I Learned To Be Selfish Today.

the mind wanders. worries.

to become the impediment on our own self

take solace in the art of reassurance

awaken to bewilderment in our hearts

the familiar sound of terror

keep track of your failures,

they'll help you someday

 

to be one of the fine and understood

lost art in our own cause

become one with disdain and you'll find hope

a clear chosen path just doesn't exist

take comfort in the unknown,

when you escape familiar surroundings

 

you'll rest on the day that you land here

now go on and just live tonight

these days don't last

justification lies on the floor of your closet, buried

oh you'll try,

but to succeed requires one to have no clear cause

 

the finish line marked in gold

checkpoints to happiness waver in green

be cautious to not stain your hands

remember traveller, you're to become of the cherished few

oh yes,

they have plans for your advancement

 

when did it make sense

you lost your true heart to the men you want be

there is no going back

you made your choice when you stepped on your soul

 

though the colors lost their shine

they can be repolished

we stayed true to beauty

kept art in honesty

took solace in the art of reassurance

 

Author's Note

the title is taken from a line by Between The Buried And Me

Reviews

[Kathryn Anne Earnest]

Maxi, forget the punctuation, if anything the punctuation reflects the feeling of the lyrics. What i personally took from this was that the person, or character is confused at where he should "step" next. He's lost, and he continues to stop in unnecessary places, which in the punctuation area this works. It almost puts the reader in the shoes of the character in the story of colors, which might I add, is coming together quite beautifully Maxi.

All in all, grand f*****g job.

[schadenfreude]

You should look at how you are using punctuation in this poem; you are putting periods at the end of every line, but for the most part they are fragments, and should not get periods. Apart from the grammatical reason, the way that you punctuated this poem gives it a really halting movement. Like with every line we are trying to take a step forward into the next, but the reader isn't being allowed to. The periods are separating out the lines from one another and not allowing us to consider them as a continuous train of thought (which I think they are). So, I think that you should remove a lot of the periods and try to punctuate this piece normally, adding periods and commas to where they would naturally fit, allowing paired statements to fit together, and separate statements to be separate.