Tessera

FYI: I might leave Bluesky tomorrow and may even deactivate my account. The deluge of negativity on social media (my own included) is ruining my mental health and I need to curb my social media addiction. I'll still post my poetry and art on Instagram and Substack (@robertjw4688 on both) for those that want to keep up with me and stay in touch but if not, I understand. Just putting this out there in case anyone wonders why I disappeared LMAO. I love you all and please take care of yourselves!

I had a basic idea for the opening line of this poem and just went from there. I will say it's more surreal them my usual stuff (which I guess is saying something) and I kinda dig it, tbh. #poetry #vss365 #headwind #writer #writers #writing

"Happy Shrug"

The bubblegum grass rises
and entwines with the heart.
These children play
as memories metamorphose
into goal posts,
headwinds be damned.
Relaxed lips recite prayers
to whatever god
finds shelter in the fog

and if She answers,
we shall heap praise
onto Her whisper

and if She is silent,
we shall move on

and let the dented moon dim
so we can see.

I haven't written a memory or slice-of-life poem in quite awhile. I forgot how much I enjoy them! #poetry #vss365 #depart #writer #writing #writers

"A Scream Where The Future Should Have Been"

We departed from the party
where we were the only patrons
and drove into a metropolis
where rising intonations dwelled
in every alley way.
Our clothes reeked
of natural combustion

and our breath
gave the world something
we could never take back.

There was a scream
where the future should have been.

but our throats were sated
so we blamed a metal song

and it's one to which
I still hum along

without your harmony
or my cracks.

#poetry #writing #writers

"Sometimes I am the Problem"

I am furious at the noise
from which I refuse to remove myself

and I am despondent
at the surrealism
of the razors
that I'm too scared to throw away.

Sometimes, I am the problem.

I could conquer every atom
with nothing but a cloud
to my name

but I refuse to learn
how to drift like it can

because the weight
of stasis
seems more like a cold hug

than the abstraction
of healing.

Some people (myself included) tend to romanticize their mental illness. I feel it's extremely unhealthy and can prevent coping. We deserve the world! #poetry #vss365 #patient #writing #writer #writers

"Handcuffs and the Absurd"

I've seen so many people
try to put melancholy
on a pedestal.

There is nothing romantic
about depression;
it is toxic
as the bile in the guts
of those who feel they need
to eat themselves
to stave off starvation
for a day or two.

There are indentations
on my wrists
from handcuffs and the absurd;

I am not consistent.

I am an infinite amount
of heroes,
villains,
and bystanders

that are just trying to be patient
with one another

before the world they share
decides to ride itself of them
in self-preservation.

This is about the health issues I've been facing, both physically and mentally. I'm not looking for sympathy or advice. Only catharsis. Thank you ❤️ #poetry #vss365 #unabashed

"Roadside Distraction"

I'm broken down
on the side of a dirt road
with fingers caked in crimson oil

and a flare ready to light
on a lifetime of gasoline.
The heat sprints in place
next to me, shouting
bad news and misdiagnoses

but all I hear
are the static dirges that play
from my AM radio.

I wish I still smoked

so I could at least relax
on the hood of this vessel,

unabashed
for the apathy
I wish would hurry

so I could faint
at its feet.

Rob Bignell, Editor/Author @inventingreality.bsky.social · 4w ago

A cathartic write #poetry #writing #writer #writers

"Self Iconoclast"

My burned hands
try to grasp the powder
that was once a better day

but the searing present
is overwhelming

and even the future
slips through my weakness.
This body is an error
that collapses
into a sea of greater problems

and this mind
picks apart this soul
as a hobby

because neurosis
is the iconoclast

that can annihilate
even the most invincible reason.

#writer #authors #indieauthor #writingtips #aspiringauthor #indiebook

I'm trying to learn to #embrace myself and life as a whole so neither will destroy me. #poetry #vss365 #writing #writers #writer

$"Chewing on Concrete" Can I learn to embrace the fractured glass instead of grinding it into the shivering earth? My blood is the color of rebellion and I'm smearing it onto every indifferent day. I feel my lips curve into shapes with infinite sides and the concrete on which I chew tastes sweeter if only for today. The odium that crowds my every scar seems more like a colony of ants and I chose to rock them to dream instead of forcing them to suffocate.$

A #rose lies between a killer's teeth, smelling of a #jovial birth. #poetry #vss465 #emoetry #haiku #senryu

To #frolic in waves, the mind blurs into static then clears to a creek. #vss365 #poetry #senryu #haiku #writers

Igor Namus @igornamus.bsky.social · 4w ago

Hope is #defiance #poetry #vss365

"Pushed Against the Storm's Sigh"

I lie on the curves
of my skull
in defiance
of the cyclones within.
I will eventually wither,
pushed against the storm's sigh

but I hope
my last breath

fills me with starlight

instead of the salt
that dances in the cuts
on my brain

when the days seen longer
than childhood.

I swear the lights
in the sky
are starting to hum

and if I harmonize

I think
I will be okay.

#defiance in words quite pliable in actions nut shell of the now #vss365 #haiku

Tracy Shawn @tracyshawn.bsky.social · 4w ago

Be here daily, I remind myself A defiant command amongst scattered shards of the past #vss365 #Defiant #Anxiety

PS Conway @psconway.bsky.social · 4w ago

- after green, there was only gray. clouds pressed birds from the sky to collect and die among the cinder fields, songless and dry. trees stripped bare, all blanched branch and brokenness, save for the small defiance of one leaf, seeking the light once more. - #poetry #vss365

www.poetryformentalhealth.org/my-mental-he...

I'm a few days late to the party but I am beyond honored to be featured in the anthology My Mental Health! It is a collection of poets and writers sharing their mental health stories. I highly recommend checking it out! This is NOT a poem that I have featured; it is a raw flash memoir about my lifelong struggle with mental illness. Special thanks to Robin for putting this together!

Anesthestized words veil a void deep as the cracks in a thinning heart. #poetry #haiku #senryu

Tish Bouvier @tishbouvier.bsky.social · last mo.

#poetry

"The Trauma of Movement"

There's a trillion needles
jammed into my wax breath

but I struggle to find
a single point.

I cannot handle
the good life

and the bad
has left teeth marks

on obsolete skin.
A shallow sleep

washes over the crib
and I cannot tell

if there is a party for me
outside these bars

or if the world is ending
yet again.

A cold empty chair Holds more stories than the room Ever dared to tell #dailyhaikuprompt (cold) #5amwritersclub #writingcommunity #haiku

Raymh @rayhourigan.bsky.social · last mo.

I was hating this poem as I was writing it lol. But as I edited it and finished it, I grew to like it. I think the message is important, anyway. Hope you like it and have a wonderful day! #vss365 #supercilous #poetry

"Unsolicited Advice From A Mentally Ill Man"

Supercilious meat
is stuffed inside
pristine suits
and muddied tank tops.

Only the dust
is infallible.

So many people
have grafted gavels
onto their beating hearts

while screaming "peace"
into meditation halls

thinking that it will save the world

but the only thing
that can rescue us

is to shake hands
with every dirty window

and open our minds
to welcome
the eye of the storm.

Coated in pollen Velvet, sleepy bee stumbles Into winged action. #BSPP55 #PollenVelvet #haiku #senryu #poem #writing #writingcommunity @blueskypoetry.bsky.social

Sands @revsodhi.bsky.social · last mo.

“Redemption” I have seen evil in a temple preach of doom, a devout kneeling in Satan’s cove. Don’t lose yourself so deep within that you end up ghosting your own soul. Redemption is a brutal road, but atonement, sometimes, rides another road. ~rev #writingcommunity #dark #poetry #motorcycles

Ross McDermott @beyondtheonions.bsky.social · last mo.

no worthy words today my mind is full of #moths blurred and furred, chaotic coherency is lost all thoughts flail aflutter and falter in the waning light like fragile wings singed by flame unable to take flight. #Thingstowriteabout #poem #poetry #writing #brain_fog

Elvis Dylan @elvisdylan.bsky.social · last mo.

#vss365 a moth circling a candle, trembling with #appraisal, sensing the thin border between light and disaster

Sunlit @sunblissful.bsky.social · last mo.

I placed the pen behind my right ear mid-poem and was reminded of my Dad who also placed his own pen behind his right ear when he was alive mid DIY death seems a cold business until you realise it's also release #poetry

IrishLisa 🌈@irishlisa.bsky.social · last mo.

pasture after storms every blade stands back up green hope has many legs #dailyhaikuprompt #Pasture #Senryu #Haiku #Poetry #Micropoetry #JustWrite #WritingCommunity #BlueskyPoets

Jenny Gaitskell @jennygaitskell.bsky.social · last mo.

green velvet hilltop crow tells me the old wildwoods reached up to the sky #DailyHaikuPrompt (pasture) #ThingsToWriteAbout (reach)

⛳ 🎭 Edward Rinaldi 🐐 🍉@blindedbeatpoet.bsky.social · last mo.

(I was challenged by a friend on Substack to write a 7-5-7 poem!) I force the void from my eyes and finally see the puddles for the rain drops. #poetry

when Saint George said a poet in love is a dangerous thing a wonderful thing did he appraise one such as a slayer of dragons wind rider of rain bride and broom groom to earth berserk fires unquenchable pocketed ashes and posies circles drawn down triangles squared around #vss365 #emoetry