F. Kate Langan

🤦🏼‍♀️

of latching onto
an idea that might stop,
or slow slightly,
the spinning chaos
of the world around
and allow
me to catch my breath.
Even if only temporarily.
F. Kate Langan 2022.

Hurling Anchors.
All the spaces around me
and in my head fill up
until I lose my grip
and my temper.
Then I spend my time
hurling anchors up
into the sky in hopes
(cont'd)

Or are these human values,
Given to honour
Their wondrous existence,
Just a salve for our collective souls
Before we poison them
Into extinction?

F. Kate Langan. 2020.
Previously published in the Journal of Wild Culture, 2022.

Do they feel vain
Garbed in such finery
As they flit around
On a summer's day,
Outshining all other
Aerial acts they encounter?
(cont'd)

Do butterflies dream
As they emerge in glory
From their secure cocoon
To face an unknowable future,
Even as they carry traces
Of foregone generations
From which to draw
Strength and courage?
(cont'd)

Butterflies.
Do butterflies see
The vibrant colours
Of their wings
Or feel delicate and transient
As they flit through our
Plodding sphere?
(cont'd)

So, please pull me close
even if I lash out and push
you and try to sit alone
and moon the clouds
with wistfulness.

Patch my smiles strung
of broken heart strings.
That way I will learn
to remember that you
feel too the sadness.
F. Kate Langan 2015.#loss#grief#healing#love

Some days bring spuming
angers, followed by nights
of spongy sorrow, or misting
eyes of smiling gladness.
(cont'd)

Waves of days crash me
back and forth
against the jagged rocks
of newborn insecurity
and self-worthlessness.
(cont'd)

Push You, Pull Me
through the pain
of missing young
white arms that once
hung around my neck
with love and neediness.
(cont'd)

I love it. Nice strong images and emotions. Thanks for sharing.

Cartoon noting the irony that car infrastructure is commonly considered a public investment, and public transit infrastructure is often attacked as a wasteful subsidy, when the opposite is actually true.

"Public investment" vs "Wasteful Subsidy." The only problem with this clever Singer cartoon is that some people might actually not get that it’s sarcastically illustrating the incorrect perception problem, NOT telling the truth.

Just in case it actually needs to be said, the truth is the opposite.

Be alone as you are
Bending, gorgeous and free
Until winds blow constant
And fierce
Winnow lessons from memories
And build only with those.
F. Kate Langan 2010.
#love#risk#chance#certainty

Certitude.
Hold, hold dear passion
For what is the gamble
But your self worth?
Or, go for it all the way
And cry never no fair play
Nor lead astray
With hints of fidelity
Unless you are sure.
(cont'd)

A Void.
I am nothing
but a void
in the air.

F. Kate Langan 2007.
(published by Five Fleas Itchy Poetry, November 2022)#nothingness#Nihilism#themeaningoflife

Contentment with The home and hearth And love you have;
Be in the now. It is the only way.
F. Kate Langan 2009#buckthetrend#ownpath#gratitude

Force them to silence With glowing thoughts Of memories Of children building Sandcastles at the lips
Of waves, gratitudes For the lottery-win That birthed you in This time and place.
(cont'd)

False! Do not heed. They will lead You down the path Of malcontent and leave You wanting, needing, desiring More and more. And more.
So stop! It is enough!
(cont'd)

One Hundred Eighty Degrees.
Voices in the caverns And passageways of the mind Whisper directions Directives, suggestions.
Listen, they entreat Listen to our wisdom. We will tell you the way To happiness.
(cont'd)

In thinking about mental health and wellness, we want to recognize other groups under persecution as well: people who are transgender/nonbinary, have disabilities, don‘t have documentation, people of color, and others. Take care of yourselves, find your communities, be allies and support each other.

Ode to Softness Mornings are blind as newborn cats. Fingernails grow so trustfully, for a while they don't know what they're going to touch. Dreams are soft, and tenderness looms over us like fog, like the cathedral bell of Cracow before it cooled.

.
"Tenderness looms over us like fog..."
—Adam Zagajewski

#poetry #poem #poems

Beware! Potentially triggering topic.
Irony.
It is a very funny thing
this raging against
the mother for what
she has done
and said to wound
when she does not get
her way,
for it makes me want
to kill myself,
not her!
F. Kate Langan 2015.#suicide#emotionalwounds#rageagainstthehurt

and, please leave the plug
in the electrical socket
'til I'm done.
Oh, why do you need
to make so much noise
to do what you do
and be who you are?
You make it so hard for me
to hear myself think!
F. Kate Langan 2018.

so that we can get
this last bit done.
Please, just squeeze around
the legs of this chair,
so I can reach the dirt
right over there.
Please, don't knock the vase
off the table while
my back is turned,
(cont'd)

Noise Sucks.
Oh, the vacuums I have known;
like children, I might say;
difficult and loud.
So, I find myself mothering
my four-year-old
and my canister vacuum
in similar ways.
Please, just come around
this corner here with me
(cont'd)

His secrets, and we
Keep the knowing of them
To ourselves. We only
Know him now
By the sewn-in badges
On his clothes.
F. Kate Langan 2008.

Sewn In Badges
A young man's secrets drive
A wedge between memories
Of sparkling child-times, and hopes
For future success.
He is not with us
Anymore as he sits
Alone in his room with fingers
On the keys
Of world-sparking-
Neurons. He keeps
(cont'd)

A re-stocking, or cleaning fee may be charged.
Delivery and pick-up available for a fee
And with advance notice.
Don't expect miracles
We are all human after all.
F. Kate Langan 2012.

Dating Men.
Dating:
Return for a full refund within thirty days
Seventy five percent within sixty.
Test the upholstery with your decor
With your friends and family.
Test the lips, the hands, the look in the eye
And see whether it rings true.
Please return undamaged.
(cont'd)