A New Sweet Nothing

Here,
I am lacking
any kind of
lead
for my writing.
I don't know
what I am doing
or how.
I don't really
even know how to spell.

-----

I feel like humming
instead of writing
today.
A flowing
nothing
of rhythms,
all tones
that make no sense.
I tried to put my
pen to paper
to describe it.
And came up with nothing,
except the
word swirling
thousands of times over.
Swirling,
Swirling,
Swirling.
Today feels like a
light nothing.
I feel untouched
by any emotion.
Mindless humming.
Does anyone miss it yet?

11/8/2015
Riley Welch

10

Silent nights
seem so much more
abundant
in the colder months.
When the evening
lack the creaky
insects
and restless wildlife
that seem to come
out only when the
sun sets.

11/2/2015
Riley Welch

Breeze

The leaves
moved so fast
they seemed to sparkle
in the sun's
gleam.
Twinkling
like stars everyone forgot about when the sun rose.

11/1/2015
Riley Welch

Wednesday

Today is my birthday - so instead of posting in the order I usually do I went through my notebook and chose a poem I really enjoy, and I hope you do too! And how fitting that this poem gets to be posted on another Wednesday. 

I'm driving down the highway
in traffic
because that is Austin.
And one of those old
punk-y pop songs
I listened to
in middle school came on
and I thought about
how sad,
and how grumpy
I had been.
Miserable, miserable days.
And I hated my fingers -
really, truly hated them.
And now,
after so many tears and shouts,
I am so happy,
everyday.
I think of how lucky,
lucky I am.
I have so much love,
bursting from me.
There are tears now,
but only because I am
overwhelmed.
Not every day
is so, so great.
But I love the way my fingers
grip a pen,
and fan out on a computer.
Doing work,
trying to make a
small, small impact.

12/16/2015
Riley Welch

5' 4.5"

My spine feels longer
than it did a long time
before.
I hunched myself
over.
In cold defeat.
Smaller and smaller.
Today I saw the tops of mountains.
What comes up,
must come down,
so I've heard.

11/1/2015
Riley Welch

All-knowing

I once met a man
who was rather cold and frank,
and he told me
lacking emotion,
that life wasn't all that great.

Now how was I
to respond to such a statement.
Caught off guard,
yes, quite surprised,
I, as usual,
lacked response.

Eventually,
mouth finally closed,
I composed my thoughts:

When did
you decide,
the rights, the wrongs, the lefts,
in life.

---

Maybe it was his beard,
that granted him
such knowledge.

Though to this day,
I still believe
it had to be his nose.

It was large, and
all-knowing.

10/27/2015
Riley Welch

Cold

I am still adjusting to the cold, and sometimes it reminds me of when I lived here before (and other thoughts that crossed 11 year old Riley's mind).

Sometimes
on cold walks from car to home
I let the cold get to me.

And by sometimes,
I begrudgingly mean most.

But on this certain walk home,
I remembered
when I was in 5th grade.
Taking a similarly cold walk,
from the building
to my mom's car
after theater practice.

And I felt cold,
very cold.

And in that moment,
I remembered
once
on a long road trip
across a few states
I listened to book after book on tape.

The benefit of these being that even when driving in the dark
you could continue to read.

And there was a character -
wounded.

And, in great pain,
he focused on
it's center.

And when he focused,
it didn't hurt.
Or at least,
he was not controlled by the pain.

So I tried to focus on the cold.
What was this feeling anyway?
How did it feel?
Where did I feel it?

And by centering on the cold,
I was really just trying
to block it out.

And for a split second.
I wasn't cold
or warm
or anything.

But it didn't work
as well as I thought.

And after a few minutes,
I gave up,
and ran up a tall, tall hill
to the warmth of my mother's car.


1/26/2015
Riley Welch