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684 · Jul 2019
Despite My Best Efforts
Jack Jenkins Jul 2019
I held on while I let you go; and darling if that's not love I don't know what to do.
When you walked away I only told you one lie and that was that I hated you.
That lie was true only on the surface because deep in my heart, darling, it split me in two.
I'm still in love, despite my best efforts; you're beyond me while I'm in my own noose.
Staring at a map, I cross the distance with my fingers and understand there is no use.
Life has made it's own plans for what became of us, and darling, love is always askew.
//On her//
680 · Aug 2016
Ended
Jack Jenkins Aug 2016
Inferno's twilight
Grace given and grace returned
And agony thrives
Jack Jenkins May 2019
Lamenting the light that has left this domicile/
Love has lain down never to rise again/
Lost in the liquid anguish of empty bottles/
Lust bid farewell in a rose stained casket/
Laced in black with pale skin never to touch again/
Loneliness holds me close to her/
Lurid faces meet my peaceful sleep/
Loss is the one thing I know I have/
Life's lyrics looted and left barren...
//On desire//
All these mix together and I can't tell the difference between them anymore...
678 · Feb 2017
Frozen Wasteland
Jack Jenkins Feb 2017
I found my heart today;
   buried underneath smoke
   & sorrows not meant
   for this world...

Edges sharp as razors,
   cold to the touch;
   ice would be warmer
   but I'm so ******* cold.
677 · Apr 2016
Symbol of the Cross
Jack Jenkins Apr 2016
Luke 10:27 NIV Bible
He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

The symbol of the Cross is this simple;
A vertical commandment: Love the Lord with everything
A horizontal commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself

And when you put the vertical and horizontal together, you make a cross.
You are then to carry that cross everyday.
And you are to carry that cross to your death.
Just like Jesus did, out of love for His Father and His love for us.
675 · Apr 2016
Desert Winds
Jack Jenkins Apr 2016
If you could only hear this howling desert wind,
Echoing of the four corners of this vexed heart,
Swirling about trying to latch onto your love,
But the wind has no fingers...

It continues to go, 'round and 'round,
Forming a dust devil and shredding the walls,
Cracking and separating the desperate foundation,
The blood trickles down my ribs,
And you never saw it.
675 · Dec 2016
Spinning II
Jack Jenkins Dec 2016
Spinning a web, spinning a story,
Spinning a plate, spinning a yarn,
Spinning a lie, spinning a tale,
Spinning out of control, and I'm loving it.

Spin with me, spin and twirl,
Spin in circles, spin beautiful girl,
Spin and swirl, spin in joy,
Spinning round, spinning is fun!
Written 19 March 2016... forgot I added to this poem
675 · Feb 2017
While on Still Sands
Jack Jenkins Feb 2017
take me to the shore
where seagulls cry among rocks
taste the salty air
672 · Apr 2016
Set Me Free
Jack Jenkins Apr 2016
I think the cost was too much..
Too much... too much...
This isn't who I am...
It isn't... it isn't...

Echoes speak through the clouds of my agony
And the violence in me rears its bladed head
The blood falls in walls of showers
And the roar of guilt is overwhelming!

I whisper... set me free...
665 · Jun 2019
Your Name
Jack Jenkins Jun 2019
You should believe in love, girl
One day it's going to find you
Love will say your name
and you're going to fall

It's going to be okay

When it's real and unmoving
At your side when you're low
Love will say your name
and girl, you're going to fall

It's okay
//On her//
If I could talk with her again, I'd want to give her hope.
665 · Nov 2016
Curiosity
Jack Jenkins Nov 2016
I'm curious
And I love being curious.
But curiosity killed the cat.
Which means curiosity is a murderer.
The cat only wanted to know what things meant
So curiosity gave her shoes of cement
And threw her in the river to prevent
The ugly past of curiosity from being exposed.
Now that the cat is dead, no one will know.
Written 14 January 2016
657 · Apr 2016
Season of Reds and Golds
Jack Jenkins Apr 2016
Rustling of the leaves
As they await their fate
To descend from the branches
And whisp away to the ground

Reds and oranges
Yellows and browns
Truly under appreciated
Once they hit the ground

Those that remain green
They're always marveled
And cherished so well
They're evergreen,
and always remain strong

The leaves that fall are so vulnerable
Torn up and crunched
By the feet that walk by
Without a second thought

Take a moment
Admire the view
It appears once a year
It really should mean more to you
This was written by my friend, Kayla, but I have permission from her to post it. :)
654 · Apr 2017
107 days...
Jack Jenkins Apr 2017
I'm still hurting
still devastated
that I lost you
all of you
because I was worried
to see how you were
I wish I never sent that text
how I miss you so much
the worst is
i worry that you
already moved on
already forgot me
that you don't feel
the same as I do
marking every day
since I lost you

Do you miss me?
Do you cry for me?
Do you wake up &
wish for my body
slumbering next
to yours?
Have you moved past?
Have you got a new lover?
Have you found
someone lovely
someone better
than me?

**** i miss you
I guess I love too much and dive too deep. Sorry for all the insecurities in this poem.
646 · Nov 2016
A...
Jack Jenkins Nov 2016
I'm sorry I couldn't get to you
I'm sorry you had to take your own life
I'm sorry I didn't love you more
I'm sorry you felt you couldn't carry on
I'm sorry I didn't notice
I'm sorry you fell for me
Yeah just found out today a friend of mine killed herself.
644 · Nov 2017
just let it go
Jack Jenkins Nov 2017
a familiar stain on my mind
falling into the cracks i bear
bask in the uncertainty
drink in the doubt slowly
allow the ghosts
of your past to soothe you
learn to let go
& talk to yourself in the
third-person
keep losing yourself
just let it go
"Oh there's something in my mind that's killing me; there's something that this life's not giving me..."
643 · Dec 2019
Blue
Jack Jenkins Dec 2019
The grass fields shimmer in the wind
As the sky is gaunt and gray
I pray, I pray, I pray
That this sadness goes away
//Written for a dear friend//
642 · Oct 2016
The Night Love Died
Jack Jenkins Oct 2016
You never knew, Love;
You never knew did you?
The heart that waited and wanted
Fastened to you, hoping for his chance
That chance you never gave me, Love.
Why?

Your fragile heart collects the dust
After years of misuse and abuse
From all the ones who squandered you
While all the while I was there
Clawing at the door to your heart.
Why?

Do you know tonight, this night, Love?
Tonight, this night is the night love dies;
Oh the night that love finally died!
Because you were too scared to see
That my heart has always been yours.
Why?

**Because you
               Were always
                                  The One
This poem just focuses on the pain, not the anger. I could not express that kind of anger.
641 · Apr 2016
Wedding Night
Jack Jenkins Apr 2016
I had a gift for you, once
Wrapped perfectly and in pristine condition
It was the absolute best gift ever
Nothing else could compare.

But first, I was convinced to open it for another
One who wanted to show me how to use it
Then came the second, to show myself I could use it
And the third, to master the use of it.

Now I don't know how many times it's been used
It's well worn, half broken... tainted...
The wrapping paper is gone
And it's value is less than a dime.

I was supposed to wait for you
But I wanted fun and pleasure
And now, this night is here
And my gift is not yours alone.

I'm so sorry...
639 · Sep 2016
To the T
Jack Jenkins Sep 2016
Where is all the grandeur of the stars?
   Beauty between the notes of a violin?

Lost, inconsequential, insignificant...
   To the sample of your bare flesh.

Tell me to listen to your heart,
   Ear pressed to the thumps.

How I would feel that heart against mine!
   How would I ever feel the same again?
635 · Aug 2017
Why Am I So Expendable?
Jack Jenkins Aug 2017
why is it
everyday
i give my
best to the
world
my best
to people
&
all I get
in return
is the
worst
from
everyone?
Spent the whole weekend meditating on my life and why things are the way they are. I understand why I am bitter and jaded now. The only question is do I have a right to be? I'm angry. I don't get angry often.
634 · Jan 2018
Man
Jack Jenkins Jan 2018
Man
The desires of a man are simple:
***, greed, power,
in that order.
633 · Dec 2016
Death's Husband
Jack Jenkins Dec 2016
He said he was done with killing.
But the Angel of Death never lets go of her lovers.

Each town he moved to,
She possessed him to claim another life.

Finally, he climbed a tall hill and looked out;
Took his own life, so the Angel of Death married him.
Written 26 March 2016... challenged myself to write a 50 word poem and this is the result.
628 · Dec 2019
Run
Jack Jenkins Dec 2019
Run
when people look me in the eye
for just a fleeting moment
i feel as if i will die
palpitations
dilation
sweat
flight
or fight
apologies
i feel as if i will die
for just a fleeting moment
when people look me in the eye
//On trust//
626 · Jun 2019
This is Normal
Jack Jenkins Jun 2019
If you would just talk to me
I have words
but
I don't think they're worth speaking
Poetically muted, I'm on pause
Take a breath
Take a second
It's fine
I'm fine
Just a normal response
to my love
Is to become
Discarded
//On relationships//
Jack Jenkins Mar 2017
Before you get in bed with me, there's a few things you need to know.

I'm a lot more than just a warm body you lay with, I promise.
Don't get me wrong, I love a woman's curves as much as the next man; but I know it's not the thing that matters.

I'm good at what I do when we get between those sheets, but I'm not going to just run there to get laid. I'll take you to a world of ecstasy and pleasure you may not have ever had before, but I don't get there so easily anymore.

I'm really a sensitive guy who's heart has multiple scars on every wall. See, I've been in love. I mean real love; the kind of love that should be made into a chick flick because it's so unrealistic but it actually happened to me. And it happened to me twice. And I lost them both.

So I have a lot of trust issues, and a lot of pain - really I'm terrified of being hurt again. I'm so tired of being hurt. And I know you want to take my pain away, but if you're just going to use my body then that will hurt.

I don't really care about the ******* anymore. I care about what's going on in your heart, I lust for the emotional intimacy and security and vulnerability that comes when we take off more than just our clothes. Cuz I want to be close.

So take that all in, I'm an open book. I won't hurt you, please don't just leave. If you're okay with something more than just flesh, then let's give us each other until morning light.
Not based on something that;s happened. Just a reflection on how I've changed from the flirty boy ******* myself for a thrill to a wounded man just looking to somehow heal.
623 · Sep 2018
Gallows
Jack Jenkins Sep 2018
In some ways I feel alright
But always I feel broken
It's not something that rides beneath the surface
It's something on the dark side of my heart
I'm too scared to touch my scars
So I bind my doors with them
& willingly blind myself to love
never to drink of that wine again
//On anxiety//
623 · Apr 2016
Suffering
Jack Jenkins Apr 2016
Put a cap on the emotions,
Nobody wants to see them.
Stuff it deep down inside you,
Nobody wants to care for you.

Take a breath and fall from grace,
Trip and fall in this lifelong race,
Wallow in your pain, swallow your pain,
Won't wash in rain, it's just a shame.

Hold everything back until your eyes bleed,
Your ears burst, your lungs implode, your heart cracks.
Let nobody see just how you suffer,
For if they see, they will turn away.
622 · Feb 2018
Bitterness is a Poison
Jack Jenkins Feb 2018
Turn the page,
Words of rage;
I'm on the wrong
side of broken,
and you put me here,
but I chose to stay.

I want to blame you,
Hate you, but I can't shame you;
There's something in the mirror,
it's slowly becoming clearer,
you're my highest low, my trigger.

I wish we'd never met,
You're my living hell;
torturing my heart now a shell,
harsh words from the man that
once loved you without fail.

You're a seven year wound,
I can't figure out how to forgive,
this bitterness is a wickedness
brought to the surface by wordless rage.
I hate you.

Yet I still love you,
at least the memory of you;
before you changed,
personality rearranged,
I loved you as you were.

The ones hardest to love
Are the ones that need it most;
you rejected mine and buried your own,
carried us to the gravestone,
are you alone tonight?

The love turned to ache,
when you chose to forsake
me to my demons within;
do you think of me still,
or am I just a speck of your past?

I loved you.
I hate you.
And I don't know how to let go.
620 · Jul 2017
Crippled
Jack Jenkins Jul 2017
I am part of the way dead
heaving breath with collapsed lungs
just trying to make it another day
all whilst hoping I don't see the night
Life is a tragedy.
617 · May 2019
Face the Day
Jack Jenkins May 2019
scared to touch
these feelings
so I'll just watch them
float away
like a bubble
wonder about life
being alone
so used to it
but so uncomfortable
pity the mirror that reflects me
who wants to be scared
who wants to be alone
who makes the choice I made
to amputate your own heart
sometimes I still play make believe
except this time
my bed is a casket
not a pirate ship
and I won't have to get up
tomorrow morning
and face the same day
that was faced yesterday
and today
I'm worn to my bones
my bones worn to marrow
cannot stand anymore
so just sit on the floor
weak
weeping quietly
should I drink or should I ****
I hide both from the ones I love
until the feelings disappear
and let in the jealousy
that they get to float away
while I stay grounded
too scared to
let it all go
//On life//
im not sick with depression
im not sick with depression
im not sick with depression
im not sick with depression
im not sick with depression
617 · May 2018
Thoughts on Life #1
Jack Jenkins May 2018
One should try to glide through life as gently as a canoe;
If one needs to make a splash,
be sure to know where the ripples,
will go.
616 · Dec 2016
Fragment
Jack Jenkins Dec 2016
How can I love you with all my heart,
When there's only a fragment of it left?

Why were you always so scared to fall?
My promises weren't enough for you?

My heart has been broken so many times by you,
Yet with this remaining fragment I still love you?

How can this be?

I know there's no water in this pool of love,
But I'm still going to jump off the high board.

Someone please tell me they can set a broken leg.
Written 8 April 2016
616 · Dec 2016
A Bicycle and a Broke Heart
Jack Jenkins Dec 2016
I stand in the field, like an old man who remembers his childhood fondly,
Squinting against the sun, breathing solemnly as bees buzz around me, inconvenienced at my presence.

Hunching my shoulders against the heat, yes the heat, I look down on the ground, seeing the bike left here so many years ago.
Like my love for you, I abandoned. Left on the ground, overgrown and eroded away. How I loved to whisk away on this two wheeled thing... how I loved carrying you through the threshold and into the bedroom.

You were my everything, at one point.
My rock and shelter, my love, my life.

But somehow we simply fell out of love, stagnated, and withered away, unnoticed to our numbed sensitivity to each other. Cast to the ground and left there, like my bike I stand and stare at right now...

They say you can never forget how to ride a bicycle.
I know I won't forget you, my love.
Written 29 March 2016
616 · Sep 2017
Memento Mori
Jack Jenkins Sep 2017
I think it's time for me
to stop counting the days
with notches on the wall
about something
I never really had.

It's time to stop
living in the past
& let go of mistakes
that I made in my youth
& taste the freedom of today.

Our days are a finite number
passing with each moment
every grain of sand swallowed
by the hourglass of life
until nothing remains.
Memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning ‘remember you must die’.
614 · Dec 2016
Twilight Glow
Jack Jenkins Dec 2016
Evening twilight now
Rubies and gold glow the sky
Crickets symphony
Written 21 March 2016
Jack Jenkins Mar 2017
it's hard to lose somebody
       you used talked to everyday
& they aren't there anymore
       so a little bit of you dies
day by day, night by night
       until the face in the mirror
isn't           you           anymore
If you want to **** yourself slowly, don't ever stop loving who holds your heart.
610 · Apr 2016
Consequences
Jack Jenkins Apr 2016
If only I had no consequences to my actions.
Stars that glisten in the sky's night light,
Reflecting your beauty that matches endless suns.
If I had no consequences to my actions, surely,
I would join our lips in a sinful embrace.
Could we have just this one night?
This one moment?

I strike thee heart, as you struck mine,
Entertaining the peripheral of untouched love.
Hand holds hand, finger against finger.
I wish it were so!

You are going, going away,
Unbeknownst to you,
My heart sojurns with you.
Even to the ends of the earth,
Beyond the rugged edge of it all,
I follow you to your tomb.

If only I had no consequences to my actions,
I would give my heart to you.
610 · Dec 2016
Another Moment
Jack Jenkins Dec 2016
Another moment
Another thought
Can't stop it
Thinking of you
All your words
All your twinkling
Bright mind
Beautifully entwined
Our broken souls
Please be okay
I'm so sorry
Another moment
Another thought
Can't stop it
Thinking of you
All your passion
All your embrace
Heart of gold
Adorable girl
Our broken souls
Another moment
Please be okay
please be okay
*please be okay...
I don't want to lose you...
610 · Mar 2017
Artist
Jack Jenkins Mar 2017
Just for tonight
I want to be an artist
& forget all the things
I try to hide away.

Take a step from my darkness
into the center stage
where all the world is watching
and everything is okay.

I want to paint with my songs
to draw love and life
on a velvet canvas of crimson
& see my work come alive.

I don't want to dwell in this darkness
all of my days & all
of my agonizing nights.
Inspired by something a friend of mine is going through and also from what I myself am going through.
609 · Oct 2016
The Gift of Life
Jack Jenkins Oct 2016
The gift of life
  The curse of life
   The bitterness
    The jealousy
     The heartbreak
The pain of love
  The thrill of love
   Pursuing the impossible
    A conquered heart
     What cuts us to our core...

The greatest gift of life is our loneliness, our pain.
The things that make us vulnerable to love from one another.
To have a shattered heart be held by a friend, as you confess to being violated.

Cut my heart in two with this hope.
Shiver my spine with this fear;
That I will suffer loneliness all my days,
That not a single day will I ever be alone.
Set me off on the river in my casket,
When I am gone with the flowers passing.
I'm waiting for the fall, for the gift of life...

I tell you again: the greatest gift of life is our loneliness, our pain. The things that make us vulnerable to love from one another.
A bit more abstract than I intended it to be... hope everyone likes it.
607 · Aug 2019
Error of My Ways
Jack Jenkins Aug 2019
I spoke to you in poetry &
Left real words unsaid
My art was fiction &
Heart was true

What was it worth?

You never read them &
I never sent them to you
I just said I loved you &
Left it at that
//On her//

I so wonder how many times I will write about this girl.
604 · Feb 2019
When I'm Awake at Night
Jack Jenkins Feb 2019
Still at this hour I love you, when sleep removes itself from me.
In the dark I let my mind visit us when we were young, happy, unsoiled by the reality that life would strain and break us.

Early April of 2012 I remember the weekend we spent almost entirely on each other's company. Mostly just talking, knowing each other. Just a few weeks before your birthday and I learned you hated gifts. I miss learning about you. Always missing you.

With all honesty not a day has passed when you haven't come into my mind and heart since we last spoke. Always praying it's not the last time we will have spoken but I know in my heart it is true.

I understand why. But I still love you. And I'm always telling you I'm sorry when we meet in my head. I never wanted to hurt you. Just needed to be needed. I'm a selfish man and I'm sorry I never told you that. I was too young to understand you and too self absorbed to look beyond me.

This is always as far as I get, talking with you in my head. I can neither bear your rejection, nor your forgiveness. So I close my eyes and wish I could hug you. And I start over again...

Still at this hour I love you, when sleep removes itself from me...
//On her//
Just needed to get this off of my heart. But my heart is still heavy. I miss her always.
600 · Dec 2018
Under the Skin
Jack Jenkins Dec 2018
The loneliness gets to me
& when I get lost I know how not to be found

The love gets to me
& when I give freely I know I'll stand alone

The pain gets to me
& ... I no longer know how to hold it back anymore
//On love and her//
598 · Jul 2017
187 Days
Jack Jenkins Jul 2017
I can't help but think of you often
You're the chandelier to my mind
I find you in the quiet moments
Between each breath of my lungs

I hold on to you always
But you shouldn't see
The broken man I now am
The bitterness I contain

Yesterday I finally opened a box
The box you occupy in my mind
And I looked at your picture for the first time
You're always more beautiful then I can express

Taking a few moments away
Remembering you... us...
It took the sting out of life for a second
You are always my best friend...
I miss you so much.
596 · Jun 2016
Her
Jack Jenkins Jun 2016
Her
Do you know that my heart is with another woman?
As I lay here holding you tight against me, my body is yours.
But can you feel this heart call out for her? Someone who isn't you?
Did you feel me as we made love, reach out for her? Cry for her?
It's her I see when I'm with you. And I don't know how that makes me feel.
You think I love you, but I'm just playing your heart like Beethoven under a moonlit night sky, playing a sonata...

Do you feel that? That warm tear that fell from my eye onto your cheek? Could you possibly know it's for her?
When I tremble alone at night, howling at the moon... yearning for the smell of her breath, the taste of her skin... her...

I barely know you, you're just pretty to me. Not as pretty as her.
Your hair is too long, too dark, too straight, too perfect.
Your eyes foster no depth to them; shallow and lifeless, a void. Hers are like diamonds reflecting a blue moon of a summer night.
Everything about you is wrong, compared to her. Your voice, your arms, your mouth, your heart... you aren't her.

But here I am with you, holding your hand.
There she is, sleeping alone.
Life is cruel.
Originally composed on 3 April 2016. I always meant to write a sequel to it...
Jack Jenkins Jun 2016
You're beautiful.*

I know you don't see or feel that a lot of the time
You feel like
Starving
Pill popping
***
Blades
Are the only way out of the pain
I can assure you it isn't
Because you're a beautiful person
For being able to endure what you've been through
Still finding friends to love and care for
Expressing yourself in the midst of the pain

Though memories may cause you to fall
You be sure to get up and keep going on
And if you ever need a helping hand
Or just a hug
Remember: *
You're still beautiful
592 · Sep 2019
The Heart of Art
Jack Jenkins Sep 2019
Art should be disturbing to the comfortable
A comfort to the disturbed
A shape of two being one
The creator casting one half
The eye of the beholder creates the other
Unified into a single shape with infinite dimensions
Shining like a diamond
The shape of as heart
Windowed soul
Unshuttered and unfettered
A pouring of everything
Filling of empty spaces
The gap between the ribcages
The pain behind the faces
Unmasked, raw, refined, precise, agonizing
Hopeful and despairing
That is what art should be
Art is nothing more than that
Create beauty
//On art//
589 · Apr 2018
Breathing Is Too Painful
Jack Jenkins Apr 2018
I can no longer write;
My fingertips are lethargic, connected
to a paralyzed heart that wishes to no longer beat;
breathing is too painful to him.

I can no longer pray;
My faith is a stained mess, she has been
circumnavigated by every sin, plagued by depravity and apathy;
breathing is too painful to her.

I can no longer live;
My life is dead, outlined in chalk
Joy left me, love betrayed me, fate destroyed me;
breathing is too painful...
588 · Nov 2019
No Control
Jack Jenkins Nov 2019
How heavy can a heart grow in one's chest,
When the weight is measured not in volume but in resigned grief?
//On depression//

Was starting to feel good and then this weekend just... weighed me down. For no reason.
586 · Aug 2017
Thin Ice Faith
Jack Jenkins Aug 2017
When the fires are all around me
Blazing my skin to ashes
I reach & nobody helps
For I am forlorn
Desolate...
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