Resilience Poems
A Desert Bloom
by Muhamad Parid
In arid lands, a rose so rare,
You bloomed, a wonder beyond compare.
Your beauty shines, a priceless treasure bright,
A jewel that illuminates my darkest night.
To love you's a fight I'm doomed to lose,
A hopeless quest, my heart forever bruised.
Your heart's a guiding light, shining afar,
In someone else's garden, where love's a shining star.
......
Hidden Enemy
by Chandra Pathakoti
A hidden enemy is waging war on Human Kind?
Viciously attacking us from behind?
Is nefarious ploys nature of this predator?
Are Veiled attacks on us is its character?
Who is this evil monster disguised in devil form?
Who is this demon dislodging our strength with spell of dreadful storm?
Who is this marauder throwing vicious blows?
Who is it? No one knows? Faster it comes and faster it grows, our woes
......
Mr. Tree
by Rohan Dhulipalla
the sakura tree
in the dusty ol’ dark corner of the failing shop,
(although the owner would beg to disagree)
priced at $7.95
with a cardboard sign fastened with white cable ties
reading “UNLIKELY TO STAY ALIVE”
it appears that it was trying to expand,
to spread its branches,
but expansions weren’t in demand
......
It's Too Much
by Haley Breniser
I am awake.
My mind, a murmuration of starlings.
Unsettled;
By grief
By love
By the weight of tending to others.
I close my eyes and
see it falling.
The snow,
......
Wilted Sunflower
by Prachi Sheoran
On the verge of death, a mighty star,
Conceived a delicate flower.
Dainty, pure, and bright,
Her soul alit by the last light.
Left in a field both radiant and vile,
She bloomed eternal but servile.
A little droopy, a little broke, and plenty shunned,
......
Double six! (Unstoppable Ascent)
by Franklin Okere
Double six! The dice declare my fate,
A victory sealed, no more debate.
On every front, the battle's mine,
My spirit soars, a force so divine.
No obstacle can block my way,
I seize the triumph of today.
Unstoppable, I rise above,
Fueled by a power, an endless love.
Each challenge met, each fear defied,
......
We Are The Weed People
by Jim Kelly
We Are The Weed People
We are the weeds—
rooted deep in resilience.
Dropped here from distant lands,
we rise,
storm after storm,
spirit ever higher.
......
Philadelphia, 6/25/25
by Michael Banning
This morning, a cardinal
lands on my back fence,
opens its beak.
Nothing.
Even the birds
save their songs
for weather worth singing about.
The papi store thermometer
......
I KNOW MY PEOPLE
by Eric Washington
I know my people.
I've seen their suffering and their tears,
Their anger and their fears.
I've seen them work amongst the mills,
In cotton and sugar fields.
Working with bleeding hands,
And refusing to give up then.
While tortured with whips and ropes,
And they still believe in hope.
I know my people.
......
Stranger to Belonging
by Nai'a Safir
I am most at peace when others would break,
Floating above my body after the fall,
Calm in the car that became our home,
Finding stillness in what should destroy.
They ask who I am-as if I should know,
......
