Verses
One thing I love to do is to combine art forms. As Instagram poetry rose in popularity, I found myself awestruck at the poets’ ability to condense powerful messages, ideas, and experiences into a few potent words. As their words played in my mind, I began to dream of what it would look like to represent these ideas visually. The collection you see below is the product of that passion and effort. I hope you will find the same inspiration I did in the words and images, and that these works will create space for you to step back from the world for a moment and see it, and yourself, with fresh eyes.
Prickly
i wrapped myself
in thorns
and then hated everyone
who didn’t want to
touch me
-L.E. Bowman
Watchful
as a woman i know the difference between appreciation and teeth.
what really hurts is that as a girl i had to know the same thing.
-Nayyirah Waheed
That Won’t Help You Anymore
surviving is a habit that’s hard to break
even when the danger is gone
-Marya Layth
Everybody Wants Something
all the women.
in me.
are tired.
-Nayyirah Waheed
Tend To Your Thoughts
Tend to your thoughts
with care. They
have the power to
grow weeds or
flowers.
-Cleo Wade
Run the World
i know power
i have watched a hurricane
from the center
i have seen a woman
be
a woman
-Cleo Wade
A Little Birdie Told Me
Listen to the voices of your heart, they will sing.
Listen to the bells of your soul, they will ring.
Take note of the whispers of your mind, they will tell,
Start buying the things they are trying to sell.
Listen to your intuition, it is strong.
Follow its path, it will guide you along.
If something appears wrong, then all is not right.
So listen to the voices, they are singing tonight.
-T.C. Cleary
Resonate
it isn’t blood that makes you my sister
it’s how you understand my heart
as though you carry it
in your body
-Rupi Kaur
Nothing Lasts Forever
Perhaps
our fatal flaw
is that we attempt
to make forever
out of people
who are meant to
be temporary.
-Rudy Francisco
There Will Be a New Day
i don’t pay attention to the
world ending.
it has ended for me
many times
and began again in the morning.
-Nayyirah Waheed
I Am Enough
I sat inside
a room
with nothing in it
and realized
it was still
full.
This is when I knew
that I was
enough.
-Rudy Francisco
Storytelling
every morning, take a deep breath,
and tell yourself a different story.
-Alison Malee
The View From This Window
we see what we want to see from the windows we choose to sit in front of
-Alison Malee
Lost and Found
It isn’t all lost. It just isn’t all found.
-L.E. Bowman
Carpe Diem
The day
will be what
you make it,
so rise,
like the sun,
and burn.
-William C. Hannan
Rest
every once and a while. take off your life. and rest.
-Nayyirah Waheed
Bending Over Backwards
The danger is rarely
the other person.
The danger is yourself.
How far you’re willing to go.
How many
ways you are willing to break.
-L.E. Bowman
We Bloom In Time
No matter what you ask of
the daffodil, it will still
wait until spring to bloom.
From this, I learned
we all open up when
the time is right.
-Rudy Francisco
What Remains
I am made of all the things the world couldn’t take from me.
-Rudy Francisco
Here for the Hard Days
when the world comes crashing at
your feet
it’s okay to let others
help pick up the pieces
if we’re present to take part in your happiness
when your circumstances are great
we are more than capable
of sharing your pain
-community | Rupi Kaur
I Can’t Lie to Me
You can fool the world for a period
of time;
you can even fool yourself.
But one evening you will come home
all heavy shoulders and fake smiles,
and you will catch your eyes in the mirror.
You will try to look away,
try to hide,
but they will hold you.
You won’t speak the truth,
not yet,
but you will know.
You will know
there is no more lying.
-L.E. Bowman
Making Friends With the Mirror
When speaking to your body,
you do not
have to jump to
I love you.
I feel you.
I respect you.
and I am
learning
to love you
is an acceptable place to start.
-L.E. Bowman
Hold On
(grief is heaviest when carried alone.)
-Alison Malee
Vast
I no longer feel small when I look to the sky
to the ocean
to the moon
to the great mountain peaks that shoot from the earth
like giants unafraid of what they are.
Am I not made of the same miracle?
Am I not sky and ocean and moon and mountain?
Am I not as ancient and as deep and as vast?
Do I not hold as many secrets in my body?
As much wonder in my chest?
Is it not a gift that they exist,
and in turn,
a gift that I do too?
-L.E. Bowman
The Blues
you will not have the blues forever
forever
is the only thing that lasts forever
when the night sky
falls upon you
look up at her
see the darkness and the vastness
of her blues
hold your eyes steady on her
watch
the sun sneak in
see how even she, the great big sky,
changes with
the new day
this too shall pass
-Cleo Wade
Let It Burn
Some say,
don’t burn your bridges.
I say,
if necessary,
let the kerosene
kiss it on the lips
and watch it turn to ash.
There’s always
more than one way
to cross the water.
-Rudy Francisco
Just Bloom
stay strong through your pain
grow flowers from it
you have helped me
grow flowers out of mine so
bloom beautifully
dangerously
loudly
bloom softly
however you need
just bloom
-Rupi Kaur
Hard Heart
i hardened under the last loss. it took
something human out of me. i used to be so
deeply emotional i’d crumble on demand.
but now the water has made its exit. of
course i care about the ones around me. i’m
just struggling to show it. a wall is getting in
the way. i used to dream of being so strong
nothing could shake me. now. i am so
strong. that nothing shakes me. and all i
dream is to soften.
-numbness | Rupi Kaur
With You, I’m Me
I love you
because when I am with you
I never have to leave myself.
-Pavana Reddy
Let It Go
let it go
let it leave
let it happen
nothing
in this world
was promised or
belonged to you
anyway
-all you own is yourself | Rupi Kaur
Take Your Time
if you need more time to understand how
you feel about a thing. give yourself more
time to understand how you feel about a
thing.
-Nayyirah Waheed
Horizon
I hope I haven’t already driven
past my greatest moments.
I hope there’s something
beautiful on the horizon
that’s just as impatient as I am.
Something so eager,
it wants to meet me halfway.
A moment that is diligently
staring at its watch, trembling with
nervousness, frustrated,
and bursting at the seams,
wondering what’s taking me
so long to arrive.
-Rudy Francisco
Becoming
be easy.
take your time.
you are coming
home.
to yourself.
-Nayyirah Waheed
Born to Bloom
“In this life you will have moments that leave you speechless. You will look to the one you love and wonder, how on earth did you get to live this life. You will also have nights that leave you restless where you are left to ask, what will it look like to survive. And you will also have a billion moments in between. You will weave in and out of beginnings and endings and somehow, through it all, you will end up growing the way you were meant to. You will be tender and you will be strong and you will be glad you lived to see beautiful things flourish, even though they took so long. You will heal along the journey. You will find: you were always learning. Strength was rising up within you. You bloomed how you were meant to.”
-Morgan Harper Nichols
Bless The Hands
Bless the hands.
May they hold onto
what I can't live without
and let go of the things
I cannot keep.
-Rudy Francisco
You’ll Find Your Way
You’ll find your way.
You always do.
-e. russell
I Heal
time and time again,
my soul
and
my spirit
and
my learning heart
prove to me
I heal.
-Cleo Wade
Pathways Stretch Before Me
There is no mountain
that cannot be climbed
and there are more
pathways to the top
than we could ever
imagine.
-Cleo Wade
Let Yourself Feel
Accept it.
Embrace it.
Allow it to rip you apart.
Cry as it crawls through your skin.
For tomorrow is another day,
and soon you will be free
to feel something
new.
-L.E. Bowman
Daring
(i threw caution
to the wind and it
did not come back.)
-alison malee
The Voice Within
ignoring
those whispers
will only
turn them
into screams.
-L.E. Bowman
You Feel Like Sunshine
These days, I only
surround myself
with people who
feel like sunlight.
-Rudy Francisco
In Good Company
we all move forward when
we recognize how resilient
and striking the women
around us are
-Rupi Kaur