Poems by HI-DC Hostellers

Below is a sampling of poems written by Hostelling International-Washington, DC hostellers as part of the monthly poetry reading series.

March 2006

High on top of the mountains,
I feel the sun so near,
Here I am a human being with a wandering soul,
Life is poison to me,
Life is poison to all human beings,
Life is just a short story full of surprises,
Bad surprises sometimes!

High on top of the mountains,
I breathe the freshness of my soul.
Here I am a human being,
Waiting there just to be seen,
One ear or two ears,
Please tell me this beautiful love story again.
The love story of humanity and the earth,
Nectar and poison like water and tears,
Human history is a reflection of human oppression.
Human evolution can’t be without oppression and violence.
Sad reality!

April 2006

Memory: allusive, fantastic, or intrusive,
Leaves me lingering along these beautiful streets,
Wandering, and searching for my soul and heart,
Wandering to find the perfect fit:
Life, love, art, pain, justice, harmony, perfection, discards?
The desire I search for is the constant prancing,
Revolving around the constant cycle of my revolving life,
The harmony of my life plays in my heart,
Desire, dancing heart, cycling blood, and one thing in my mind: you

Memory
Spacious, sacred, and suffocating,
I am walking back and forth slowly, slowly,
The sky is so blue but sadness,
Sadness fills up my heart,
Atoms make chemistry with anions and cations,
I feel lost in this cycle,
Prancing and dancing with a desire for more.

Memory to see the future?
The beautiful street flows through my mind,
This poor man can’t understand my poor English,
But rhymes go together,
Whether prancing or peddling my bicycle,
I desire to get where I am going.

I wish I had a choice of memories.
Beautiful streets,
That chunk of concrete which gets a soul,
I walked it so many times,
And it becomes beautiful by the memories I create,
Power can be a source of light,
But excess of power can also lead to darkness,
We are all prancing through the cycle of life,
In our desire to be loved.

May 2006

What would I do for a kiss from you?
What would I say to have you back?
It is so hard to flip the pages of newspapers,
I can’t focus; I miss you so much,
Like the moon endlessly waits for the sun,
Like the flowers miss the dew drops,
I miss your beautiful soul, I tried to forget;
But my mind is a sequence of memories.
A sequence of good memories,
I miss you so much.

What would I do for a kiss from you?
I can’t even flip the page of a newspaper,
I miss you so much; yes, I miss you so much;
I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I can’t think,
My heart is bleeding,
Please, come back; I miss you so much,
Even the grey sky cries,
And I can see those dew drops sipping tears,
Maybe, I should not think about you,
But, I can’t help it,
I just want to live in your kiss forever.

What would I do for a kiss from you?
My soul is invaded by sadness and loneliness,
I miss you so much that I can’t even read the paper,
Every song reminds me of you,
Like dewdrops in the morning,
My eyes fill up with your beauty,
Each morning I wake longing to see you,
This verse makes it more glorious,
Love hurts.

What would I do for a kiss from you?
Oh, I wish all words were true,
I miss you so much,
That I can’t turn the pages of a newspaper,
What is news when my heart is entangled by your dew drops?
A lovely piano waiting to be played,
I wake and pray for your touch to release my music again,
What would I do for a kiss from you?
And live in that moment of eternity?
I miss you so much,
That I can’t read the lines in the newspapers,
All I can see is you,
And, my heart is pouring ink on the paper.

My canvas has been blank for a month now,
A vacation may make things right,
I think that I drank too much of a love elixir,
While surfing on the beach,
The sun shines bright and I see the light,
Now, my canvas is full,
Seagulls are flying high in the sky,
My heart is still waiting for you her