you once had seems so far away,
The only thing left to do is cry,
People all yell out “save yourself”,
Calling things about “happiness” and “hope”
But they’re too busy with their lives to realise,
It’d be a lot quicker if they let down a rope.
~ Erin Hanson
- For When You’re Feeling – Angry
-
Invitus –
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul,
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
~ William Ernest Henely
- For When You’re Feeling – In Love
-
You’ll Know –
No mathematical formula
Can define love on a page,
No statisfaction can measure it,
There exists no such gauge.
Love cannot be ordered,
Nor can it be planned,
Not pulled out of a hat
By deft sleight of hand,
Impossible to touch,
But it can be felt,
It is best when it’s shared
But it can’t be dealt,
Invisible to all;
Give no peacock show,
Has no shape,size, or form,
But yes – it can grow.
In spite of this-
When you’re in love, be assured…
You’ll know…you’ll know.
~ Clive Blake
- For When You’re Feeling – Scared
-
Scared –
‘Not the people but the mind,
Not the storm but the silence,
Not the answer but the question,
Not the result but the reason,
I am scared of.
Not the real but the dream,
Not the moment but the memory,
Not the lie but the truth,
Not the death but the life,
I am scared of.
Not the end but the start,
Not the strangers but the known,
Not the hate but the love,
Not the world but the me,
I am scared of.’
~ Poem from the novel ‘Everyone Has a Story’ by Savi Sharma
- For When You’re Feeling – Excited
-
On The Ning Nang Nong –
On the Ning Nang Nong
Where the Cows go Bong!
and the monkeys all say BOO!
There’s a Nong Nang Ning
Where the trees go Ping!
And the tea pots jibber jabber joo.
On the Nong Ning Nang
All the mice go Clang
And you just can’t cateh ’em when they do!
So its Ning Nang Nong
Cows go Bong!
Nong Nang Ning
Trees go Ping
Nong Ning Nang
The mice go Clang
What a noisy place to belong
is the Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong!
~ Spike Milligan
- For When You’re Feeling – Overwhelmed
-
No Man is an Island –
No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less,
As well as if a promontory were:
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were.
Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
- For When You’re Feeling – Heartbroken
-
What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why –
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremebered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.
~ Edna St. Vincent Millay
- For When You’re Feeling – Grief
-
What is Grief Like –
And as you move closer,
as it enclosed you,
you see a new face on this body of grief.
You see you have not been defeated.
Your surrender was of glory and grace,
a place of new growth,
the spirit of cosmic change.
It was your own crossing over.
It was made part of you and you, made new.
This is a grief longing to be held.
This, the mood of the universe.
~ Jennifer Williamson
- For When You’re Feeling – Powerful
-
I Choose The Mountain –
The low lands call
I am tempted to answer
They are offering me a free dwelling
Without having to conquer
The massive mountain makes its move
Beckoning me to ascend
A much more difficult path
To get up the slippery bend
I cannot choose both
I have a choice to make
I must be wise
This will determine my fate
I choose, I choose the mountain
With all its stress and strain
Because only by climbing
Can I rise above the plain
I choose the mountain
And I will never stop climbing
I choose the mountain
And I shall forever be ascending
I choose the mountain
~ Howard Simon
- For When You’re Feeling – Defeated
-
When You Are Ashes Remember This –
They will
insult you,
hurt you,
defeat you,
betray you,
injure you,
set you aflame
and watch
you burn.
But they
will not,
shall not,
cannot
destroy you.
Becasue you,
like Rome
were built on ashes,
and you,
like a phoenix
know how to
rise
and
resurrect
~ Nikita Gill
Until next time,
HCXO, Maddie Rose