poetry

Poems: backlog, Rivers of Words

Posted Janice

Some poems on writing. A frequent topic of mine. The form itself. This is me being meta. Rivers of Words the poem below, is from where I get the title of this site.

backlog
Janice Lee

all those words i never said never i held back back in my mouth overanalyzed practiced reviewed edited those words were they wanted to escape so badly reach the open air have you hear them HEAR THEM there were times they almost escaped on the tip of my tongue on the tip of the tip of my tongue ready to jump off but fear is ever present in a risky situation present ever excuses are so easy ever abundant abundant those excuses are so i kept my mouth clamped closed mouth shut tight and that makeshift dam became backloggedbackloggedbackloggedbacklogged with all those words trying to overflow over over over NO the pressure was toomuch toomuch toomuch two options speak those words or swallow well i swallowed them down down ingested gone lost to digestion breaking down down in my churning insides insides churning insides filtered of all importance insignificant devoid of anything nutritious unhealthy just shit now now just shit shit now just backloggedbackloggedbackloggedbacklogged


Rivers of Words

If you could swim in these rivers of words that flow through my mind,
Could you touch how I feel inside?
Could you see how I wade, how I splash, how I dance?
Could you see how these rivers of words overflow from my mouth, my eyes, my hands?

Would you let the water flow over your head and immerse yourself?
Would you let the words slide through your hair and between your fingers and down your body?
Would you read the words, knowing?
Would you play with the words, laughing?
Would these rivers of words be beautiful to you as they are to my mind, flowing?

If you could swim in these rivers of words that flow through my mind,
Would you stay and ride all the way?
Because these rivers of words are arms of the sea,
and depending on the day I float or drown or swim forever
and live in these rivers of words for me.