Tag: Poem

The Lost Sheep

She was not like the other sheep
For she had a sensitive heart,
a poetic walk and dreamy eyes
Although she always tried
to fit into the flock
She never truly belonged

The other sheep that all dashed along
in the same direction,
She mostly went in the opposite

She then thought that she was lost
And alone she wandered in the world
She hoped for the shepherd
to leave his flock
to find the one that is lost

But instead the shepherd
sent her her counterpart
that is as dreamy and
sensitive as she is
And through him
she could find herself

©RoseGirl2019

No Limits

My love for you has no limits
It is not bounded by thoughts,
by country, by time or
by whatever you do

It just flows abundantly
Wherever it wants to go
Even if there are rocks in the river
It will still find its way to you

Even if my mind is confused
and runs away
My love for you stays as it knows
For what, for whom it is here for
and what is its truth

©RoseGirl2019

Reset

Okay. Now stop.
Let’s just press the reset button
We’ll clear out all the bugs
And we’ll set us to default
The origin where it all began:
Your eyes and my eyes met
Heaven came down
And from there, let it all
once again naturally unfold

©RoseGirl2019

Great Eagle

Great eagle, where are you
Please come to pick me up
And let me climb on your back
To see things from above

For the air is too heavy to breathe
down here
The rivers of emotions are drowning me
And all the trees
prevent me from seeing the woods

Great eagle, let us float in the sky
And see the bigger picture
I will expand my heart
And then all my thoughts will be just
little ants that crawl far below
While I will have clear vision
and see unclouded my beloved

©RoseGirl2019

As Long As I Skate

And I skate all alone
in the Dutch night
The Winter, all the cold
and all the distance
between us
I skate it all away
The pulsing warmth in my body
A pause between my thoughts
And the melody of poetry
in every move I make

And then there is just
you and me
I feel
in every breath, in every beat
My love, you’re so much here

In meditative circles I skate
The moon high above
She hides her biggest part
But she is here

And as long as I skate
this moment lasts forever
Always now and here
And you and me

©RoseGirl2019

I Understand – To Him And Her

Previous: I Understand – To Him

Previous: I Understand – To Her

I understand
You both were scared

This love is just so big
It goes so deep
It transformed everything
Swept you off your feet
It is spiritual, and beyond
anything you thought was true
It overwhelmed
You didn’t understand

You tried to build your walls
To defend with stories from the past
Tried to apply your old ways
But those didn’t work
As this love asks
for a new approach

You both were scared
I understand

©RoseGirl2019

Mirroring Flames

You mirrored me
my biggest fears,
my insecurities,
my nightmares
Stories I had made up
in my mind,
You reflected them to me

In the mirror it showed up
for me to heal and to grow
out of ego and into love

You mirrored me my truest self
the purest depths
of my soul
So I could become
the best version of me

Like two dancing flames
we mirrored our light
and our shadows
In the window of love

©RoseGirl2019

If I Could

If I could
I would take over all your suffering
All your burden, I would carry it for you
I would protect you like a lioness
and would fight with your demons,
I would conquer all your fears

I would prevent you
from ever having pain
If I could
But I know, it won’t help you
I cannot save you
I can only hold you in the space of love
For you need to save yourself
It will help you to get stronger
And at the other end of pain,
into love you will grow

©RoseGirl2019

The Old Ways

The old ways are the beaten tracks
The well-worn paths trodden down
by the same footsteps

They are anchored in gone days
Safety nets for just in case
But they never really bring far
As they go round and round
The repetitive circles
The loop in your brain

Until you learned your lessons
And you step your way out
onto a new path

©RoseGirl2019

A Lot To Hide

You tried to hide your beauty,
the treasure of your heart

You barked like a dog
Showed your teeth
Dropped your shit
Jumped around
and ran like crazy

And I looked at you in awe
And could only see
how beautiful you are
for you have a lot to hide
if you act like this

©RoseGirl2019

Who Are You

Who are you
Is it what you were told
What people project on you
The words they give you
How they describe you
The image you have

Are you what you think that they think of you
What others want you to be
What you want yourself to be
Their expectations or your own

Or are you what you know
in your heart
The truth in your soul
And what the eyes of love
have reflected you?

©RoseGirl2019

You Flame In My Soul

You are in me
like I am in you
through the love we breathe
and that our hearts beat
through our veins

Through the words we write
The melodies we hear
The dreams we dream
The thoughts we think
The future we taste

Through what we know
What we create
Through what we have seen
And what is our fate

You flow through my body
You dance in my heart
You sound in my song
You fly in my mind
And you flame in my soul

©RoseGirl2019

The Tea Glasses

I met Jamal at the biggest refugee camp
of Europe, where I volunteered
They had put up tents
in the middle of the forest in Holland
to host 3000 refugees

After a horrible journey
Jamal had just escaped from the war in Syria
He was a middle-aged man
who had lost everything:
his home, his wife, his children
and his family

I invited him to have dinner at my place
He came together with another refugee and his child
They hardly spoke any English
We ate in silence

They all were very traumatized
The small child couldn’t play no more
And even the candy and the toy car
I had bought for him
Didn’t give him reason to smile

I gave Jamal my phone number
and told him that he could call me
whenever he needed help

A week later on a Friday night,
the phone rang
It was Jamal and he was completely panicked
I first needed to calm him down
And it took a while
before I could understand
what was going on
In his panic he had lost
all his English words

It turned out he had taken a bus
as he wanted to go to the city centre
but he had taken the wrong one
And now, he was in the middle of nowhere
He didn’t know where he was
And how he could come back
to the refugee camp

It took a while before I had figured out
where Jamal was
But then I immediately jumped in my car
to pick him up
He was beyond grateful

And then a few days later
the phone rang again:
‘Marieke, sorry, please, you come?’
I jumped in my car
to drive to the camp
as I thought there was another problem
that needed to be solved

But when I arrived Jamal smiled
he handed me a present
With his last money
he had bought four tea glasses
to thank me

The tea I drink from those glasses
somehow tastes different
As it fills me with deep gratitude
And then I realize what is truly important
And how we humans
are all connected

©RoseGirl2019

My Like

I wanted to react to your post
But I couldn’t find an emoticon
That would express:

‘I love you, I support you, I adore you,
I’m proud of you, I see you, I hear you
I appreciate you’

So then I just hit the like button
But please know
that my simple like
means all of the above

©RoseGirl2019

I Miss You

Missing you
can sometimes
hit me so hard
it takes away my breath
it squeezes my heart
it panics my mind

And then
I run for my words
to fill the
‘missing you’ gap
to build a bridge
And to find
you back
at the end
of my poem

©RoseGirl2019

My Hyperactive Great Grandmother

We called my great grandmother
‘grandma bus’
She always sat behind the window
And when a bus passed by
She hysterically yelled at us, small kids,
‘There is a bus!’
And there were busses every few minutes

My great grandma yelled, screamed, talked very loudly all the time
Since she was half deaf
And besides of that, she was hyperactive

Even at the age of 96
She stood in the middle of life
She wanted to know about everything
and seemed never tired
Every time when we had visited her
we as kids were completely worn out

She liked to watch soap operas very much
‘The Bold And The Beautiful’ was her favourite
And even on her death bed
she wanted the television to be turned on
So she wouldn’t miss a single thing

They asked her if she could accept
that she would die
She said she could
She had had a good life
and she believed heaven and the Lord would wait her

The only thing that was really a pity:
she then wouldn’t know no more
how ‘The Bold And The Beautiful’ would continue
And if Ridge and Taylor would finally come together

©RoseGirl2019

The Ticking Clock

Never before had I seen
a man with so much grief.
When my grandmother died,
she left my grandfather behind
helpless and devastated

I was a student in my early twenties
and I then made a commitment
I made of Friday grandpa day
Every week I travelled three hours
to be with him

His tears kept flowing
He complained that everyone
had let him down
How he was all alone
And that I had again brought the wrong groceries with me

In the small living room
with big brown oak furniture
I listened to him
while he smoked
one cigarette after another

My grandmother looked at me
from several pictures
Her slippers were still underneath
the coffee table
Her keys in the bowl
in case she needed them again

Nothing had changed since she left
Like she could come back any minute
Only the ticking of an antique clock
reminded me of the fact
that time existed

My grandfather got sick
The grief turned into a physical disease
A cancer in his intestines
That grew and grew
As his tears flowed and flowed
And spread itself through his body

It then was grandpa day twice a week
In the half dark
I sat with him for hours and hours
In silence, with only the sound of
the antique clock ticking
He felt too sick to talk

I learned the value of presence
without any words
the value of unconditional giving

And one day he suddenly
whispered to me:
‘Please tell me all about heaven.’
I told him about it and said that his wife would be waiting there
And that they would be reunited

He whispered ‘thank you’
Tears lit up in his eyes
while he smiled
And then the silence returned
Never before had I felt so close
to him

And one day I got a phone call
that his end was near
When I arrived and entered the room
my grandfather had his eyes closed
‘Who is there?’ he asked the nurse
‘It is Marieke’ she said
He smiled, his voice weak
‘Oh it is the angel,
she was sent to me from heaven.’

A few hours later
the clock stopped ticking

©RoseGirl2019

Drifting Sand

You came to visit me in my dreams
last night
Your eyes were sad
and your heart weighted
heavily on you
You could not move

I was glad you were there
And like a cat
I cuddled up to you

Your skin absorbed me
We drifted into one another
like sand
And you were brought back
in motion
by the touch of our skin

And when I woke up
You were gone
but on my cheek and my neck
I could still feel your touch
Until it drifted away
like sand

©RoseGirl2019

What’s On The Menu

What’s on the menu
in our restaurant of love

Do you want it spicy
and really hot
Or sweet and sugar-coated
Fresh, surprising,
Nourishing or
juicy and full-flavoured

We can have an appetizer
Or go directly
to the main course

Do we drink champagne
or passionate, red wine

Do we eat slowly
or jump head over heels
on fast food

Do you want me to taste
your songs one by one
On my lips and on my heart
I will feed you my
poetic words
and will let you swallow
my melodies of four stars

And then
do you want a dessert
to cool down
Or do we go for
another round?

©RoseGirl2019

See also: In The Chinese Restaurant

Flying Birds

The bird flies in the open sky
And with every beat
her wings get stronger

She learned to sing
her own songs
The wind amplifies
the tunes of her words
that stream from her heart

And sometimes
She still longs back for the land
Where she can hide in trees
Where no one can see her
As the open sky makes vulnerable
and those on the land
can shoot or can withhold
their appreciating eyes

And over there in the distance
behind the fog bank
She cannot see him yet
But she knows,
there flies her beloved
As he took flight at the same time

Still he hides
And just like her,
sometimes he returns to the land
But his heart song gets stronger
And he trusts his wings
more and more

Both birds face their fears
Until they will be ready
to dare to fly
through the fog bank
and to each other
on the other side

©RoseGirl2019

Let’s Shake

If you feel those shakes inside
And your thoughts run like crazy
Your nerves almost break you down
Let’s then shake together
We’ll dance the shake
And we’ll shake together those shakes away

©RoseGirl2018

Her Smile

She shares her smiles like sun rays
A little gift of light
and empathy
To warm the hearts
she meets

She gives her smile
to a beggar woman
that almost seems invisible
As she gave up to
hold out her hand
to people who pass by

A smile to a young mother
that looks helpless
and exhausted
As her child
doesn’t stop to cry

She gives a smile to the cashier
that doesn’t seem to like her job
But she has a lot of worry
If she’ll have enough money
to survive the end of the month

She gives a smile to a guy
whose head is hanging down
And whose mood
seems depressed
As he sees darkness all around

She shares her smiles like sun rays
But the brightest smile
she keeps
for the One who
makes her smile
And who she’ll meet
when she returns home

©RoseGirl2018

Just A Scared Boy, Just A Scared Girl

She had already left
and he was still there
But when she drove away
She realized
She hadn’t shared with him
What was most important,
She had just talked
But hadn’t shared
the depths of her heart

So she drove back
and ran towards him
While he stood outside
And under the night sky
full of stars
She told him she loved him

But he got scared
as she had spoken
the words he had longed for
to truly feel them all his life
But could not yet say himself

And when she saw
the fear in his eyes
She got scared too
They mirrored each other
He suddenly seemed
a small boy
She a small girl
That both longed to be loved
But both had scars
that somehow blocked
their heart streams
to freely flow
into one another

And scared as she was
She ran away
She left him alone
She turned around
one more time
And there he still stood
as a helpless,
scared child
She left him behind
and let him drown
in the sea of love
Where he was not yet
able to swim

And now, some time
has passed
And she realizes
how she once
abandoned him

So after all that time
She drives back
to go to the small boy
under the night sky
full of stars
once again

And she takes his hand
Takes him in her arms
And tells him
Although she once left
He never left her heart
And she never stopped
to love him

©RoseGirl2018

Broken Trust

You flew out
Brave as you were
You trusted
But the wind
unexpectedly
blew harsh words
that cut
your heart full of love
into pieces

You got your wings broken
And fell down
to the ground
You were wounded
and lost

But you took
the pieces
One by one
And healed your wings
Meanwhile
the love in your heart
grew stronger

Now, do you dare
to fly out
Do you truly believe
in love again
Do you dare
to trust the wind
That in fact,
he did it out of love
and only helped you
to get stronger

©RoseGirl2018

The Bird That Was Afraid To Fly

Once there was a singing bird
And every day, every night
He sat there on his branch
He sang his heart out,
and made the hearts of others melt
by his songs
But he could only sing and dream
about the clear, blue sky
and the lands far away
where his female counterpart
flew
As he didn’t dare to take flight
himself

Though every day, every night
the singing bird got unhappier
And even his dreams
and his songs didn’t seem
to soothe him no more

His female counterpart
asked him when he would come
And he told her that would be never
He said to her to leave him alone
and he dwelled on his branch of fear and sadness

He said to himself:
‘I cannot fly, what if it won’t work out
She cannot truly love me,
I will only hurt her
and get hurt myself
And my wings can break.’

A wise owl that had watched
and heard it all,
smiled and said:
‘Oh bird, you want to protect
yourself from suffering
so you don’t fly
and push away everything
of love that could give you wings
But here you are and look
Now you even are
in greater misery
As you cut yourself off
from the truest love.’

So then one day
the singing bird called on all his courage
And even though he was still afraid
He started to sing a song
He spread his wings and jumped
and flew towards the horizon
of his love

©RoseGirl2018

Take Off Your Coat

There are cracks and holes
in the ceiling above your head
And there is dust and water
coming in
You try to repair, try to get a grip
but it is useless nonetheless

What can you do when all falls apart
When cracks are getting bigger
When outside trees lose their leaves
When Winter knocks on your door
And you try to save your box of memories

Let the ceiling of old beliefs collapse
Let the ground of the past be taken from you
Take off your black coat
and let the old you die
Allow death to do its work
And let it free you

Look around there are ruins everywhere
But see,
Among the grey, among the dust
There is a wild rose blossoming
Untouched, and it is for you

Rise from the ashes now
Rise towards the sun
And build your new world around
the rose

©RoseGirl2018

Glamorous

Don’t drink from the glass
of sarcasm
to put yourself down
to make yourself small
as a way
of not being too vulnerable
when standing in the spotlights

But drink from the glass
of love
Let it running through your veins
It will heal you, strenghten you
Don’t let others be deceived
A hero has a naked heart
Glamorous is the one
who let his pure beauty shine

©RoseGirl2018

Discharging

The sky seems pregnant
Waiting for an outburst
The energy is building up
and wants to find a way out

Intense is your touch
Your gaze seems to burn
The orchestra is playing
and the tones
are reaching up,
coming together
towards the climax

Let us be the lightning and the thunder
Let us ride the waves of creativity
We can cry, release our tears
We can laugh, we can sing
We can dance, we can write

Let us discharge
And then rest in silence
When the thunderstorm has passed,
in each other’s arms

©RoseGirl2018

A New Page

You stepped on a white page
Like you left the dark
And you embrace more
of your inner sun

Yet careful are your footsteps
and covered are your eyes
as the light seems too bright
to look at
And it is easy to fall
back into the black holes,
into old stories of what once was
but isn’t now

But you want a new beginning
A new page, a new story
A wind of change is blowing
through the book

And I know you will make it,
write it
As firmer is your hand
braver is your pen
by the rise of every new day

©RoseGirl2018

Emotions

And into the lake
of emotions we look
The water seems still
with ripples of sarcasm,
anger, guilt and shame
on the surface
But they don’t show
the deeper waters
of what is true and pure
Is it the sadness we feel
but we cannot express
But that moves underneath
A deeper pain that is hidden
at the bottom, in the dark?
Is it the love we want to live
but that stirs
the waters of fears?

The surface seems polluted
What it shows isn’t real
The deeper waters want to flow,
want to move
So one day
all the water of the lake
will be pure

©RoseGirl2018