A Different Way

Walk in beauty, soul released 

With courage, find your inner peace 

Balancing as the darts they fly

Still be the best you can inside 

Sweet the honey, flowers bloom

No truer beauty stirs a room 

A soul that mend, up it climbs 

Reaching heights, no one can find 

Best the world, and mold the clay 

Show them all a different way 

By Melissa Kelly 

Published by WestWard Quarterly Spring 2018

Mastering The Dance

Mastering the movements 


To the beat of the music 


Spinning around 


On the tips of your toes 

feeling the joy 


as a young child does

jumping on their bed 


A release of order and rules 


As you lose yourself


In the dance 


each beat synchronized 


Like the rhythm of your heart pumping 


You’re moving without thought 


Left and right, to the side 


Mastering the moment  


When you let go


making it your own 


By Melissa Kelly 

Published in Still Point Arts Quarterly. Fall, 2019

Perfect Words

driving on the highway 

when it hits me 

the perfect line

the words

so perfectly formatted

to match 

just the feeling

I needed to 

get across 

for so long  

Finally 

but I’m stuck 

on the highway 

repeating the words 

over and over 

In my head 

There 

I parked 

I take out 

my pen 

and paper

but the words 

are long gone 

By Melissa Kelly 

Published in Westward Quarterly, winter 2018

Cleansing the Dirt Away

When the dirt left behind

Embeds into your soul 

Despite the scalding showers

It’s stays stagnant within 

When the pain and rage 

Building inside expands 

punishing innocent bystanders 

It’s a self destructive path 

Leading to nowhere 

But isolation and hate 

We fall and hit bottom

We learn and we grow

Then rise higher than he 

Who put the hurt there

That dirt there 

He stays at that low point 

We understand that self love

With the power of forgiveness 

Can let go of the pain and hate 

And cleanse away the dirt

By Melissa Kelly

Published on Awakened Voices, April, 2019

Treasure Hunt

Far into the murky water I see

Glimmers of gold shining off the sun’s rays

Down the creek, between the valley of trees

I take my blue bucket and dream of wealth 

Digging for treasures where the light leads me 

Each scoop adds to the mountain built beside 

Grabbing some from the top with my left hand 

As the gold disappears, it’s now wet sand

By Melissa Kelly 

Published in Hedge Apple, April, 2019

Dreams

I’ll wait until the morning’s light 

When beams of sun will glow 

In the fire’s warmth, late tonight 

Where few will dare to go

In hopes of wonder basking 

Dreams too real too die 

With days we left at passing 

Is where the truth shall lie

A stage to set the living

A shield to shelter through

A will to keep on pushing

Are how our dreams come true

By Melissa Kelly 

Published in Hedge Apple, April 2019

Confrontation

I’m not that little girl

So vulnerable and small

With thick glasses and braids

I’m not that innocent child

That kept secrets and was afraid

The things you did to me

In your drunken rage

I felt dirty and used

My soul bruised

You were mean and cold

And as stand before you

I need you to understand

It was not okay to put me through

It was never something fathers do

For so long  I felt guilt and shame

I hid behind the lies and pain

While you lived carefree

I built this prison around me

Today I’ll break free....

By Melissa Kelly

Published by Poetic Medicine, May 2019

Title as “This Note in Hand”

Last Blast of Winter

It’s the last blast of winter freeze 

The white flakes makes their way 

Down from the gray clouds

To the grass and black pavement 

Covering with a white blanket 

The plows are out all night 

Trying to clear the streets in time 

For the school’s first morning bell 

Looking out their windows

Kids are crossing their fingers 

Praying for one last snow day

By Melissa Kelly

Published in WestWard Quarterly Magazine, Winter, 2019

Irrelevant

It’s a loss felt again

Who, doesn’t really matter

For a child’s old pain

That love never gained

In the head, if he

The he, that was irrelevant

Loved me and stayed

The void would fill

If I could just hold on until

I felt worthy inside

Just a toy, just a game

The he, matters not the name

The need it grows

Sucking like a vacuum

From those around

He, that was irrelevant

Just another symptom

Of a little girl left

wondering why

Because fathers never

Never say goodbye

By Melissa Kelly 

 

Published in Awkward Mermaid  
Aug, 2018

I Can’t Fix Him

there was  no perfect poem 
that would fix him 
no arrangement of words
perfectly placed 
he would come 
to understand 
I tried again and again 
line after line, 
rhyme after rhyme 
he’d go back 
to his  drink
down further he’d sink  
the drugs used 
And continuously abuse
had to end one day 
with death or finally put away 
now he’s in his cell 
and me
I’m on the outside
pen in hand  
still writing 
trying to find 
the right words 
the perfect rhyme 

By Melissa Kelly 

Published on Anti-Heroin Chic April, 2018

Little City Girl

Black boots brown shoes
Walking the sidewalks
Little legs big feet
Talking on phones
running to catch up
The large building
Looking high big lights
Windows and floors
A little girl watches
Too small so large
Rushing each step
Another working day
One of many
In the city crowd

By Melissa Kelly 

Published in Soft Cartel Feb, 2018

Last Summer Night

As the pinks in the sky
And the reds draw down
The last warm breeze
And salty beach foam
Wave its final
Summer goodbye
The birds stick around
For signs of the first freeze
Before flying to
Their southern homes

By Melissa Kelly 

Published in Soft Cartel Feb, 2018

The Dance

I can dance in my room
Spinning around and around
In those moments of alone
I’m free to be wonderfully bad
No one to judge my missteps
It’s me, just me
loving music and life
The way I know how
Singing too loud, and
Stepping on Invisible feet

By Melissa Kelly 

Published on Soft Cartel Feb. 2018

Children’s Play

Behind the maple trees 
Down a wooded path 
Lies a small stream current 
Over the rocks of the river bank 
The children play, their pants 
rolled up to their knees 
Splashing around 
Jumping from rock to rock 
They elude the adults 
To their realities 
And dabble in the 
Mysteries of the river 
Until the porch lights flicker on 
And the pink in the sky 
Calls them home for dinner

By Melissa Kelly 

Published on Amethyst Review May, 2018

Top of the Mountain

Snow covered mountain top 

The blue and greys mixing 

Blended into the white top

Tip touches the cloud masses 

Thin the air, cold as ice 

Making its way down 

To the green valleys below 

By Melissa Kelly 

Originally published by Plum Tree Tavern Feb 2018