Skip to main content

The Optimistic Candle (Louis Toliver Jr - Swartz, LA)


Knifed in the back countless times. I still get up everyday. I face what is wrong with this screwed up world, making things right, shining a little light.  I refuse to live in fear. I choose to live in love.  Through the darkness of humanity, I am an optimistic candle.  

Sometimes, when I am laying alone at night in my bed I reach behind my back and I am shocked to find my blood on my hands and the pain that goes along with it.  If stab wounds were truth, I’d be dead by now. However, that ‘truth’ is just a lie because it is caused by fear. I am an optimistic candle and if I must bleed to death then I shall do it.   

Have you ever been in a dark room during a storm and the lights go out? How relieved are we when we get a candle lit and it brings light to our eyes? But have you ever used one candle to light other candles and the light grows?  The room seems safe because the shadows disappear and the door is visible.  It takes just one candle to light a room, how many candles to light a city? I’m not really sure but I am an optimistic candle.  

I never want to see the day that the light of those who seek to love or for truth shall dim or fade out. I know there are many candles out there and I hope they will come together.  I hope they at least try to light up a city, because I am optimistic candle. 

At times, my flame grows dim, at times, I think it will go out.  But I have faith that candles could be everlasting, led by the ambition for light.  As their wax melts down to their end, will there be other candles to light us? I believe so, because I am an optimistic candle. 

I used to think as I laid stuck to the harden wax I bled onto my bed that I would be recycled. As I waited in my dreams for a match to bring me back to life. But my reality, my truth, is that many candles have come to pass the same flame onto me as I do unto my children. I’m an optimistic candle waiting for the storm to pass, so the power, the light, and the truth will come. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Lunatic (Lily Lechler - New Orleans, LA)

  “Lunacy” comes from the moon,  Who cycles through brilliance and darkness  Bipolarity’s patterns are not so easily assumed  Opposites not so well harnessed Who cycles through brilliance and darkness?  The girl who sits in bed, wrestling with  Opposites. Not so well harnessed As she thought, her brain gives reason the slip The girl who sits in bed, wrestling with Her body, depressed, her thoughts manic. As she thought, her brain gave reason the slip  And gives the gift of life in a dreamlike panic. Her body depressed her thoughts. Manic  Lunacy comes from the moon And gives the gift of life in a dreamlike panic  Bipolarity’s patterns are not so easily assumed

Louisiana Words Remembers Jorge Arturo

There’s nothing that hurts more than when we lose someone from our Louisiana Words family. But, the beauty of our writing movement is that the words of our loved ones live on with us.   On June 20th, 2023, Louisiana Words Allstar, Jorge Arturo, moved on from this world leaving our hearts broken. He was a charismatic and talented human being. Jorge resided in New Orleans, LA and had been active on Louisiana Words for over a year. To honor Jorge’s life and work, we will be sharing his writing and live performances all Summer 2023. Please help keep his spirit alive by sharing his work. We know that Jorge’s words will connect with our readers and we hope to keep his spirit alive.  Jorge’s first submission: “The Dog Show” debuted on February 6th, 2022 and is his most successful piece to date. In 2022, Jorge spent 10 weeks in the top with “The Dog Show,” “Weavers,”  “They Say Love Kills, This Time It Really Did,” and “If Hell is Real, It Looks Like an Airport.” His la...

The Harvest (Nick Perere - Baton Rouge, LA)

When I was in college a barely adult youth, strange men a circular ellipse around me placed their heavy hands on my temple and prayed in twisted tongues like at the Tower of Babel Casting out the  Demon of Homosexuality.  I like to think on that day,  the Demon was free’d.  And he formed this  gayer than gay version of me.  Maybe he escaped the Bible Belt  and found himself in  New York or San Francisco. Free from being Oppressed.  Repressed.  Dogmatized.  Free from the thoughts of  self harm.  Free from trying so hard to be  someone they’re not meant to be.  While I mourn for my youth,  it started over when I escaped the spiritual enclave the cult.  Doesn’t make me an atheist. Because that in itself is a religion. But I no longer converse with the Creator. Or walk in the Holy Spirit.   I have embraced my demons And that brings me peace.  God loves all of His children except you.