Offended

It is such a shame that because people are more easily offended these days, that it is suppressing new forms of creativity!

R. Michael

There is something I have noticed. Some have claimed it is recent, other say it has been around a long time. I take a stance somewhere in the middle: I believe it has been around a long time but is steadily growing more and more common. What is “it”? The appearance that our culture is increasingly more easily offended. As a writer, it is important to keep an eye on these trends and learn what offends people and why.

I saw on the news a few months back that certain comedians refuse to do stand-up on college campuses because they feel these institutions are too “politically correct.” Maybe that is true, maybe it’s not, but that is the consensus of some comedians. On social media, every political group or ideological camp seems to have someone who is perpetually offended by something. It often seems like people look for a “hidden”…

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It’s not that I don’t love you 2

It’s not that I don’t love you
Your tenderness is true
It’s not that I don’t need you
Cause that’s further from the truth
But I need a space to grow
So that is why I go
But I want you
And I need you
But I cannot stay this way
Oh no, it isn’t fair
It’s me, I want to change
And when I’m with you, I’ll just stay the same
And goodness knows it isn’t fair, but I need to go somewhere
And if I stay, I don’t go anywhere at all
And if I stay, I cannot grow, I’ll only fall
But I love you that is the truth
Now let me go
Don’t keep me hanging around the door
So let me go
I don’t want to drown you anymore
So me be
So I can see
Where I’ll go
So let me go
I love you so

It’s not that I don’t love you

It’s not that I don’t love you
It’s just that to love you there is pain
I cannot sit around just loving you when you drive me so insane
There is a limit to what I can accept and to accept what you do, I cannot
For loving you is a hard job, leaving you is not
Though I agree once we were great
But then the time grew on
You got more possessive of me
You held me far too strong
I was suffocating under your surveillance
I was stifled by your warm arms
Enraptured by your innocence, your tenderness and charms
You do me no good, only harm
So I left you

curious mind of a growing author

Now, I am not in a frame of mind where I want to leave anyone right now – I am not depressed, I am not suicidal today, I am not hinting at any discomforts emotionally at all; yet despite this, today has been a day where poetically, I cannot help but write about relationships ending, leaving a former life etc. and this is just a fluke… or is it? Am I going through some kind of subconscious rebirth? Is this the start of a midlife crisis? I haven’t a clue, but currently I think I am very happy with the people who are in my life.
A lot of my poems are based on my past, particularly my childhood. But the ones I have written today are largely focusing on sexual relationships that are coming to a close, yet I am not in this situation – though I have been once. But the words in the poems would have been different surely? As I never left them, they didn’t leave me for the reasons I wrote about today, so where these poems came from is a mystery to me.
Another thing is I have written two poems today and both of those poems have a particular sentence in common “It’s not that I don’t love you”, now, I have had this said to me on many occasions before, when I was about to be dumped – the excuses that came after were varied.
Sometimes a writer can be in a frame of mind to write about something they have never experienced and usually I have been told that this is wrong – you should always write about what you know in order to sound authentic. So let me know if you think it sounds authentic enough for a person who has never experienced what I wrote about in the two poems I will post later in the week called “It’s not that I don’t love you” and “It’s not that I don’t love you 2”.
Thank you for reading

Dogs loyalty

To hold pure love you must hold a dog
A dog will love you more than you can ever know
Unconditionally, its life with you will flow
A friendship on tap
A blanket of warmth
A dog is there for you
The love, it will swarm
Show respect to your dog
And treat your dog well
It will help you through bad times, when things are just Hell
It will comfort you and keep your toes warm
Love your dog, it’s allegiance to you is sworn!

lessons missed

You were scared to release me into the world
You said that the world would have to watch out
Watch out for what? I am not a monster
You said you were doing me and the world a favour
What, keeping me from it?
I could never understand
I still don’t
You said I am too old to learn to like new flavours
But I am not
I still taste new things
I still yearn for more
Life is better in variety
Not shutting away from it and hiding behind the door
Like you
I like things that are new
I am not afraid of differences
I embrace them every day
In each and every way
Not like you
You hide
You tried to make me – like you
But I am not a fool
Not like you said I was
I am not a fool
But you are
You have lost almost everyone who wants you
You turn them away
Because they are not perfect in your narrow minded way
You can’t stand insubordination
But you don’t understand the extent of your domination
And you never will
You sit back and cry to others, blame me for making you ill
Yet it’s you
You’ve done this to you
With your mean, critical and bullying ways
You, who never tries to mend their ways
You even said
Why should I?
If I die alone, that’s how I die
With an attitude like that, no one can do anything but sigh
That’s why I left your life
You can be nice sometimes
But you are never tolerable unless someone is perfect
Stop trying to make people perfect
You’ll lose them that way
I’ve told you
But you don’t listen
You just get in a mood
So that’s why people have chosen, to forget you

Shut up

If what I say is a lie then please tell me why I can prove you wrong
With letters and minutes from social services, it will show evidence that you will see is strong!
So when you gather around and around, for evidence against me
Just take a look at what you do
Is it as strong as the evidence against V?
I think you will find that it is not, so save yourself some trouble
Keep away from my life and blog and realise that my life is left in rubbles
I am sick to the back teeth of knowing that you are gossiping about me
Sitting back with curses, whilst drinking your hot tea
The truth is, you were never there when I was young
Always going off into the sun
Never knowing that your dear mum, is not the same to me
So when you sit back and think bitter thoughts, just realise what you say
Just know that she can be different, to each person, every day
She isn’t who you think she is
But to you she is a gem
Just take a step back and leave me be, because you’re only fuelling them
You have no idea of the can of worms that you’ve opened by telling them those things
It’s more than just one person that comes back to me to sting
The network is vaster than you can ever know
It’s greater than you can ever see
So just keep away from gossiping, about me

is it fair to see a good man suffer?

Is it fair to see a good man suffer, because his wife loves no other?
Is it fair his bridges are burned and his children up and leave and their reputations upturned?
All because he loved the beast, a woman whose heart bleeds cold
Is it fair to see him die, old and grey and alone?
Because he obeyed a crone
If you think for one moment that I am pleased at revealing the truth, you’re blind
I did it to release myself, to my children – be kind
I knew that if I told the truth that my father he would stay behind, but I cannot vouch for him if he won’t leave worthless swine
I love my father and it hurts to see that I may never speak to him again
Because he is bullied by the wicked witch of old London’s east end!
He is isolated by her, like I was once
But he stays because he is in love
I don’t know what he sees in her, but he gave up friends and family for the dunce
I don’t know why, such a good man gets such a manipulative evil sow
I don’t care what you think of me for saying these words, I miss him, so does his sisters and brothers and wow – the hold that woman has on him, the things that he gave up
I just hope that when he dies he is rewarded the golden cup of life
Because his life has been hard and full of strife, for loving the beast from Hell
Oh how I miss him, can’t you tell?

Lies, truth and love

Locked in cold stone walls
Shut away and forgotten
Forbidden to live a life
By those who are mean and rotten
Lied about by your torturer
Hissed at by their friends
A mystery to others
Yet no one helps you mend
People accuse you of being the trouble
People accuse you of being bad
Yet nobody knows that the woman they love
Is evil and nasty and mad
Some have seen the truth, a glimpse
But unsure, they look on
And eventually I run away again
And hope that I can belong
But away I went and then there was more
Trouble and lies and hate
But the people who witness the things going on
Think it is I who has caused this fate
They won’t be told that someone they like
Have two sides to their personality
Instead they decide to add to my torment
Thinking they are defending their mother, naturally
But they don’t remember I am not the only one
She has kept in the dark and cold
I am one of three and she hates two
But the oldest one, he never knew
He won’t accept the truth
My father is lovely and it pains me to say
I might never get to see him again
Because she rules him, and he won’t come
To visit me and his grandson
Because she lies to all around, that she gives him a choice to come around
But she doesn’t you see, the truth is this
She would rant and she would spit
If he came knocking at my door
So until she dies, I’ll see him no more

Conversation with a tree

copyright 2016 Tina Cousins

I had a conversation with a tree today.
The tree told me about the deforestation that his friends were experiencing in some parts of the forest.
He told me that this didn’t bother him much, you see, you have to see the positives of life; that even in death, there is everlastingness.
I asked him what he meant and he explained that nothing that dies is wasted, not truly. Even in death you have your uses, you are needed, and you still exist.
I asked about spirits and reincarnation to him, but he simply replied, perhaps, but there is more to it than that.
Take me, for instance, said the tree. When the woodcutters come to claim my life, I may still have my roots to keep me alive, but if that isn’t to be the case, you must think. What do the woodcutters make from me? Wood to burn to enhance their life for a few hours so they do not freeze to death in winter? Then I become ashes and what becomes of those ashes? Those ashes are still a part of the wonderful circle of life; I become potash for various floras, bringing life into this world, simply by my dying.
I sat fascinated and watched the wind rustle his leaves, too in awe to speak.
The tree continued on with his explanation, with patience and love. I am made into paper, for your journal, enriching the lives of humans by whatever the pages contain within, a store of knowledge, a canvas for art, a visual guide to places you may never have a chance to go to if it weren’t for me.
If not a book then shelves to put them on or I might become the chair that you sit in to read those books, or the bed that you lie in to dream about those books and art pieces.
I may become part of the tools that cut my friends down, giving them a new lease of life and usefulness.
When I am gone and I am cut down, homes may be built in place of where I stood. Perhaps farms will develop here and feed the world? Or perhaps my offspring will grow in my place?
Death is not the end, but it is the beginning of new things.
As to the subject raised earlier, yes, I do believe in spirit and I believe that with the spirit of nature everything is eternal; it just depends on your perception of it; of course, most people’s perceptions about it are wrong.
They cloud themselves up in the dark negativity of everything, which they don’t allow themselves to see the light and what a positive thing it can be.
I thanked the tree for his insight and went home to write this for you.