Saturday, February 6, 2016

The End (Not Really).

For almost four years, Someplace Else Instead has been where I posted my poetry since my sophomore year of high school.  While it still remains a place where I can reflect on my growth as both a person and a creative writer, I have decided to bid SEI farewell.

I began writing poetry before I created Secret Door of Magical Child-- a blog I created, where I could post my poetry, so I would have a place to keep them and not lose them, especially if there was no paper around or my laptop crashed (both have been known to happen).  Its title came from two of my favorite things at the time I created the blog: a song by Evanescence titled "Secret Door", and a poem called "Magical Child" by Michael Jackson.  It was about a year after that, that I changed its name to Someplace Else Instead.  At first, I changed it for Halloween, with plans to change the title back later on, but I loved the new title so much, I stuck with it.

I decided that a new home was in order for my creative writings.  Poetry has been my favorite of creative writings, and since I began writing poetry (in late 2010), I've written a little over 600 poems up to this day.  Although SEI had nowhere near that many poems, I first started writing them on paper and hid them.  I ended up throwing them away in the past when it seemed that my entire world was crashing down in late 2011.  However, I realized that this hobby was much more than little tributes to my favorite musician-- it was the outlet of my emotions, and I was falling in love with it.  I was falling in love with the ways I could say how I felt, and how beautifully I could do so.  Many times, after writing a certain poem, I would go back and read it, wondering if it was really me who wrote what I did.  I realized I could write everything from miniature love stories, to miniature nightmares.  Over time, everything I saw, heard, and felt, inspired a poetic thought, and it has not stopped since.

This blog is not going anywhere; it's staying right where it is.

But, with all of this being said, a new beginning is in the works.
  Yes, that's right: I am creating a new poetry blog, which is going to be titled The World In Me.


Despite the URL saying "this", I promise it's "the" right blog.  ;)

I've always had the idea to create a second blog, but was never sure as to what I would say on it.  Then I figured, why just take that idea, and use it for another set of poetry?

I was always fascinated when I found that people from all over the world somehow got to this blog.  Whether it was friends from my poetry's original home (MJTP), or just someone who had managed to get here from some other place.  But, whoever is here and/or has been here, reading my poetry, thank you.

For now, I will put Someplace Else Instead on the shelf, and begin to write this next book.

~LJ
6 February 2016 

Side by Side

I was frightened.
I was lost.
I could not find a way out.
My best friend, a plush animal,
by my side, as I,
with big brown eyes,
began my search for freedom.

You found me,
crazed, confused,
and studied my expression.
Your nature, a gentle soul,
by your side, as I,
with crying eyes,
attempted to run away.

I was lonely.
I was broken,
and long sleeves rolled up loosely.
I fell; best friend and I,
side by side,
with pain provides,
almost found our escape.

You approached me.
You began to speak,
in soft and loving whispers.
With comfort and love,
by your side, as you,
with open arms,
embraced and protected me.

I was there.
I was there,
and you were right there with me.
Us, together, by and by;
you, somehow by my side,
with lulling sways and happy days,
begin to overwhelm me.

You were there.
You were there,
and thank God that He let thee.
Together we have touched the sky,
found the freedom now to fly,
found escape, side by side,
with lulling sways and vibrant daze
begin their descent on me.

-LJ
4 February 2016

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Peace Be With You

Peace be with you
as you go about your day;
and always peace for loved ones who
have sudden gone astray.

Peace be with you, now,
much than ever before;
and always peace for those who
need rest forevermore.

Peace be with you, somehow,
as the gentle rain falls down;
and always peace to the one who
wears the broken crown.

Peace be with you, always,
for time is running thin;
and always peace to they who
find the love within.

And peace be with you, creative mind,
for you hold all world's hope;
and peace be with the hurting, who
use that art to cope.

-LJ
08 December 2015

And I Was Alone

But I did learn something.
Even lonely people
have moments
in which they're happy.
But that rarely comes
when you're lonely
because no one's around
to see your happy moments.
And you feel depressed
because you feel so lonely
that you convince yourself
that those who love you
don't really care.
You convince yourself so deeply,
that your tears burn
and the thought carves itself
into the very private parts
of your humdrum mind.
You find solace
in hugging a childhood toy,
and remembering what it was like
to not be alone,
to feel safe, secure,
and above all... loved.

And there we were,
suddenly holding each other..
our cries of reunion,
like the moans of ghosts;
finally in the peace
that denying, we had been.


©  LJ
19 September 2014
(this poem is part of a longer poem 
I used for my English 12 Poetry Slam 
in December 2014 titled I Let Him Go)

Their eyes locked

Their eyes locked,
for about a second.

The witty sides of
everything in them
wanted to scream
a beautiful apology.

He looked at her,
for about a second
as if to say "fuck you".

She looked at him,
for about five minutes;
one second in their reality, 

four minutes and 59 seconds
in her foggy mind,
as if to say "what happened?".

-LJ
14 October 2015

"defeat"

I went
 from spending too much time 
worried about the future,
to becoming 
a hysterical wreck
thinking about the past.
I went 
from caring about 
every single thing I did,
to really
not caring at all.
I went from asking "How"
to asking "why"
"because" I was "afraid"
to show "defeat".

Turns out
I had been "strong",
or, at least, looking the part,
so "long",
that honestly,
not even I could "realize"
how "weak" I actually "was".
And I don't think, 
not for a second,
that you realize it,
until you're failing everything,
and you're on the verge
of jumping off the precipice
into the gloomy black hole
called "defeat".

-LJ
04 December 2015

Saturday, August 15, 2015

I Can See Your Soul

As the fluttering pink roses
rise,
I see the garden in your
eyes.
As the sunflowers in my
hair
greet the roses growing
everywhere.

I can see your soul.
It's beautiful and tired.



As the tears that dwell
subside,
I see the garden in your 
eyes.
As the roses and the 
thorns
begin to wear and tear until
torn.

You can see my soul?
It longs to be held.

By who?

Loving arms.

So it shall be.
So it has been.
So it will be, always.
So we grow.
So we've grown.
So we'll grow, always.

Together.

I can see your soul.
It is beautiful and tired.
It longs to be held in loving arms,
as if a small child
that is gifted the beauty of a butterfly's wings
and the song of an angel.

I can see your soul.
It is handsome and sleepy.
It longs to be cared for, 
loved, and understood.
It is gifted the beauty of a king,
and the song of a nightingale.

I can see your soul.
It grows like the flowers in our hair,
and flashes like the life before our eyes.
It is loving and kind.
It is scared, yet determined.
It is one, because we are one.
It echoes your heartbeat
so I may feel it in mine.

It is a story waiting to be told,
and one day, you will tell it,
for I am all I've done.

I can see your soul.


-LJ
15 August 2015