In celebration of Poetry Month, I sent out a submission form to everyone willing to speak their mind. In my opinion, poetry is a way to communicate your emotions and feelings into a way everyone will understand a little bit differently. I have always used poetry to speak my heart when life took its turns and I’m sure there are many others who feel the same way.

We received a couple of poem submissions that people have shared with the Plume so I will be releasing new poems every week until the end of April. So, let’s hear their voice!

Matthew McSwain, Sophomore: Turn Out The Lights

Turn off the lights.
Can you just turn off the lights?
Hey, dear brain, why the hell are you doing this to me right now?
I should be happy.
So dear brain, why? Just to see me cry for the 6th time so far this week?
Make me feel weak?
Men don’t cry, after all.
You know, the worst part about being tall is that no one can reach your heart.
The worst part about being good at faking a smile is that no one knows if you’re torn apart.
I’ll deny it though, you can even sit front row – go ahead, see what you’ll catch.
Because I already bled myself to the bone.
So lets all eat poison apples, and see who picks the short stick in the death raffle.
Or you can ask how I am, and I’ll respond with a witty comment, just to confuse you,
Confuse you until you leave me.
I can’t breathe, I don’t know how to deal with this.
They say they care but they don’t mean it, I don’t feel it.
I’m still alone, despite all the people in this room, but it’s so bright.
So can you turn off the lights?

Lauren Webb, Sophomore: Life

A wondrous mystery
Of growth, love, heartache, sorrow
A rotation of days that seem the same
Yet no one fully understands
The seemingly random twists and turns
On a thrilling roller coaster
One might wonder why to even stay on
But there is something that keeps one going
Striving
Living
Breathing
Even when it feels nearly
Impossible
So on this uncharted course
We keep on moving forward
Constantly working for
Tomorrow
With hope it will be a better one
Than today
The clouds of life are gray
But without them
There would be no rain
For Spring
For growth
For Life

Peter Phillips, Sophomore: The Girl in The Photo

Running from a jagged and shameful secret,
Cooking an unforgetting and tarnished meal,
Extracting a infected and large splinter,
Cherishing a beautiful and loving photograph of the girl I loved.

Zachary Azar, Sophomore:

I wish I could join a new universe,
Where green doesn’t mean go,
But red does,

Where the grass is more inviting,
And trees dance with calmness,
World without addiction violence or crime,

A world where tears fall in its existence,
Towns flourish in mellowness,
And bridges form any perspective imaginable,

Universe where life sits in opportunity,
Licking its lips in delight,
Galaxy in which time serves life,
Not the other way around,

But in all its past future and present,
History is what you make it,
Change is inevitable,
But only yet to come,
So I changed my mind where I wish I could be,
Now wishing the world looked at just like me.

Jarek Templeton, Junior: Time Has Weighed Me Down

Slowly, am I fading
Engrossed with pain and past the point of breaking,
I am shown the light
And taken by arms belonging to the night

I’m already dead
I’m already
I’m already dead
I’m already

I can’t say that I’m without repression
I’m slowly slipping and sledding down regression,
I take back my words and face down
Pain, it brings, along with it doubt

A thousand needles bind
My soul and heart and mind
These threads that I suppressed
All but empty regrets

I’m already dead
I’m already dead,
These threads that I suppressed
Are bottled in my head
–
I’m already dead
I’m already dead,
These pins tied to my core
They bind me to the floor

It’s hard to let you go
But my peace is found at the end of this here road,
I’ve followed this empty shadow
Nd it lies there waiting for me at the gallows

They howl out, to the moon
These seas they rise while I’m stuck down here doomed
If only, I could find a way
But my time here it seems to have a weight
–
They’re howling, to the moon
These sea levels they rise when I’m with you,
If only, I could stay
But my time here it seems to have a weight

A thousand needles bind
My soul, my heart, my mind
These threads that I suppressed
With me they acquiesce

That I’m already dead
That I’m already dead,
These threads I’ve long suppressed
Make pressures on my chest
–
I’m already dead
I’m already dead,
These pins tied to my core
Soon, will bind no more