fight the fear scholarship
Learn more about other poetry terms
winter birds in the deep green forest
animated by cold, her eyes stunning through the crowd
"I love you."
he was amazed, thrilled.
herons, pelicans, cranes, thoughts.
Looking into a somber, empty future
Bequeathing a speech to a room of strangers
Plummeting into an empty abyss.
Becoming a guardian of your psyche
Acknowledging the precedence of friendships
Fear, as I’ve found, isn’t worth a damn.
Fear is low sometimes, like on Scuffed elbow Saturdays when
I met her when I was ten
She was the stranger at my door.
The dog barking at me from across the street.
The tree branch knocking on my window in the dark.
Age 2: Loud noises
Age 4: Monsters and ghosts
Age 8: My math teacher
Age 10:The tallest roller coaster
Age 12: Public Speaking
There it was,
That shadowy silhouette
With its glowing yellow eyes,
And tall stature,
Always watching,
Always waiting,
Waiting for the perfect time to strike.
I am terrified of heights.
Not sure how it started,
But whenever I reach
A certain threshold,
I see myself tumbling over the edge
I was thirteen and it didn't seem I couldn't achieve anything.
Not one sport or classroom activity, I wasn't the best sports player or test taker.
I falied everything. Was I a bad seed or was I just born not to succeed.
Through small eyes
and a smaller perception
I could see the waters rise
Opted out on my own election
Couldn't bear the size
Waves marking no stagnation
Claims of fun are mere lies
I used to see you in the shadows,
Smirking devilishly at me with the thought that you could control me.
If I dared to show any signs of weakness to you,
There is nothing more that I fear
than a burning bridge.
The flames do not scare me,
only the gaping abyss.
What I always fail to see
Most people are afraid of spiders or public speaking,
Or maybe dark rooms and floor boards creaking,
And while these may perhaps be on my list
I'm a ghost with a beating heart
You're alive but yours wont start
I'm getting worried child please don't leave
Because when you die you wont be like me
I can keep you safe I swear to it
What is the point of this forsaken life
Consumed by darkness, I now see no light I feel no meaning should I grab the knife?These feelings of no value I must fight
To talk of it is easily done,
But
To feel it coarse through your vein-
That is a much harder task,
And to the Universe I want to ask:
Why am I so crippled?
Why am I so blind?
Fear is not what one might expect.
It is unpredictable.
It is often terrible.
However, every now and then,
Someone finds a way through it.
To defeat fear is never simple.
It takes vigor.
I am Nigerian
My birth certificate does not matter to them
My Yoruba title does not matter to them
Watching Nollywood movies does not matter to them
Singing and dancing to Afrobeat music does not matter to them
I stand on the threshold of Adventure.
I have written him love letters,
Tear-stained, open-hearted, hope letters,
But as I hold hands with the unknown
I realize
That I am afraid.
The hardest thing you can do
Is to see yourself
Trying to be someone else
And you can never be that person
Because that person isn’t you
10 months of non-stop self-hatred of my body
10 months of shoving a finger down my throat, just to have this illusion of me having control
Over my body weight
Constantly being aware of the calories going into my mouth
i am able to dance with angels
when the sky sheds millions
of scintillating tears,
that illuminate the earth.
i hear their merry laughter-
Sweat dripping
legs shaking
eyes unfocused
words stuttered
Eyes piercing
attention on me
judging glares
laughing scare
That was what I seen
Seasons change and the time flows
The clock never stops
and time is everlasting
But the thing is it never seems like there is enough of it
Old habits die hard,
Robert Frost and dying stars,
Those are the things that made me.
Cherry blossoms now in bloom begin wilting on the stem.
let’s look at this year.
let’s stare into the darkness,
festering in the beginning
where hope ought to lay.
let’s search for a reason
