I'll never remove
The mask you see
It's permanently affixed
But over time
With a little learning
Maybe I can
Draw something
A little closer
To the real me
– SR Romney
Archive for the ‘Poem #5’ Tag
The Mask You See (National Poetry Writing Month 2025 #5) Leave a comment
Uniform (National Poetry Writing Month 2024 #5) Leave a comment
Don't put on your face today
Please wear ours instead
Inoffensive corporate drone
Looks better on your head
Don't wear your favorite t-shirt
Don't wear your pretty clothes
Just wear the corpo uniform
Be company head to toe
Don't think your independent thoughts
Or dream your fondest dreams
Just dream of corporate capital
Your place among our team
Don't think of trying to be unique
Smother your inner glow
'Cause if you need to be yourself
We'll have to let you go
SR Romney 2024
Refuse (National Poetry Writing Month 2023 #5) Leave a comment
I am discarded refuse
Refusing to biodegrade
Shouting in defiance
As I eke out a place
In this inconsistent world
Only to end up in a landfill
With the other things we forget
– SR Romney 2023
Melody (National Poetry Writing Month 2022 #5) Leave a comment
Our life is just a melody
And we all play a part.
The music sounds so sweet to me;
Our life is just a melody.
Our cities are a symphony.
The instrument, our heart.
Our life is just a melody
And we all play a part.
– SR Romney 2022
Without You (National Poetry Writing Month 2021 #5) Leave a comment
In dreams, I hear you call to me
Awake, I watch you leave.
And so all day,
I pass away
In silence as I grieveThe memories still comfort me
Your absence breaks my heart
And so I cry,
And slowly die,
Each day we are apart.I feel your warmth embracing me
But then the chill draws near
I feels so cold,
I feel so old,
Each year you aren’t here.Until the day your next to me
And through each day your gone
I’ll think of you
In all I do
And try to carry on.
– Shaman Romney 2021
Which hat should I wear today? (National Poetry Writing Month 2020 #5) Leave a comment
Which hat should I wear today?
Which role should I try to play?
The person you want to see?
Or the one that’s really me?
Should I don the bright smile?
Or the smirk full of guile?
Face turned up in full surprise?
Or a twinkle in my eyes?
I have many masks, you know
Many that I choose to show.
Which I share and which I hide
That is for me to decide.
– SR Romney 2020
The Man Who Was A Mask (National Poetry Writing Month 2019 #5) Leave a comment
There was a man who was a mask
And every where he’d go
He’d show the world another face
One nobody would know
He’d walk all over, street to street
He’d wander day to day
And every passerby he’d greet
A new and different way
And no one new when he would come
No one knew when he’d leave
No one knew what he had in mind
The cards hid up his sleeve
And though the specter of this man
Loomed in the town so tall
When all took time to stop and think
No one knew the man at all
– Shaman Romney 2019
Stop My Love (National Poetry Writing Month 2018 #5) Leave a comment
(Verse 1)
I feel I have a cloud over me;
My ankles all wrapped up in chains.
I seem to always forget, for just a second and then
The chain gets pulled and I’m falling again.
I know it’s not something done on purpose.
I know that you don’t mean to.
It’s not your fault I that have gotten tangled up in you.(Chorus)
I want to stop my love from growing.
I want the butterflies to decay.
I want to have my life move forward
Instead of tracing circles around you everyday.
You pull me into your radiant sun, but I know
I’ll just get burned if I don’t stay away.
I want to stop my love from growing.
I just want this love to go away(Verse 2)
I can’t be mad at anyone but me
For chasing after dreams that can’t be.
And yet I’m filled regret, for something I’ll never get
I’m locked down tight but I want to be free.
I know it’s something we want to move past.
Something we want to ignore.
It’s not your fault I’m tangled up in you once more.(Chorus)
I want to stop my love from growing.
I want the butterflies to decay.
I want to have my life move forward
Instead of tracing circles around you everyday.
You pull me into your radiant sun, but I know
I’ll just get burned if I don’t stay away.
I want to stop my love from growing.
I just want this love to go away(Bridge)
I know I could find a way to move on
If I really tried
But they say the heart wants what it wants
And mine doesn’t want to be denied.(Chorus)
I want to stop my love from growing.
I want the butterflies to decay.
I want to have my life move forward
Instead of tracing circles around you everyday.
You pull me into your radiant sun, but I know
I’ll just get burned if I don’t stay away.
I want to stop my love from growing.
I just want this love to go away
– Shaman Romney 2018
(This started as a poem, but as I kept writing, it developed a melody. The meter of the poem seems a little odd, but with the melody in my head it fits. Once I figure out the chords and such, maybe I’ll post a recording.)
Distractions (National Poetry Writing Month 2017 #5) Leave a comment
Trying to resist the distractions
The resistance
The attraction to doing everything but the thing I need to
I want to do it
But I can’t seem to
Quit getting in my way
And foiling my own plans
The rewards of the now
Taste so much better now
But the me of then
Will have to spend
All their time on the complications
I’d be so much better off
If I’d just eat my vegetables
And save desert for after.
– Shaman Romney 2017
Playing Ketchup (National Poetry Writing Month #5) 1 comment
I started by throwing it on the floor.
It made a cool sound, but not anymore.
So I slapped my hands down on the gooey pile.
Shards of glass aside, it wasn’t my style.I grabbed another bottle; blew over the top.
I made a quick song but I just didn’t “pop”.
So I picked up some drumsticks and tapped out a beat.
It made a nice sound, but it wasn’t complete.So I grabbed my guitar, and used the bottle as a slide.
But I couldn’t hear much because of what was inside.
I’ve been trying to understand, but I just give up.
I just don’t understand why people play ketchup.
-Shaman Romney 2016
Shame on The Universe 