11 Deep & Meaningful Poems About Life
11 Deep & Meaningful Poems About Life
Poetry is an expression of our deepest emotions. It captures the essence of the human experience in all its glory; from pain and anger to hurt and denial, to love, joy and feeling ecstatically wild. The magnitude of human emotions can only be captured creatively, as each experience is a unique expression of our internal world.
These deep and meaningful poems share various perspectives about life. Each is true to the artists experience at that specific moment in time; an emotion captured, bottled and sealed with the kiss of words. I hope this collection of poetry about life captivates and inspires you.
Poems About Life
1. The Laughing Heart – Charles Bukowski
your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.
2. The Guest House – Rumi
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
3. I Lost My Fear – Rudy Francisco
And then I realized
that to be
more alive
I had to
be less
afraid
so
I did it…
I lost my
fear
and gained
my whole life.
4. Life Jerk - Jadine Lydia
sometimes, it just hits me
slap bang in the middle
of my wild, jaded heart.
that ecstatic feeling;
a sharp slap
on my cheek of chalk
that says:
wake up! this is life.
it is here to be had,
it is yours to be felt
and you are here to delve
into the good
the bad
and the beautiful.
give thanks,
for you are alive
and every little cell
in your ever-expanding body
is renewed + revived.
you are alive.
– from, Simple Truths
5. A POEM BY Rupi Kaur
being the loudest on earth’s playground
doesn’t make us any more important that
the dirt we crush beneath our feet
we are nothing except air
and fire and water and soil
we are a people
who forget what we are made of
a people who talk about the weather
as if it’s mundane and not magic
as if the oceans
are not holy water
as if the sky
is not a vision
as if the animals
are not our siblings
as if nature is not god
and rain is not god’s tears
and we are not god’s children
as if god is not the earth itself
– from, home body
6. A Poem By Sabrina Laura
everything comes with
an expiration date
which is to say
everything decays almost
as soon as it has finished ripening
which is to say
everything leaves before
i have finished loving it.
– from, Shades of Sorrow
7. I Crave a Life So Filled With Love – Amelia Musselman
8. Storm Catechism - Kim Addonizio
The gods are rinsing their just-boiled pasta
in a colander, which is why
it is humid and fitfully raining
down here in the steel sink of mortal life.
Sometimes you can smell the truffle oil
and hear the ambrosia being knocked back,
sometimes you catch a drift
of laughter in that thunder crack: Zeus
knocking over his glass, spilling lightning
into a tree. The tree shears away from itself
and falls on a car, killing a high school girl.
Or maybe it just crashes down
on a few trash cans, and the next day
gets cut up and hauled away by the city.
Either way, hilarity. The gods are infinitely perfect
as is their divine mac and cheese.
Where does macaroni come from? Where does matter?
Why does the cat act autistic when you call her,
then bat a moth around for an hour, watching intently
as it drags its wings over the area rug?
The gods were here first, and they’re bigger.
They always were, and always will be
living it up in their father’s mansion.
You only crawled from the drain
a few millennia ago,
after inventing legs for yourself
so you could stand, inventing fists
in order to raise them and curse the heavens.
Do the gods see us?
Will the waters be rising soon?
The waters will be rising soon.
Find someone or something to cling to.
– from, goodreads.com
9. Diary Extract - Anaïs Nin
I am an excitable person who only understands life lyrically, musically, in whom feelings are much stronger as reason. I am so thirsty for the marvelous that only the marvelous has power over me. Anything I can not transform into something marvelous, I let go. Reality doesn’t impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls.
– from, goodreads.com
10. Pea Brain – Jadine Lydia
this is the tree of life
where tiny shoots spring
from seedless ideas
cracking open hard bodies
from weathered skin
revealing new life
white stems
and pea-sized wonders
from our tiny brains
our pods split
spines unravel
and we are left wondering
how we birthed such a beautiful thing
one white stem
two weathered bodies
honey, let’s do it all again.
– from, Simple Truths
11. Between Ripe and Rotting – Emily Donoher
Somewhere between ripe and rotting, I will love me again
Wear my flesh like rind and reclaim my sweetness
I am not dying yet, but I am not living and I am thirsty
For days, dazed and drugged on dirt’s divinity, brown knees
Nestled under the willow tree, the sun promises to purify me
Before the night swallows it whole, and regurgitates it tomorrow.
Somewhere between ripe and rotting, I will shatter my shame
Shed my sin, kiss palm to palm and nail a cross above my bed
Rid myself of impiety and feel what it feels to be clean.
I will walk the veins of the forests and trail the spines of the hills
Forage for berries and fall stupidly in love, over and over and over
With the art of existence and one day I will mean it when I say
I want to live. I want to live. I want to live. I want to live.
– from, hellopoetry.com