I have always been here, among the lonely people. Despite having people around me, my battles exist within my head and body. To you, I may look normal, but on the inside is a scene entirely different. My constant companions are sadness, frustration, exhaustion — even a fortified fortress to shield me from what the world has and could continue to do to me. Those walls isolate me from my family. The shadows are filled with creatures that know how to hurt me if I move too close. So, you see, I am one of the lonely people. But I am not alone.
Sarah Doughty)
All the Lonely People—
they converge,
invisible at intersections
of Life and Death,
strangely untouched by hands of those
simpatico.
How can it be that so many similar
do exist while lost
to one another?
All the Lonely People—
they are unalone, and yet
desperately segregated;
misinterpretations
made by cold analyses
appease
the masses,
give excuses to
maintain blindness.
All the lonely people
We hide
In shadows
Contemplating reason
Bleeding truth
Brutality and madness
Clinging to singing
Bones of what used to be
Combing catacombs
In search of slightest light
And notes of hope
Scribbled on worn script
A story of happy endings
Dangling on threatening thread
Of human connection
Just out of reach
Contradictory condition
Unaccompanied euphony
Love song for the lonely
Sometimes this house like walls within,
life angel-blind or saint-sedated.
Wearing madness as a hat,
phrasing themselves into escapes,
sunken flames and the mirror broken,
every memory drained of wonder,
the lonely people:
afraid that birth may be repeated.
All the lonely people
Sleep waking dark streets
Under overcast skies,
Red rimmed eyes
And sepia toned faces
Singing songs no one will hear,
Writing poems no one will read,
Born with hope and potential
Dying with nothing but a name,
Buried in a box
Covered with loose dirt
And half hearted prayers.
No one was saved.
All the lonely people,
Where do we all belong?
With masks of happiness concealing our fears,
We pass others by.
Looking for meaning between echoing footfalls,
Where emptiness only lies.
Oh how I wish I could remove this mask,
And show others how I feel.
For lonely people need more than just objects and things,
Connection, understanding, and a listening ear.
We belong to each other from beginning to end,
We all share similar fears.
All these lonely people,
Where do we all belong?
Look at the lonely
Making connections with other invisible friends
It never ends
Look in the mirror
They cannot see eye to eye with their reflection’s gaze
Live in a daze
The image in the mirror
What makes you feel alive??
All the lonely people
Belong to the same tribe
A name for the beetles
to eat along with the flowers
at my lone grave
buried on a hill
under a chill
and no one came
I know now where
the alone belong
but I could have been saved
by a song
that nobody sang
look at all the lonely people
you should know that it’s
all wrong
all the lonely people
croon their heartbroken harmonies
stretch aching arms
across unspoken chasms
estranged
in disconsolate silences.
yearning for connection
they swaddle themselves
in quilts of embroidered sorrows,
every painstaking stitch
a shimmering titanium shield.
all the lonely people
asphyxiate
on swallowed inarticulations
while their marrows vibrate
– hummed exhalations –
with universal laments.
we fear it,
the yellow beast in Prufrock’s alley,
when the grimy backstreets
of nobody’s business will teem with life.
the moon rises
and in her pearly face i see myself,
paw prints in the dirt.
orange street lamps spill across her glow,
leaving
watery damage,
green fingers and old jewelry,
deadened with use.
all the lonely people –
they fill up on earth and sky.
To see sanguine ropes of dirt and mollusk
we walk under the skins of disgust, often choking
Slumping, sliding under the caskets of Coffins
Biting the threads of skulls, breathing the sands of hope
We have a thumping noise, striking our iris and hands
Shivers and cold Noises.
Filling the brim of the Planet with liquids and milk
we march towards our home.
All the lonely people,
We exist still, under the cleft of your chins,
under the blue sonograms,
under the pits and pits.
We are the lonely people.
Arrows and stones: a child’s song
Protects the fragile boy
From all who want to paint him
As if he were as blank as Locke
As if he just arrived on the cul-de-sac
That morning for the first time:
He had not.
He was there the day before.
He had been there days before that
And so on… like a hall of mirrors
reflecting him back and forth, forever,
He’d been there.
Now, though, now,
They see him cry
And think: AHA! A fete!
“On him, I can paint all the shades of my pain,”
As if the color under his skin wasn’t on the spectrum.
All the lonely people
where do we all belong?
trapped behind sheets of ice
our voices whisper
our heartbeats slow
our fingers too stiff
too unpracticed
to break through our walls to reach out
and touch
those technicolor people
who blaze bright before our starved eyes
who somehow laugh
love
and live without reservation
what do they know
that we don’t?
we long to gather their light
their warmth
cradle it to our frozen chests
feed the ember that flickers there
make it smolder
make it burn
until our desperate cries of
“I am!”
finally cuts through the night like a knife
Wow, such an amazing collbaration.. every single word, verse and syllable reek of the loneliness. As always it an honor to read the writings of all you amazing writers in one place. I so missed being part of this collaboration.
It’s an amazing coincidence that I posted about loneliness on my blog a few days back. Read if you are interested.
https://meghasworldsite.wordpress.com/2018/02/25/irony/
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Overwhelming, but in a good way.
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Reblogged this on cabbagesandkings524 and commented:
Blood Into Ink presents a collaboration of many, the faces kept in jars by the door are off.
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They were really nice verses !!✨✨✨✨
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Thank you for this, Christine! It was a great collaboration!
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Reblogged this on Silent Hour and commented:
In the company of great writers on Blood Into Ink.
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I am so glad you wrote with us.
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So am I!
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Reblogged this on Brave and Reckless and commented:
It is always an honor to collaborate with these incredible writers.
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What a collaboration guys…i sooo love it
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Thank you Mich
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I’m in complete awe of this … beyond words … beyond me … how your minds and souls combine … yet each of you identifiable … as you.
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Thank you Eric. It is a very organic writing process.
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Reblogged this on Megha's World and commented:
Come read this amazing collaboration by writers of BloodintoInk.
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Such a sad topic so beautifully expressed in each and every poem. Loneliness is an epidemic, emotional and physical loneliness. We need to seek out and engage, esp. the elderly who may go weeks and longer without a single word or visit. The broken-hearted, there are so many. Tears.
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Holly- so touched that this moved you so profoundly.
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mesmerizing to read all of u together.great collaboration,beautiful result
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Thank you so much Ortensia. It is an incredibly talented and generous group of writers.
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It is indeed😍
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Reblogged this on A Lion Sleeps in the Heart of the Brave and commented:
❤
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A touching piece and an honor to collaborate with such an amazing, talented group ❤
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It is always an honor to have your voice help create the whole.
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Thank you Christine ❤
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Reblogged this on Insights from "Inside" and commented:
I once again had the incredible honor to collaborate with a group of stunningly talented writers.
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❤
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Reblogged this on The Ink Owl and commented:
Excited to share this collaborative poem on mental health I was able to be a part of! What an incredible and insightful experience.
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Glad to have you aboard
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Reblogged this on Kindra M. Austin and commented:
I’m fortunate to be the company of so many great writers and beautiful human beings. ❤
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You’ve all done such an amazing job here. So touching and powerful. ❤
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Thank you Eric!
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Thank you, Eric!
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Thank you Eric!
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It’s a sad reality ! Good job 👍
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Thank you!
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Thank you everyone for the collaboration! It worked well. 🙂
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Thank you for writing with us Ward!
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😊❤
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This is just perfection!
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Reblogged this on MY VALIANT SOUL and commented:
Once again honored.
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Sarah Doughty… I have read you writings for several years now.
You have my absolute respect.
Stay the course.
Forrest 🙂
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Thank you so much for the kind words, Forrest!
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I very seldom leave comments or even likes.
I remember my thoughts upon reading your “about” probably 4+ years ago.
And have read you largely silently ever since.
You’re kicking @ss.
Your writing means something.
I’m proud to know you Sarah.
Stay the course.
With all my respect…
Forrest 🙂
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Stunning.
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Thank you Vanessa
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My gosh Christine, don’t you feel sometimes, that there is something amazing going on here on WP, I feel like I am witnessing these wonderful literary moments in history, and how oblivious most of the world is, and how grateful am I to read all of this, my nose pressed up against the window. ❤
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That is exactly how I feel sometimes Vanessa!
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How dreadfully saddening it must be to write such a collaboration. Creative for certain, but painful with each and every word.
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It was such a pleasure to participate in this project with these wonderful writers.
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This turned out beautifully. I am so happy to have been involved.
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Thank you for participating
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Reblogged this on Darkness of His Dreams and commented:
A beautiful collaborative poem I participated in recently about loneliness. I am honored to have been included among such talented poets.
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Reblogged this on A Global Divergent Literary Collective and commented:
Sudden Denouement’s own Sarah Doughty, Kindra Austin, 1Wise-Woman, Olde Punk, Aurora Phoenix, Lois Linkens and Christine Ray sing with other voices
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Reblogged this on newauthoronline and commented:
Some powerful writing here.
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This whole collaboration was amazing, but these lines in particular gave me goosebumps:
: “…until our desperate cries of
“I am!”
finally cuts through the night like a knife.”
So very well done.
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Thank you so much!
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You’re very welcome! 🙂
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