Feb.13~ ADAM BREIER

Happy Friday the 13th, poetry lovers...today we're shining the spotlight on American Poet/Educator, Adam Breier. Adam brings us two introspective poems:  Beneath What's Fallen and Permission. Thank you, Adam, for sharing your words with SHINE international poetry series! 

Beneath What's Fallen

 If only he could see
the red and yellow shards of his
bruised ego
through the eyes
of those who flock
to admire
the autumn colors
of the brittle leaves that
fall in the fall,
then he might have seen
potential
in the things that
grow
beneath what’s fallen
and not simply pray
for a strong wind
to sweep them away.

Permission

​When I felt for it and found
nothing,
I reached into that void
as far as the number of minutes
between that moment and
the last time I could recall holding it,
before I lost it.

I searched
rooms where it couldn’t have been
corners where it wouldn’t have fit
drawers that hadn’t been opened.
I lifted
memory, feeling underneath
hoping to find it hiding.

Repeating that search, each time feeding
the compounding bone-deep disappointment
until, through sweat and tears
I could see that I wasn’t searching, but
begging
for permission
to breathe
to pause.

I allowed myself, then
to take a breath,
and seeing the mess I’d made
of all that I could
never get back,
I also allowed myself to pause.

Permission to forgive
has proven more elusive.
I cannot beg
myself
for that.

Adam Breier is a Yonkers, NY based poet and educator. He is the author of a poetry chapbook, An Odor of His Own, with poetry and short fiction appearing in: Azarão Literary Journal, friends of friends, Mad Persona Magazine, Broken Stone Review, Thistle and Thread Press, Bristol Noir, Stone Poetry Quarterly, So It Goes: The Literary Journal of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, ‘Merica Magazine, Soul Fountain, and Outsider Ink. You can follow Adam on Instagram @adam_breier_poetry or at adambreier.com.

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