The Top 5 Poems I've Written for My Poetry Book

I've gone through the Google document where I've written and saved all my poems, and picked out 5 of my favorite poems I've written.

I wrote this poem on a late rainy Friday night. Late nights are always deep, thought-filled, contemplation periods. I began by establishing a title, quickly titled Ghost Girl. I began thinking about the loss of people, or when people are no longer a prominent part of your life, but they still linger through your thoughts. It's sort of how when a person dies, and their ghost remains and it's almost as if it's haunting somebody. It's a poem that all people can relate to; every human develops a close friendship or relationship to somebody. That relationship blooms and becomes something very special, but things change and that particular person either fades out of their life or is just altogether absent.


This poem was written with support of my good friend, Ashley. It explores the concept of using people only when it's convenient or when needed. I emphasized through the metaphor of a cigarette, with creativity + and guidance of Ashley. While writing, we began to think about the idea of a cigarette that never dies, which correlates to concept of using people but instead using a specific person repeatedly. On the other side, the individual being used allows it to happen and gives into being at the other person's convenience. 

 lotus moon

somewhere under a lotus moon,
your shadow passed.
it was just you and me.
now whenever i lay beneath a lotus moon,
i sit there and just can't help but think,
oh how i wished you were here.
now i'm just a lotus flower left for dead.
spray perfume on my grave,
hopefully you can mask whatever remains.

I decided that Lotus Moon would be the introductory poem to the poetry book. It's sort of reflective of how some albums have the intro track titled the same as the album itself. Although the poetry book is simply titled Lotus, I still think it'd be nice to have Lotus Moon be the first poem in the book. This poem was originally titled Magnolia Moon, which I wrote while hanging out with a few friends in a neighborhood here in Seattle called Magnolia, with the word "magnolia" replacing "lotus" in the poem. I then scrapped this title and went with lotus instead. Part of the reason this is one of my favorite poems is because of the final three lines in the poem, especially the line "now i'm just a lotus flower left for dead".

Baptize is another personal favorite of all the poems I've written so far. Baptize clearly is a very heavy, , intense and emotional poem. It's This poem was largely inspired by the childhood experiences of my mother, who grew up with an alcoholic mother and while in drunken rages, said and did awful things. People would often say that prayer, faith and following religion closely was the answer to all the problems she went through. This poem challenges this narrative that's often preached, and written for those who have grown up being told that religion is the best solution, however none of this ever seemed to come true. Here's a paragraph I wrote that I will include on the same page, that further explores the background and meaning of this poem.

since the dawn of time, humanity is constantly left under the impression that religion and god will be the remedy for their pain and all the misfortune in their lives. you get on your knees and pray with your bible, hoping that your god is listening to your cries for help.

what happens when this reassurance is always promised, yet all the misfortunes cling to you like a virus? then you’re told that it’s all part of god’s plan for you, and all of this is supposed to have some unknown future reason or purpose. if god loves his children, why is all is this world plagued with a disease that is all the horrors it has seen.

Grammatically, this poem isn't one of my favorites. There are lines I do enjoy, but it could be better. HOWEVER the reason I do love this poem is because it's very personal to me. This poem was inspired by my close friend Shaun. I went to middle school with Shaun and we were very close friends during the eighth grade, and around the summer before high school started, we faded apart altogether, and would go months without communicating. Whenever I visited my middle school friends, we never said a word to each other and it really stuck to me. I was always wondering if I did something wrong that caused us to grow apart. He claims that nothing was ever wrong and he wasn't mad or didn't hold any sort of animosity. It was so unclear, and I feel like a good fraction of time was wasted, and we could've been talking, but I was too afraid to contact him. However this school year we began talking again and now communicate on a daily basis. This poem doesn't apply to me anymore, instead taking place in the past. This poem demonstrates and represents an emotion.

I'm excited to finally assemble the poems together and complete Lotus. I'm also excited to present one of my poems in front of my English class. I anticipate that I'll perform Baptize in front of my class, as I think it's the most well-thought out poem, and has the most depth out of all. I also believe it can effectively demonstrate my abilities as a writer and a poet.