The Times of Me

Let's see, where do I start? I woke up this morning to a cold, hard floor, shivered, and realized that I was not where my dreams imagined me to be. At the shelter, with forty other women living as poorly as I am, some old, some pregnant, some mentally unstable to live alone, and some just too damn young.

I walked around with a few ladies that I know, just walking along, looking for some fun. Not too long after we met up with this crazy, funny white boy I know--yeah, I love you Moso So. The ladies and I split up, and I walked to the library and was thinking about life. Now, I'm weird, or some would say strange, because I'll admit it--I messed up somewhere but who knows how many blunts or gravities ago. Anyway, I'm on the internet and I see that the world is supposed to end--yeah, I know, right? On December 12, 2012 the world ends. Thank God that the Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn should be out by then..ha! Hey, Stephenie Meyer, just in case my message gets read, I've read them all about six times each and Go Team Edward! Anyway...

I lived in this city forever--born, raised, abandoned by suicide, and ill-fated by my people. Government "helps" us...yeah...right. Some say we're given everything here food, water, shelter, clothing, yeah...right. Got to earn it, one way or another.

I remember living in Pennsylvania for a minute and how wonderful spring was with all the flowers and hiking. It was just amazing. It was awesome because me and my friends would go camping and drinking and we'd jump in the cool water at midnight. Love was awesome there too, laying in the bed of my truck watching the stars making love. Now, back in the city, we have beautiful girls but not much privacy. Is love all good? I am stressing that. Down here, in the city, there might be two crack heads in an alley walking hand in hand. Love? These are the zombies that walk around, trying to lure and confuse you, they are trying to give you something that you have never had. Yeah...right.

Author: LaShae

Life Through My Eyes

The way that I look at my community is everyone's different people. Look at my situation as a surprise. People judge my outer self, but they don't know what my inner self is like. I'm one individual who struggled their whole life to live in chaos mixed with structure.

We live in a society that judges your outer looks and can't accept who you really are supposed to be. We have walked many walks of faith. I say fear God not life because life will soon end. Soon and forever. Why does life as we know it ends? Because of difficulties that come with our choices? Understand with choices comes consequences. We have to learn and grow with change. I've learned and made mistakes in my past, and it was easy to make mistakes. But through it all, I have joy in my heart to keep moving on and let nothing stand in my way.

Words...people gladly humiliate me. What I have learned is that I need to become humble, to remove the junk from my life, and to hold my spirits and head up high.

Author: "Tasha"

Attention World...

ATTENTION WORLD [WHITE SUBURBAN YUPPIE]

If you are comfortable, you are probably wrong. If you think that you've worked hard to earn what you got YOU ARE PROBABLY WRONG.

YOU WERE BORN WITH IT

White Privilege

Here is the truth. We should all be ashamed. We have benefited from the degradation and subjugation of our fellow HUMAN BEINGS

Our neighbors are cozy, but we shouldn't be able to sleep at night. Just a few blocks, miles, continents away PEOPLE are living in filth, in fear. So we live with the belief that our advantageous position in society is natural or the result of our own work, the color or our SKIN, our gender, or our class.

WAKE UP!!!

Author: Anonymous

Aspirations

Homeless was something that I never aspired to be
Never knew that it would or could ever happen to me
My mom had money
So did my dad
Anything I wanted
Believe me I had

I finished school
No Felonies
Followed the Rules
But life dealt me a hand
That I was ill equipped to deal with

So I push through the best you know how
And you learn from your experience
Because that is what homelesssness is for me
What I have to believe
Is that this is just an experience
--Learn as you go.

I Am...Homeless

H is for homeless, that is what I am today
O is for Oooh no, how did I get this way?
M is for the misery that I am going through
E is for the energy that I need to see this through
L is for Lisa, oh yes, that's my name
E is for the effort that it takes to win this game
S is for sadness that I really can't express
S is for sooo, Lisa, please snap out of it! For this is only a test!

Author: Lisa

Our Community: Spring

Spring means a change in a season
Spring means colors, vibrant colors
Spring means days are longer
Spring means new hope
Spring means no more excuses not to exercise
Spring means we are open to communication, commitment, community
Spring means hopes of seeing pictures of the newest members of the writing class

Author: Anonymous

Woman to Woman: Advice on Being Homeless

I would like to give advice to the women who are raising children and trying to have a home to keep on trying. It is not an easy job to raise a family, to provide food for your children to eat, place clothes on their backs, and pay for their basic education. It seems that we can't pay for these basic human needs and it is impossible to give them things that they want like toys and fun adventures. Even though we want to give them the best of us, our time, love, patience, and perseverance, we feel cheated because it takes over our dreams of being career minded, and it makes us the bad guys in our families. To me, being a mom was the best job that I had and the most enjoyable, memorable, and rewarding. It brought me structure and accountability so I strived to be the best that I could and wanted to be. Setting good examples, being loving and kind to them, being there for them, comforting them, teaching them, and being a family with them. We are a family and can strengthen each other and help one another and be ourselves together. It was the most rewarding with my friends and family and church...because it takes a village to raise a family and doing it gave me my community.

Author: Jeanine

Over-the-Rhine

Journey Across America

Journey across America
To see how others live
How cutlure developed into the city
How the spread of wealth got into our lives

Journey across America
Allow me to understand the yearning of eternal litght
To see that we are the same equally for life
We share the music and the styles to shape who we are--different yet the same

Journey across America
Saying goodbye to a friend I had just met
She leaves with a warm smile on her face, tears on her brow
In this new place, she can now call home when she closes her eyes
Stay true to who you are so they can see you grow and glow

Author: Glenda

Goals: A Poetic Journey

How many of us have goals, how many of us fall victim to them. How many hate them, to hope so greatly for someone to loathe who possesses your goals, to have an inner, bright light go dim. How many children today are faced with someone else’s goal, how many people have no control over their goals, raise your hand high in the sky if you would sell your soul to the devil to achieve your goals, much more, many more souls.

Who has the envy at one who has millions of dollars; check the news, its everywhere these days. The Jekylls and the Hydes are in the streets watching and preying on the weak just to pay their ways.

Who can say they know of no one who has done any evil for the gain of their own goal—to cheat, to lie, to steal, or to kill for their fantasy goals, to have their futures be told.

Society tells us that having goals drives ambition, to be all that you can be, but when you fail, they desert you and call you a failure for failing.

As your goal slowly fades, further and further away, the more your mind that so called ambitions begins the stalling.

Now look into the eyes of the people who society call the failures--what has the goals given to them done, watch as the next father or mother force their goals onto their unsuspecting daughter or son. A goal of any type of monetary gain is that of hate because a wise man once said that money is the root of all evils…isn’t it, so go ahead, teach your son or daughter to be another trapped by their own successes, to work for a tip. A man told me that money isn’t everything but it sure makes life comfortable! What kind of goal is comfortable? No! Your goal has to be more than comfortable—it has to be lavish…tell me now what’s your goals…oh! I detest goals, what happened to good, old-fashioned times of just believing that something good would come in life, right? A young lion and his friends once sang a song of Hakuna Matata. No worries, right? Yeah…that’s so right.

Author: LaShae

Our Community

This community can only be summed up in one word—Death. The wicked come here to sell their remedy, the damned are forced to live together, and the rats walk the night leaving zombies to spread. The government is set on keeping the poverty level where it’s at and they only want to cover the truth. Like the last breath of a dying animal, we struggle to breathe this polluted oxygen. As the days grow shorter to mankinds’ demise, the life of the damned will already have suppressed by the end of time. We are like a rose so sweet on the pedals but slide your finders down the stem and it will make you bleed. To be rid of this shitty-ass city, the people cry for help and no one listens; the rich cry for stupid taxpayer spending. This is the city where riots of hate crimes shut down the city. This is a city where you can sit on your porch and get killed. This is a city where we’re number one in child abuse related deaths. This is the city who lost two Superbowls. This is the home of the Reds, this is where celebrities want to come to….this is the city I love.

Author: LaShae

Photography Project

Photo Location: Downtown Cincinnati
Photographer: Unknown
Date: September 2010

Photography Project

This picture was taken by one of the lovely ladies in our writing group; the bi-annual photography project encourages women to visually define community with disposable cameras. We later develop the photos and use these images as writing prompts in future writing sessions.