s-j-sholey

[s-j-sholey]

There is a certain slant of light

That let's imagination run

Free

The differences disappear

And happiness is

Guaranteed

There is a certain slant of thought

Allowing personal fantasies to come

Alive

Letting creativity flow its own melody

Giving life a chance to

thrive

There is a certain slant of life

Bringing the intellectual

Together

Combining dreams with reality

While the rest are left

Teathered

There's a certain slant of reality

The keep ingenuity

Indefinite

Inspiration forevermore

And the average

Irrelevant

-S.J. Sholey

[s-j-sholey]

Desolation bores through your veins,

Your vitality slowly seeping away from your breaking heart

As it now only pumps misery and hopelessness throughout your body.

A bleak vision of life is set before you

Anguish consuming to the bone, until your marrow is black and your blood numbs your skin

As if your entire body was frostbitten.

Sitting isolated in murkiness, unable to visualize the future.

Somber speculations on whether or not is this really worth it?

The obscurity sinks in as to dwell on the foundation of your desperation,

Recognizing you have shattered yourself.

You feel defeated, a hideous monster provoking the torment of your subconscious

Your mind and body aches, exhaustion settling in...

-S.J. Sholey

[s-j-sholey]

Could you envision an expanse of space both infinite and claustrophobic? 

Imagine four walls that seem to go on into eternity, but are so compressed you can feel every diminutive fracture and perforation surrounding you. 

There is no choice but to move onward, feeling the distortions left behind on the walls as if they were braille. 

Scars of the past left behind as the previous devastations had been pushed out. 

It's a grueling pathway, a fierce tribute to the battles you conquered. 

These walls, they talk of your personal scripture; untold torments and nightmares alongside solaces and reliefs. 

This limitless space waits to be crowded with renewed considerations and introspections. 

Do you choose to fill this reservoir with eternal suffocation, or luminous eternity? 

-S.J. Sholey

[s-j-sholey]

It was a jarring realization

that the devil wasn't whispering in my ear,

but that the convoluted voice was my own;

distorted by the dread in my spirit. 

The discordance persisted

for so long,

I could no longer recognize my own voice. 

Placing blame on an artificial monstrosity

rather than taking accountability for my own hostile ideation. 

I carry my personal demon wherever I go,

but she has hushed her whispers. 

The stillness is nearly as disturbing

as the former hellscape that dwelled there. 

I have commandeered my soul,

I demanded the shift into a fulfilling safe space,

and am now left with a barren domain 

with traces of uncertainty and trepidation.

I will welcome the embrace of skepticism and apprehension,

because nothing could be as formidable

as the unique hell we manufacture 

in our own reflection. 

The devil wasn't whispering in my ear,

I was screaming in the confines of my own head,

trying to find a way out. 

[s-j-sholey]

The universe has a profound and intricate way of exposing us to what we desire in our souls 

These labyrinthian paths are displayed so blatantly to us, but the barriers within our minds disrupt the view so easily, so casually.

It is all too easy for our inner monologue to blur the lines of actuality and potentiality. In truth, we are clouded with uncertainty, apprehension, discomfort, and regrets - all of which are ordinary sentiments in the masses around the world.

It takes an outstanding amount of awareness and discipline to observe the mind's labyrinth with lucid consideration; we strive for unmistakable clarity and lose ourselves to unreasonable expectations.

Perfection does not exist within the living mind; we are meant to be flawed, to challenge demanded excellence. People need to comprehend that we all come with broken parts and pieces that make us individual. We shred ourselves into fragments of who we long to be because of the constraints of external perspectives.

Allow yourself to explore your genuine individuality and that haze shrouding your perception will undoubtedly lift, exposing a clearer path to satisfaction.

Life consistently pushes our boundaries into discomposure, it's a matter of temperance to overcome the constraints we clutch to that disrupt our ability to persist on a gratifying path.

S.J. Sholey

[s-j-sholey]

I finally won a battle while the war rages on,

A victory I worked tirelessly for,

Countless seconds that turned to years dissecting every fiber of my being,

Ripping apart the chains that held me prisoner for so long

It was not won with grace or poise,

But with disheveled intensity

And unadulterated devotion

to resolve years of disquietude and dejection

I am so much more than the walls I built in an attempt to hide my helplessness.

I will tear them down

Brick by brick, stone by stone,

Until I've dominated every piece of torment I've locked away.

This is my domain

I am seizing control And will fight until my last breath to win this war,

Reclaim the wastelands and turn them into a flourishing kingdom

Where I will reign with strength

-S.J. Sholey

[s-j-sholey]

Rock bottom 

I could best describe it as being in the middle of the ocean, 

No land in sight, 

With a ship that was crumbling beneath me. 

Hitting the water with such force it knocked the wind out of my lungs,

And I started sinking into the depths,

watching the surface fade away to nothingness. 

The pressure was so heavy it felt like my ribs would snap to pieces,

My lungs withering away with no air to breathe, 

I was drowning in misery from resurfaced traumas that I had hidden away for so long. 

I desperately grasped for a safety net that was no longer there, 

And was left to face the wreckage in the deepest trenches of my consciousness with no idea how to navigate these waters. 

I continued my descent into bedrock, and watched the rifts open up as I hit bottom. 

I could only accept that I reached my breaking point, 

And I desperately needed to find a way to swim back up to the surface before the abyss submersed me entirely 

-S.J. Sholey

[s-j-sholey]

I dream of what it would be like

to voyage into the vast unknown.

Constellate among the stars,

becoming an extraordinary piece

of the great expanse that is our creation;

Transforming into stellar rings of celestial planets,

Altering space and time as a divine black hole.

To be a level of infinity

beyond comprehension,

eternally expanding

into unfathomable sovereignty.

I envision a kind of beauty

that could only be conveyed

by a supernova,

painting the void in

stardust.

I want to embrace the cosmos

with all of it's great omnipotence,

be one with the singularity,

where everything and nothing is infinite.

Relinquish myself to limitless possibility,

and phantasmal resplendence.

-S.J. Sholey