Be Kind (Video)

This is part of a collection of poems accompanied by an AI generated illustration as a response to those poems. In the collection, “A Super Collider of Zigs and Zags” by Brendon Behlke, each poem was submitted as a prompt to an AI art generator and produced the artwork on display. To view them the way ancient peoples would have viewed them, you can order a copy of the entire collection, over 100 poems and art pieces, releasing on November 18th 2023 here: https://www.fontainehousepublishing.com/product-page/a-super-collider-of-zigs-and-zags-by-brendon-behlke

You Are Here.

I am here.
Against all the dreams of fate,
my persistence permeates,
transcends the fear;
I, am here.

Long behind bolted gates,
bound by crippling weights,
now freed upon a new frontier;
I am here.

This life is mine to dictate,
these dreams, mine to create.
If there is one thing that is clear;
I am, here.

Through all the changing states,
my force will not abate.
Because I persevere,
I am here.

Words as Weeds

We are bleached sidewalks in the sun
cracks counted in innocent fun
careless feet as deadly as guns
“your mother’s done, your mother’s done!”

Oft young words will burrow inside
find a cozy place to reside
in the cracks where even light hides;
from there it bides, from there it bides.

Seeds that use the darkness to grow
stretch their roots out and far below
where we break with more cracks to show
and so it goes, and so it goes.

When weeds like these we do impart
they cause our reason to depart;
if we take them too close to heart,
rend us apart, rend us apart.

Catch those seeds as soon as they fall
give them kindness in which to sprawl
and ask their source if they recall
their own downfall, their own downfall.

What seeds in them took root within
broke their spirit like newborn skin
and let them know it’s not a sin,
to start again, to start again.