Editor’s Picks — Top 10: Poetry Is the Music of Words That Makes You Relaxed

Let’s read our top 10 poems this month

Proving things is hard. Making sense of your desires, fears, and failures is challenging. So what can you do?

You can go with the flow.

You can allow yourself to fall apart at times. Or equally impossibly you can hope. This is how r.h. Sin’s book ‘she felt like feeling nothing,’ starts:

you’re waiting aren’t you you’re always waiting for a sign something that’ll help you believe in him and all of his lies ~ r.h. Sin

Words in a poem — when they are telling you about your emotions— start assuming new meanings. Sometimes, the expressions of abstract yearnings sound like music. Verses that fill your soul.

As Rupi Kaur says in her New York Times #1 bestseller, ‘milk and honey’:

‘the woman who comes after me will be a bootleg version of who i am. she will try and write poems for you to erase the ones i’ve left memorized on your lips but her lines could never punch you in the stomach the way mine did. she will then try to make love to your body. but she will never lick, caress, or suck like me. she will be a sad replacement of the woman you let slip. nothing she does will excite you and this will break her. when she is tired of falling apart for a man that doesn’t give back what he takes she will recognize me in your eyelids staring at her with pity and it’ll hit her. how can she love a man who is busy loving someone he can never get his hands on again.’

She is not happy after leaving him. But then Rupi Kaur says,

more than anything i want to save you from myself ~ rupi kaur

When you are sad, only good poetry makes sense. Logic and other forms of wisdom lose sense. Sabrina Benaim, in her book ‘depression & other magic tricks,’ explains her pain to her mom like this:

mom, my depression is a shape shifter; one day it is as small as a rey in the palm of a bear, the next, it’s the bear. those days i play dead until the bear leaves me alone. i call the bad days the dark days.

Amanda Lovelace loves poetry. See how she express her love of playing with words in her book, ‘the princess saves herself in this one’:

t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶i̶n̶c̶e̶s̶s̶ i was born a little bookmad.

i could be found stroking the spines of my books

while i sat locked alone inside my t̶o̶w̶e̶r̶ bedroom.

all the while, i hoped my books would spill their exquisite words

over the lush green carpet so i could collect them one by one

& savor them like berries inside of my mouth.

— forever a collector of words.

Unbelievably, some people say nobody reads poetry anymore. They don’t think that the lyrics of their favorite songs are poetry.

But the author of The Poetry of Pop, Adam Bradley thinks lyrics are poetry. He has also authored the Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip-Hop. He is a former Ph.D. student of Helen Vendler at Harvard.

If we agree with Bradley’s view, then songs like Ed Shereen’s ‘shape of you’ — I am listening to this song right now — have been streamed more than 7 billion times. This makes poetry the most enjoyed form of word-art even today.

Here is a list of our top 10 poems this month — that’ll create music in your mind:

10. Looking Back on Me

Jesse M. Gonzalez is currently residing in Northern Utah, where she finds immeasurable amounts of inspiration on the mountainside. Her passion is writing. She is an excellent writer. Do check her other work.

In the moments cast, in the moments due, I put a bandage on the wound because when there is no time to limp or groan to the remnants of hurt, there is space to move, and to keep moving so.

9. Then The Seasons Come

Gerthy Bingoly writes about the things the eye cannot see and is looking for inspiration where his feet cannot take him. He is a fine writer and you’ll love his work.

In the forest of life, no trees are the same. From the caring Juniper to the brave Oak, they all have different names, but their aims remain the same.

8. Ohio

Lori Lamothe is the author of Trace Elements, Kirlian Effect, and Happily. She is a top writer in fiction, poetry, books, feminism, and art. She is a true-crime junkie and an excellent writer. Don’t forget to check his other work.

The summer we drove over the border into Kentucky, I waited for the grass

to turn suddenly blue, as if there were places in the world

7. Night Before Dawn

Lady Foxx is a lawyer and a Poet. She loves reading and travelling. In writing, she understand….

She is a superb writer. She doesn’t use unnecessary words but the message is powerful. She deserves your precious one minute.

My anger is all gone Not so my sorrows They hit and claw At my innards in time To the erratic thuds Of my treacherous heart

6. Airplane

Sabana Grande says, “Hi, If You Are Seeing This Message I Have Come Back From The Future To Impart Wisdom On The Masses.”

He is an accomplished writer. Do check his other work.

A giant metal bird Is packed full of farting customers, And children crying. Lovely.

5. Frustration

Jennifer MacDonald is a 38-year-old dreamer who is living with Scoliosis. She’s an avid reader and a total nerd at heart. She likes to share her thoughts on things.

She is a skilled writer and needs your love.

Sometimes I feel like jumping out of my skin. I feel like ripping out my spine and heaving it over a cliff. I would settle for the ability to trade it in for a new one, though.

4. Soul On Fire

America Zed is a survivor. Optimist. Compassionate Soul. Living in a Creative World ~ POETRY ~ SELF HELP ~ MUSIC.

She is an outstanding writer. Her inspiring message will help you understand your inner power.

You can change anything you want to, Run out to the edge Feel the sun come around.

3. Finding My Words

Dr. Jackie Greenwood is a veterinarian, wife, mother, grandmother, swimmer. Her writing muse has tracked her down.

She is an exceptional writer. I think she has found her words. If you like this poem, please check her other work.

In that other time I spoke in prose, ordered phrases falling line after line, on to the page

2. Mental Images of Impressionism.

Dr. John Rose says, ‘I have been in Engineering and IT. I study the Philosophy of Gaia, the connected living Earth. A poet, I help people to think and write. I live to dream.’

He is an exceptional writer. You’ll adore his other pieces too.

Two paintings of Monet that I love, this one, La Grenouillere and Water Lilies painted in his later life.

1. Perspective

At number one, it is Deborah Barchi. She has recently retired from her career as a librarian and now has time to read, explore nature, and write poetry and essays.

She is an exceptional writer. Words play in her hands like cute little puppies. She loves to say a lot using few words.

To the eagle that soars I am merely a dot, less important to him than a tree or a rock.

This post is part of the Top 10 Series — you can meet almost 400 top writers with these links:

1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10–11–12–13–14–15–16–17–18–19–20–21–22–23–24–25–26–27–28–29–30–31–32–33–34–35–36–37–38–39–40–41–42–43–44–45–46–47–48–49–50–51–52 –53–54–55–56–57–58–59–60–61–62–63-64

Final Thoughts

If your poem was selected in the Top 10, please share another one of your poems with a brief introduction and a short convincing review. (Please write the review in the third person and start it with your name.)

I must have missed something today. I cannot read every poem on Illumination and Illumination-Curated. I try — and fail daily — to read all of the masterpieces.

Dr Mehmet Yildiz has kindly allotted the top 10 series a full shelf on the front page of Illumination-Curated:

If you find any mistake, typo, or other error, please leave a private note for correction. Thanks.

Happy New Year!

To be included as a top 10 writer, read these curation guidelines carefully.

You can read my curated stories here.