Poems For My People: Community, Volume 2

By Molly Ovenden

This is a collection of poetry I wrote primarily in a live setting whilst doing typewriter poetry busking in public. Every poem is written for a specific individual as requested by the recipient of the poem. Some poems were written as gifts requested for a loved one.

Dear wonderful reader,

It's Lab

• Language: English
• Publisher: Molly Ovenden Creativity LLC
• Release date: Feb 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9798986053479

Molly Ovenden

Molly Ann Ovenden is a British American originally from Minnesota. From 2010 to 2017, she lived in West Yorkshire, England, with her bearded furniture-making Englishman husband, Max. They moved to Northern Minnesota in 2017. Molly is a creative writing coach who helps people become the writers they've dreamed of being through courses, community and coaching. When she's not writing or coaching, she's reading, laughing, smiling, eating, drinking tea and coffee, painting, daydreaming, training for a marathon, doing yoga, or going for circular walks.

Book preview

Poems For My People: Community, Volume 2

Molly Ovenden

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Molly Ovenden Creativity, LLC

Poems for My People: Community, Volume 2

Copyright © 2023 Molly Ovenden

Visit the author’s website at mollyovenden.com

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

For permission requests and ordering information, contact: [e-mail]

Jacket & Cover Design by Molly Ovenden

ISBN 979-8-9860534-6-2 (Hardcover)

ISBN 979-8-9860534-7-9 (EBook)

Contents

With Gratitude

An Extra Special Thank You

What to Expect: How to Read This Collection

What is typewriter poetry busking?

On Errors...

Top Tips for Reading This Collection of Poetry

Access to Audio & Video

Letter to the Reader

1.Purple Unicorns

2.To Love: 50 Years More

3.College & Newness

4.Memorable Days Ahead

5.Interstellar Hopes & Dreams

6.Watery Evolution

7.A

8.Official Sisterhood

9.To My Sweet Wildflower

10.Unpacking Boxes

11.Ode to Frogs

12.In the Waters of Life

13.Sunshine Fills My Eyes

14.You’re My Dad!

15.Welcome Arms

16.Friendship’s Laughter

17.Toward Internal Peace

18.July Sunshine

19.For Gus, my Cat

20.A Hero’s Cabin

21.On Moonlight

22.For Gusto

23.a poem about disorder

24.Motivate Me

25.An Immovable Boulder

26.Sunny Days

27.To My 3 Children

28.perfect tempo, perfect time

29.advice for your 20s: a non-exhaustive list, a few thoughts to start

30.When I Look Into the Night

31.On Chaos, Hotel Keys, and Sweet Dreams

32.Why This Generational Legacy?

33.Women: the Way Forward in STEM

34.This is Just the Beginning

35.Nothing to Stop Us

36.Mom & Her Girls

37.Our Promise in the Pines

38.How I Will Become Myself

39.Just for Kicks

40.Heartbeats in Season

41.From Now On

42.How I Feel to be in a Poem

43.A Writer & Their Poem

44.To Write Among the Trees

45.Kimberly Knew

46.Mini Starts, Growing Mighty

47.Most Blissful Moments

48.The Point Point

49.No Longer Alone

50.Urgent Plea! Thanks for purchasing my book!

51.May You Write Songs of Beauty & Truth

52.On Picking Strawberries

53.Engineering With Jesus

54.Jesus’ Genius

55.Ode to Sushi

56.Our Movie of Us

57.Jesus. Pirates. Gardens.

58.Building Home

59.On Memory Keeping

60.A Peacock’s Legacy

61.Popcorn in the Morning

62.Letter to Self: Thrive!

63.Our Love Grows in Meadows

64.You Are the Boundary Waters

65.Perseverance & Smiles

66.No Faltering Feet

67.The Ocean’s Welcome

68.A Yellow Rose Field

69.Staring at What Truly Matters

70.An Artist in the Skies of Life

71.Pineapple Grove

72.Notice, Brave Adventurer!

73.Food to Feed Us

74.Turn Toward

75.Camila y la perra (Camila and her dog)

76.Planting Love for Years

77.What is Steady?

78.A First Trip to Duluth

79.For All of the Oxygen & Potassium

80.Closing Campfires

81.Surrounded by Joy Harvest

82.A Cardinal, In Memoriam

83.With God, it’s Not

84.For Frankie–From Your Girls

85.It’s the Bess & Jess Show!

86.I Wrote This--It's Mine!

87.Ode to the Villain

88.The Journey Propels

89.One in Simplicity

90.Who I Used to Be & Now

91.Running. Heavenly. Father.

92.The Woman I Want to Be

93.Tea Cups of You & Me

94.So Glad We’re Sisters

95.Surely, the Flowers Will Grow

96.Hiking in PNW

97.This Phase Complete–What’s More?

98.To Adulting!

99.From Cornucopia to Superior

100.the force in love

101.What is Freedom?

102.Now What?!

103.Want to be coached by Molly?

104.Give the Gift of Poetry

105.Contact Molly

106.Access to Audio & Video

107.Urgent Plea! Thanks for reading my book!

108.About the Author

With Gratitude

Special Thank You to those poets who have come before me and who continue to kindle my poetic soul: especially to William Blake and John Keats who have a special place in my heart. William, I loved you when I memorized my first poem as a twelve-year-old; The Tyger is forever etched on my soul with the acid joy of your provocative words. John, I fell in love with you in college when Brit Lit 1 introduced me to The Romantics; I won’t let go of the Beauty and Truth I read from you.

Special Thank You to Julia McGuiness across the pond in the United Kingdom and Melissa Roberts Weidman in the New England area of the United States, who have both inspired me and given me courage to pursue typewriter poetry busking–something I’d wanted to do for over 20 years, but never felt I was allowed to. You both have, as courageous and steady women poets, offered friendship and poetic wisdom as you’ve accompanied me in heart and in pixels along this journey.

Special Thank You to London Writers’ Salon, especially founders Matt Trinetti & Parul Bavishi, and all of our Writers’ Hour hosts, who have empowered my writerly connections and my resilient learning to be an audacious author through daily community writing sessions with an inspiring lexicon of writers all over the world. Gold Writers and Gold Coaches: you are a gift of encouragement and companionship when I declare audacious goals for accountability, and later when I share all my fears and insecurities; your friendship has helped me cross the finish line again.

Special Thank You to my Heavenly Father: You have healed my heart from past hurts from people who cut me down with their words and helped me believe that it’s wrong to want and to actually have success from writing. To my friend and companion Jesus: You who sit with me in coffee shops, living rooms, online Zoom rooms, cideries, and other random places where I write poems for my people–for Our People. To my guide and counselor Holy Spirit: You have led me to the