How My Labor of Love is Lost: Romantic IMprov Haiku

Introduce your love/
to Shakespeare with care! Pick plays/
sans pedantic speech.

Don’t Save Your Breath: Revolutionary IMprov Prose

Through the years, I’ve had many friends, you included, who have told me positive things about me. They said kind, wonderful things, even when I argued with them, even when I didn’t believe them, even when it was obvious that I was exhausting them with my negativity and self-pity. They kept telling me wonderful thoughts:
I was good, I was smart, I was kind, I was important, I was intelligent, I was attractive, I was cute, I was an eccentric genius, someday I’d find my tribe and they’d get me.
and many other positive affirmations.
At the time these things were told me, I didn’t believe them. Sometimes I had to hear them many times, but finally I reached a place in my life where I realized that those things could be, might be, possibly may be, true. I accepted them, held on to them, carried them deep in my heart and my soul. They gave me hope. They prompted me and prodded me to keep trying, keep believing, keep hoping.
When I finally decided to take the leap out of self-pity and self-loathing, realizing that I could be someone worthwhile, the memory of all those positive comments came flooding back to me and substantiated me and reinforced me.

You face people who don’t believe you when you tell them how wonderful they are. It seems that you could repeat yourself until you are blue in the face, and they would never believe you. It seems like a waste of time.
So should you save your breath?
That fabulous, articulate, insightful, intelligent, kind breath?
No. Please no!

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Words Unspoken, Released: Romantic IMprov Haiku

Dare I pen words so/
long pent up, feelings silenced?/
Too late! They’ve escaped!

If There Are Times, Then What? Romantic ImproVerse Free Verse Poem

Are there times
when you have to do
the important things in your life?
Or are there times
when you have to ignore
people you’d rather not?
Are there times
when you have to make
tough choices
and those choices might not be
what other people want you to do?
Are there times
when you have to let go
and suffer the consequences?
Or are there times
when you have to just do
what you feel like God
is telling you to do,
regardless of what anyone else
wants you to do
or even needs you to do?

When you hit those times,
do you just have to take a deep breath,
perhaps shed a few tears,
and hope that,
if you are hurting someone you care about,
maybe someday they’ll understand?
And they’ll come to learn
that what is best for you
and what God directs you to do,
will ultimately also be
what’s best for them.

Her Quiet Statement: Romantic ImproVerse Haiku Lament

She knows that words are /
important to me. When I /
get none, that says much.

She Called 1 Minute Early: Romantic ImproVerse Haiku

If I set up a/
deadline not met, am I strong/
enough to act right?

Painful Garage Discoveries: Revolutionary ImproVerse Free Verse Lament

They fell out
of an old cardboard box,
in a pile, onto the floor.
It was like that scene
from Garfield’s Christmas.

I, too, found a stack
of old love letters,
written from she who now,
as I move her out of her life,
must be obeyed;
she who I betrayed.

I’d forgotten,
(or maybe I never knew,)
how much she loved
me.

Her words tell me.
Surprise me.

Now,
nearly four decades later,
I can only stand
in the messed up
and cluttered garage
the cold, damp space
that still holds,
for a little while longer,
the life
which we shared.

There,
amid piles
of old,
handwritten papers,
scarcely daring to read
those words she wrote
decades ago,
I weep bitter tears of
sorrow,
guilt,
pain,
and deep remorse.

She’ll never know
how sorry I am.
How could she?
Until this moment,
I didn’t even know.

Why Say What You Are? Non-Boxing Advice: Revolutionary Blogging Prose

“I’m a single.”
Or
“I’m single.”
I hear it so often,
it makes me want to
cry.

Why say what you are?
Or what you think you are?
Unless you say
“I am a child of God.”
“I am a son of God.”
“I am a daughter of Heavenly Father.”

“I am a single”
is a statement
about your state of life.
It is
WHERE
you are,
not WHO
or WHAT
you are.

That statement
brings so many
other statements,
judgements,
traits,
emotions.
Most of them
are not WHO
or WHAT
I am.

Isn’t it more accurate
to state:
“I am IN
the single phase
of my life”?

That allows us
possibilities.
That lets us
NOT be put in a box.

There is nothing wrong
with being in
the single phase
of life.
But it may not be
where we are
permanently.

And it is not
who we are
completely.

Because we are
so much more
than single.

Missing The Sunset Choices: Revolutionary IMprov Haiku

I missed the sunset,/
stayed home, pitted peaches and/
plums, and did laundry.

OR
I missed the sunset,/
stayed home, cleaned, pitted fresh fruit,/
did laundry, and wrote.

Sadness Over An Open Friend: Revolutionary ImproVerse Haiku Lament

She wants to be pure,/
but then spreads herself too wide./
All my words can’t help.