Poems by Jordan A. Leturgez

Not when the sky is perfect,
not when fear has folded,
but in the half-light of trembling hands
you strike the first small sound.
A single nail into the wall
holds up a future--quiet, stubborn--
and the room remembers how to echo.

Make it happen: whisper it to the marrow,
to the hollow places that learned to stay small.
Feed it with plain tools: coffee at dawn,
a list, two breaths, the courage to begin again.
Build like someone who knows how to heal--
one careful stitch, one stubborn seam,
until the garment fits your living skin.

There will be storms that practice drowning,
voices that map the route of retreat.
Let them pass like weather. Plant your feet
in the soil you've chosen; let roots answer the rain.
Remember the river does not wait for permission;
its insistence carves mountains into maps.

Make it happen not by grandness alone
but by the patient geometry of doing:
small acts, fierce as sunlight through blinds,
pieces gathered until a shape is formed.
Call your fear by name and set it to work;
teach your doubt to carry stones.

When the night asks if you are tired,
say yes--and then say still--go on.
Because making is a kind of mercy:
to yourself, to the people who will warm themselves
at the fire you started with trembling hands.
Make it happen. Let your life be proof
that a single, certain step can become a road.

Between the chandelier and the bare bulb
a rumor of light moves like a thief --
it spills in crystal and puddles on pavement,
it learns the shape of silver spoons
and the hollowness of tin.

The Haves dine on calendars of plenty,
their plates are maps with no borders,
their laughter spins like coins
and settles soft on linen.
Outside, another door breathes on cold hinges,
a radio counts the hours in static,
a child folds an empty hand into a small fist
and names the wind for company.

Glass towers mirror the sky and keep their secrets;
cardboard dreams stack like low-rise constellations,
and in the alley the have-nots stitch dusk into blankets,
each thread a story of what was carried and lost.
The rich lawn keeps its shoes clean of mud,
while other shoes memorize the cracks in the pavement,
learn the language of soles.

They measure time differently:
one house counts gold as proof,
the other marks it by the patience of waiting.
But both feel the same late hour,
the same moon--thin as a promise--rising.
Both lovers press the same thin light to their faces,
both mothers name their children aloud
as if names could keep the cold from knowing them.

Sometimes the Haves grow small from too many doors,
and sometimes the Have Nots walk like kings, crownless but upright.
Compassion is a room nobody owns,
a table that will not seat just one kind.
When hunger is spoken into a bowl, when coin is split into care,
the wall that divided softens into a threshold.

If all the world's wealth were only weather,
we would still need umbrellas and hands to hold them.
So let the sun be shared in ledger and sky:
let no one wake to an empty cup while another's overflows,
let us remember we are not islands of profit,
but a single, breathing sea, rising and falling together.

The road to code is a ribbon of midnight and coffee,
a map sketched in semicolons and small, stubborn lights.
You step onto it barefoot, sleeves rolled against the cold,
and the first keystroke is a heartbeat -- tentative, alive.

There are forks named Syntax and Patience, loops that fold back on themselves,
and signs that read: Compile Here, Then Leap.
Errors bloom like dark flowers in the grass,
each one a riddle with teeth, a door that will not open until you learn to listen.

At first the world feels binary -- right and wrong, green and red --
but soon you meet the grey: the elegant hack, the honest bug,
the midnight mentor in forums who sends a lantern through the screen.
You learn that failure is an instrument, not a verdict,
and that debugging is a quiet kind of archaeology,
dusting away assumptions to find the fragile architecture beneath.

There are nights when the cursor looks like a metronome counting out patience,
and mornings when "Hello, World" arrives like a sunrise, small and miraculous.
You carry fragments -- an algorithm learned on a bus, a snippet remembered at dawn --
and stitch them into scaffolds that hold ideas up against doubt.

Version control is a compass; comments are the chalk on the cave wall.
Stack traces become constellations you can read,
guiding you to where your logic unhinged itself.
The community is a roadside diner, voices overlapping, recipes traded,
and sometimes a stranger's pull request is the exact hand you needed.

On this road, you build ladders from problems, bridges from repetition,
and sometimes a simple script opens a city of possibility.
Progress is measured in tiny triumphs: a test passed, a refactor that sings,
a user smiling because your lines of thought finally learned to speak.

Keep going. There will be storms named Obsolescence and Imposter,
and there will be plains of steady work where no glory passes by.
But each commit, each question asked aloud, lays a stone.
The road to code is not a line to finish but a path that teaches you how to walk,
and in walking you become both cartographer and traveler, maker and home.

In the heart of the jungle, where vines entwine,

There lies a presence so fierce and divine.

A sanctuary of strength, beauty, and grace,

Where the spirit of the female finds its place.

In the jungle's depths, she roams free,

A force of nature, wild and carefree.

Her eyes gleam with the wisdom of ancient lore,

Her spirit was untamed, a lioness at its core.

She moves with the rhythm of the earth's beating heart,

Her presence commanding, a work of art.

In her jungle kingdom, she reigns supreme,

A vision of power, a mesmerizing dream.

Her roar echoes through the dense green canopy,

A primal call that stirs the soul within me.

She is the queen of the jungle, untamed and wild,

A fierce goddess, nature's beloved child.

In her realm of shadows and sunlit glades,

The female jungle dances, never to fade.

A symphony of strength and beauty combined,

In the heart of the jungle, she forever shines.

Beneath the Roman sun, where sand meets blood,

Brave souls arise, in the echo of the thud.

Gladiators, forged in fire and in fate,

Their hearts beat fierce, their destinies await.

In armor glinting, they stand, resolved,

An ancient pact; their fates entwined, evolved.

With each fierce clash, the crowd's roar ignites,

A symphony of valor, of daring fights.

They dance with death, in a waltz sublime,

Each strike a story, a heartbeat in time.

Fingers wrapped 'round swords, bright with hope and pain,

They carve their legacies in the bloodied grain.

Faces marked by struggle, the lines of despair,

Tell tales of triumph, of love laid bare.

For in that circle, where glory meets the grind,

They fight not just for the crowd, but for what's left behind.

A brother's shout, a lover's name,

Each breath they take, ignites the flame.

For every fallen hero, a ghostly cheer,

Resonates with the dreams of the ones held dear.

Oh, magnificent warriors of the sunlight's grace,

In your savage artistry, we find our place.

You rise from the ashes, like phoenixes of old,

Our hearts entwined in the stories you've told.

When evening falls, and the cheers subside,

The echoes remain, and the spirits abide.

In the legacy of legends, where honor may fade,

The poetry of gladiators is forever portrayed.

Neon hum, a quarter moon over green--
chalk dust like dry snow on the tip of fingers,
the felt a small country of its own,
pocketed with hungry, round promises.

A glass catches the light: amber, forgiving.
One swallow, and shoulders dissolve,
tongue loosens the little verbs that hold you tight.
Confidence arrives on soft feet,
a borrowed shape of courage that smells like citrus and oak.

You stand over the table and the world rearranges.
Angles grow generous, the cue feels longer,
your elbow unbolts, your breath slows to candlelight.
The cue ball answers like an old friend,
the break sings and for a heartbeat you are brilliant.

Then the second shot comes with tremor.
The world tips. Distances swell like mirrors.
Your eye that once read geometry now reads ghosts.
A straight line becomes a rumor,
a bank shot a superstition--what was sure is suddenly slippery.

Alcohol is a kindly thief and a cruel teacher:
it hands you a mask of fearlessness,
and behind it your hands may forget the lessons
paid for by practice, patience, repetition.
It smooths the edge of doubt and the edge of judgment alike.

Some nights it polishes the ordinary into art;
some nights it muffles the clue-scent of precision.
It can quiet the critic that stops your cue,
but it also quiets the small, precise voice that measures distance.

So ask the table, ask the felt: does it help?
The table answers in clacks and silences,
in the luck of a roll, the mercy of a pocket.
It tells you this--sometimes the drink is a lullaby
that lets skill awake for a while; sometimes it is a fog.

At last the cue lays down. The glass breathes its last.
You tally wins that taste like someone else's name,
and losses that feel like old weather returning.
Better? --for a night, perhaps. For a life at the table, rarely.

Aim, they say, is more than courage: it is steadiness of hand,
the long apprenticeship of counting angles, of falling and rising.
If you must bring a spirit to the game, let it be the spirit of practice,
of patience, clear eyes, and a hand that remembers the geometry of truth.

But when the neon is soft and the pool hall hums,
there is a kind of grace in the first, warm sip--
a temporary truce with your own doubt.
Just be careful which you pocket: the ball, or the bottle.

In the heart of a city where shadows blend,

Lies a place where the weary find solace, a friend,

Club Solar, where laughter weaves through the air,

A sanctuary shimmering, a haven so rare.

Walls echo whispers of dreams long unfurled,

Canvas of hopes in a vibrant world,

The soft hum of life, a rhythm divine,

With every heartbeat, the stars align.

From beams of sunlight spilling wide,

To voices entwined like the ebbing tide,

In this gathering circle, we dance and we sway,

With the moon as our witness, we chase night away.

Here, poets and dreamers share verses and tales,

Each word like a comet that paints cosmic trails,

With ink on our fingers and fire in our veins,

We speak of the beauty, the losses, the gains.

Beneath the disco ball's shimmering glow,

The stories of past, the seeds we sow,

Together we rise, with our spirits ablaze,

In Club Solar's embrace, we wander in a daze.

For in this warm refuge, no judgment, no fear,

We find kindred souls, and our purpose grows clear,

With each whispered secret, each song sung anew,

We turn hopes into galaxies, timeless and true.

So let's gather our memories, a luminous feast,

Celebrate together, from greatest to least,

For Club Solar is more than a place on the map,

It's a heartbeat of love where we find our way back.

In the hush of morning light, they gather,

Soft whispers fold between the pages,

Crinkled tales of hope and dread,

The pulse of a world, fragmented, aged.

Ink-stained fingers trace the headlines,

A tapestry of stories, bold and brave,

Where sorrows are etched, and triumphs shine,

Each article a wave upon the vast grave.

In the city's heart, they spill like secrets,

Crumpled destinies in black and white,

A mother's plea, a soldier's testament,

Lives woven in newsprint's tight embrace,

Each word a lantern glimmers in the night.

The fickle hand of time races by,

While history's notes inked in urgency,

Unfolding humanity's fragile cycle,

A mirror reflecting our epiphany,

The chaos, the beauty, a collective cry.

But in between the stories spun,

Lies the quiet ache for things unsaid,

The love unspoken, the dreams overshadowed,

Voices lost in the silence, blood-red.

Oh, bearer of truth, hold us dear,

For in your embrace, we are both alive and dead.

So as we sip on our coffee's warmth,

And scan the stories that paint our day,

May we remember the hands that crafted,

Each line a heartbeat, each phrase a ray,

For newspapers cradle our very essence,

A testament to those who dared to say.

In the light of dawn, where whispers play,
Where shadows dance in the softening gray,
I find a truth, a shimmering thread,
Woven through moments, unsaid, unshed.

A heartbeat quickens within the still,
As petals unfurl on the edge of a hill,
There's magic in silence, a soft-spoken grace,
In the warmth of a glance, in the touch of your face.

Each word like a brush, painting skies so vast,
In ink of the cosmos, our stories are cast.
You are the whisper in a crowded room,
A radiant blossom in the darkest gloom.

With every shared laugh, with every shared tear,
You fill up the spaces, and draw me near.
Your presence a melody, pure and profound,
A symphony of dreams in the laughter we've found.

So here, in this moment, I claim my place,
In the soft, gentle glow of your quiet grace.
To be seen and to cherish, to feel and to know,
In the garden of feelings where love's rivers flow.

For in just being you, I am lifted and spun,
A star in your orbit, my journey begun.
In the kaleidoscope world that you help me frame,
I feel so special, ignited by flame.

So let the winds carry this truth far and wide,
In the heart of the universe, our souls collide.
For to feel so special is not just to be,
But a tapestry woven, just you and me.

In shadows deep, a father's betrayal lies,

Like a tempest brewing in a stormy sky.

Once a beacon of strength and guiding light,

Now a figure shrouded in deceit and blight.

A daughter's heart, once warmed by his embrace,

Now aches with the wounds of his disgrace.

Words once spoken with love and care,

Now twisted into daggers of despair.

The bond they shared, now torn asunder,

By the cruel hands of betrayal and thunder.

The pain, a heavy burden to bear,

As trust and love dissolve into thin air.

Yet amidst the darkness and the pain,

A glimmer of hope still remains.

For wounds may heal and hearts may mend,

And broken ties may find their mend.

So let us hold onto hope and grace,

And seek forgiveness in this bitter place.

For though a father's betrayal may sting,

Love's enduring power can still bring healing.