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A daily reading from One Poem Only—a quiet space for a single poem, read aloud.
I stopped praying long ago.
The gods grew tired of my voice,
or maybe I just grew tired
of asking for things
that never came.
My wallet’s thin,
my dreams thinner
a handful of words
no one cared to read.
Even my parents’ eyes
look at me like unfinished work,
a draft they wish they could rewrite.
And love,
she always leaves
before the song begins.
I’ve learned the sound of silence
that follows a “maybe next time.”
But sometimes,
in the middle of all that noise,
a small thought hums
that maybe I’m still here
for a reason I don’t yet know.
Maybe the words I failed to write are still forming inside me.
Maybe faith
is not about believing in God,
but believing
that the broken can still be beautiful.
And maybe one day,
someone will see me
not as a failure,
but as a boy who kept trying
to love the world
even when it forgot his name.
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Poetry slows us down. Thank you for listening.
Mentioned in this episode:
Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem Only
Write After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.
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