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Category Archives: poetry

The Tattered Soul

The soul learns early
how to fray
Time does not shout
it brushes past
soft as a sleeve in a crowded room
and still it leaves threads behind
Once
the soul was a clean page
bright with belief
stitched tight with first mornings
and reckless hope
Then came the years
quiet thieves
lifting colour
loosening seams
teaching the heart the slow grammar of loss
Time tugs
not cruelly
just often
It pulls at laughter until it thins
at dreams until they feather
at love until it aches with memory
instead of promise
The soul grows tattered
but not empty
Look closer
every tear is a doorway
every loose thread remembers warmth
every worn edge has held on
longer than it thought it could
Time thinks it wins
because it leaves marks
But the soul
oh the soul
keeps breathing through the rips
keeps light caught in its tatters
like dawn through torn curtains
And if it is ragged now
it is because it stayed
because it felt
because it dared to keep going
while the hours kept passing
A tattered soul is not broken
it is proof
Proof that you lived
and loved
and let time touch you
without ever giving it the final word

JH

 
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Posted by on February 1, 2026 in poetry

 

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Arrive without armour

They arrive without armour,
hands open, eyes wide,
the world pouring in before they know its weight.

They do not choose the noise,
the smoke in the air,
the rules written long before their names.
They simply arrive,
trusting us with everything.

We forget how much power sits in grown hands,
how every word becomes a lesson,
how every silence teaches too.
We forget that children read the world
by watching our mouths, our choices,
our excuses.

They come clean of our grudges,
unstained by borders or blame,
asking only for room to grow,
for truth that does not bruise,
for love that does not disappear when it is inconvenient.

It is not enough to say
we did our best.
The future does not run on intentions.
it runs on care,
on courage,
on adults who stay awake.

Because innocence is not weak,
it is borrowed light,
and we are its keepers for a while.

What we build now
becomes their normal.
What we excuse now
becomes their burden.

So let us be steady,
let us be kind in ways that cost something,
let us leave fewer wounds than we inherited.

They are watching,
learning how to be human from us.
And the least we can do
is make the lesson worth remembering.

JH

 
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Posted by on January 23, 2026 in poetry

 

No Right No Left

There should not be a left
or a right
Only a circle
where we sit close enough
to feel each other breathe
Politics learned the language of corners
sharp words
pointing fingers
maps drawn with rulers instead of hands
But the heart has no party
it votes every morning
for warmth
for safety
for the simple miracle of being seen
A border is just a sentence
written by fear
it says stop
it says yours not mine
it forgets the grammar of kindness
We are made of shared weather
shared grief
shared laughter spilling over pavements
like rain that refuses to choose a country
Imagine power that listens
laws that kneel to humanity
flags lowered just enough
to wrap the cold
Respect is not radical
Care is not naïve
They are ancient
older than slogans
older than walls
There should not be a left
or a right
only forward
together
hands open
voices softer
eyes brave enough to recognise themselves
in everyone else
A future where we do not win over each other
but with each other
where the loudest statement
is how gently
we choose to live
JH

 
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Posted by on January 20, 2026 in poetry

 

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Choose a path

Choose the path that lets your spirit breathe,

Stand with your friends where honesty is kind,

What serves your heart will gently serve them too,

In caring for yourself, you leave light behind.

JH

 
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Posted by on January 9, 2026 in poetry

 

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New year

In 2025, the world rattled like loose change in a storm

Voices clashed, fears flared, hearts forgot their shared warm form

Yet from the noise grew listening, slow hands learning grace

Till chaos bent toward peace, and kindness found its place.

JH

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Em 2025 o mundo tilintou como moedas soltas na tempestade

Vozes chocaram, medos arderam, corações esqueceram a sua humanidade

Mas do ruído nasceu a escuta, mãos lentas a aprender a graça

Até que o caos se curvou à paz e a bondade encontrou o seu espaço.

JH

 
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Posted by on December 31, 2025 in poetry

 

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Winters Grasp

The long night settles like a velvet cloak
Quiet stars whisper to the sleeping earth
The frost paints silver on every rooftop
And the moon glows with tender rebirth


Our breath becomes prayer in the crystal air
Soft clouds drifting from our waiting lips
Old stories rise where the shadows gather
And time slows to the beat of winter’s heart


In the hush we feel a stirring of hope
A shy promise beneath the frozen field
The dark holds the seed of light within it
Bright treasure hidden but soon revealed


So we lift our gaze to the patient heavens
And welcome the dawn that follows the night
For even the coldest hour of winter
Holds the first warm note of returning light
JH

 
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Posted by on December 22, 2025 in poetry

 

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Advent has arrived

Advent has arrived like a soft-footed guest
slipping through the dusk with a lantern in hand
and the whole world seems to hold its breath
Candles wake with gentle fire
their small bright voices rising in the quiet
as if they wish to sing before the choir begins
The air tastes of spice and promise
of pine trees dreaming in the stillness
of stories that knock at the door of the heart
Each morning a little more light is poured
like warm gold upon the windows of our hope
and even the most tired soul lifts its head
Advent is here
a tender reminder that wonder still dares to return
that patience has a song
that love is already on the way
So let us gather our waiting
tie it with laughter
and place it beside the candle glow
For something beautiful is stirring
and if we listen carefully
we may hear the first quiet notes
of joy beginning again
JH

 
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Posted by on December 5, 2025 in poetry

 

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Now

I stand in this breath
as if it were a soft doorway
opening to the wild hush of everything.

The world leans in
holding its cup of warm light
and I drink it slowly.

Time forgets its hurry
and becomes a friendly stray
curling at my feet.

For a moment
there is no before
no after
only this
bright bead on the string of living.

JH

 
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Posted by on November 19, 2025 in poetry

 

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In Quiet Fields

In quiet fields where soft winds roam, we stand

And feel the breath of those who marched before.

Their names drift through the grass like distant sand

And settle in our hearts forevermore.

We promise them our memory will stay

As still as dawn that trembles into day.

The poppies rise in gentle crimson light,

Their petals catch the turning of the sun.

They glow as if they gathered up the night

Then traded it for hope when morning won.

So when their red blooms stir beneath the sky,

We look, we breathe, we remember why.

JH

 
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Posted by on November 8, 2025 in poetry

 

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I Want More Kindness in the World

I want more kindness in the world

not the kind that hides in silence,

but the kind that rolls out like sunlight,

warming pavements,

healing strangers.

I want kindness that speaks up

when cruelty takes the stage,

that plants itself firm as an oak

and says, “No. Here, love grows.”

I want kindness that lingers

not a passing smile

but a steady flame,

lighting doorways where the lost wander,

offering bread,

offering rest.

I want kindness in the clumsy,

in the ordinary,

in the hands that hold shopping bags,

in the voices that say hello

and mean it.

I want kindness

not because it is easy,

but because it is strong

a rebellion,

a revolution softer than steel

yet sharper than any sword.

I want more kindness in the world,

because kindness is not small.

It is the thing that saves us,

the thread that mends us,

the promise that

we are still

worth saving.

JH

 
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Posted by on October 9, 2025 in poetry