Author Information
A Step Closer
Im standing on a building but Im not on the ledge.
Im standing far back but I take a step closer to the edge.
That's for all the times I sat alone and cried,
for all those times I wish I would've died.
I take another step closer.
That's for the pain I feel as I get older.
You see every step has a purpose and a meaning.
Every step represents a feeling.
This step represents every time I felt like the world was on top of me.
Another one for all the times I prayed on my knees.
I stop to take a good look around.
Trying to remember how far up I am from the ground.
I take a step for the tears that fell from my face.
Another one for every memory that hurt that I can't erase.
I take a step for every one of my sister's goodbyes.
I take one for every tear I had to wipe away from my eyes.
I take another step for every scar I possess.
Another one for every family that's become a mess.
I stop to listen to the sound of my heartbeat.
Beating slowly as Death and I get prepared to meet.
So I take another step as tears start to fall.
Taking another step, not stopping to make a call.
Not even to write a letter.
Taking a step because nothing could be better.
I take a step for every time I wished I was someone new.
One for every time the authorities lied to me and wasn't true.
I take a step for every time I listened to my mother crying.
Another for every time she told me inside she was dying.
I take a second to see where's the edge,
but I don't see one, I must be dead.
By: Twylla Medina
Well, you wrote this poem not from the grave so .........
I suppose this was just an exercise in negative feelings. Why not try to write one about all the every day wonderful things one sees and the joy that brings to the soul. A sunset, an old couple walking by smiling and holding hands, the sound of neighborhood children laughing and playing. When you smell flowers right before you see them. When someone you have not heard from nor were expecting a call from calls you out of the blue to just say hello and play catch up right when you needed a friend most. Butterflies, the feel of holding a puppy or walking an elderly neighbor woman's dog cause she is too frail to do so. The joy one gets from going to an elderly care home and volunteering to sit with lonely elderly people who get no visitors (just so you can read to them) and how much your showing up can mean to someone like that. There are so many reasons even a homeless person has and can list to be thankful for if one but looks. Think of all the poetry you have written and have yet to write. There is a very true but trite saying that your best poem has yet to be written. Imagine that poem and how amazing it will be when you write it. Let every poem you write be your inner most self reaching for that one greatest poem you have yet to write. There is such joy in those small things. My grandma use to say when you feel most depressed go find someone more in need of a friend than you and offer to help them. When you take your focus off yourself and how sad and or lonely and depressed you are and you use that energy to help someone who is in worse shape than you that opens the door for joy to enter your life. I live by that. I'd now love to see a poem about the positive sides of living. Think back on your own life. Your favorite birthday, The time your grandma or elderly neighbor lady colored with you. A child in a line at a movie theater turning around in line just to smile at you for no reason. I could go on and on. Everybody forgets all those wonderful little love letters sent to us from God. Never take those for granted draw those closest when the gloom an doom starts to circle your proverbial drain.....I dare you and then let me read the poem you write about that. Your poem though overly depressing was well written, but I felt such a need well up in me to try to give you a new focus for your obvious talent and desire to write poetry. I hope you use it.Sincerely, Melissa Lundeen.