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Poetry by Rowan Evans

Tag: introspective poetry

  • The Chapter After This One | A Poem About Hope, Fate & Writing Your Own Future by Rowan Evans

    Rowan Evans

    Author’s Note

    Sometimes, the mind wanders somewhere between waking and dreaming, and the unfamiliar begins to feel strangely like home. Maybe it’s just a dream. Maybe it’s imagination playing with possibilities. Or maybe it’s a reminder that the life we’re living right now isn’t the only story we could ever tell.

    The Chapter After This One is about looking beyond a present that might not feel right and remembering that the story isn’t finished. We don’t always get to choose the circumstances of our current chapter, and we can’t simply flip to the ending to see whether everything works out. Sometimes, we have to keep reading, even when the road ahead is uncertain.

    But reading isn’t all we can do. We can question the direction, challenge the expectations, and pick up the pen ourselves. We may not control every twist in the plot, but we can make choices that shape what comes next.

    The future isn’t a page we’ve already read. It’s a chapter we haven’t reached yet—and perhaps, in more ways than we realize, we’re already helping to write it.

    — Rowan Evans

    A solitary figure stands on an unfamiliar dreamlike street beside an open book and fountain pen, watching a winding path lead toward a golden horizon that symbolizes an unwritten future.
    You may not be able to skip to the ending, but you can still pick up the pen and help write what comes next.

    The Chapter After This One
    Poetry by Rowan Evans

    I’ve been drifting today—
    constantly somewhere in-between
    awake and asleep—
    between reality and a dream.
    One moment, I’m sitting alone—
    the next I’m walking streets I’ve never known.

    Yet somehow,
    those streets feel like home.

    I can’t say for certain where I was,
    but I had a pretty good idea—
    it felt familiar but not,
    like I was getting a preview—
    for a future plot.
    Like the writers for my life—
    were showing me,
    I’m not stuck in the story I got.

    And while it’s true,
    I may not like the current chapter—
    I just have to keep reading,
    to find out what comes after—
    you cannot skip ahead,
    that’ll only lead you down
    the wrong road instead.

    If you don’t like the direction,
    pick up a pen—become a co-writer then.
    You can’t rely on, just anyone,
    take matters into your own hands.
    You can shape fate, you can write
    for your own life—
    you know you can guide
    the plot, right?

    Journey into the Hexverse

    [Everything and Nothing]
    What happens when you’re quiet but observant, overwhelmed yet seemingly empty, surrounded by beauty but sometimes seeing only decay? Everything and Nothing is a confessional poem about overthinking, mental exhaustion, contradiction, and the absurd humor that helps us keep going—even when we’re wobbling in socks and Crocs.

    If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]

  • Everything and Nothing | A Poem About Overthinking, Contradiction & Resilience by Rowan Evans

    Rowan Evans

    Author’s Note

    Sometimes, the quietest person in the room has the loudest mind. Sometimes, the person who seems to have nothing to say is trying to sort through a thousand thoughts that never quite finish forming. And sometimes, when someone asks what’s wrong, the honest answer is both everything and nothing.

    Everything and Nothing explores the contradictions that can exist within one person: being observant enough to notice everything while struggling to explain what’s happening inside, feeling surrounded by beauty yet sometimes seeing only the rot, and having the spark to create without always having the fuel to keep the fire burning.

    But this isn’t a poem that wants to stay solemn. There’s a paradox wearing socks and Crocs, checking a five-dollar wristwatch, and wobbling through life with questionable coordination. Because humor has always had a place beside the heavier truths, and sometimes the absurdity is part of what makes those truths bearable.

    I may wobble. I may lose my train of thought before it reaches the station. I may have days when everything feels wrong and days when I can’t explain why nothing seems wrong at all. But falling and wobbling aren’t the same thing.

    And if there’s one thing this paradox knows, it’s how to keep wobbling.

    — Rowan Evans

    An introspective poet in socks and foam clogs sits among tangled thought fragments, contrasting flowers and decaying plants, a fading flame, and a rocking roly-poly toy symbolizing contradiction and resilience.
    Everything is wrong. Nothing is wrong. The thoughts won’t land, the fire won’t always burn, and somehow this paradox keeps wobbling.

    Everything and Nothing
    Poetry by Rowan Evans

    When you meet me—
    you’ll think I’m quiet.
    I don’t say much,
    I sit in silence,
    with my mouth shut,
    but my eyes are open—
    watching, closely.

    And when you talk to me—
    you’ll wish I was quiet.
    I’m way too observant—
    I see too damn much,
    and I hear just the same—
    so don’t get mad at me,
    when you get flamed.

    But once you get to know me—
    you’ll get scared when I’m quiet,
    you’re suddenly afraid of my silence.
    Because It carries weight,
    everything I don’t say—
    what’s wrong? You’ll wonder,
    what’s on your mind?
    You’ll find that it’s nothing—
    mind’s blank, no thoughts in it.

    But what’s wrong?

    A lot.

    It would take too long
    to list every problem I’ve got.
    I’m surrounded by beauty,
    but sometimes all I see is rot—
    lost my mind, where’d I put it?
    I forgot—thoughts jammed,
    so I missed the shot.

    Thoughts move
    but never get where they’re—
    before another thought
    cuts it off—
    so it lands short,
    missed the runway by a mile.

    And that’s the part
    that hurts the most—
    when the spark is there,
    but the fire is quiet.
    The fuel is gone,
    so you hope you don’t
    have to reignite it.

    So to answer your question,
    what’s wrong?
    Everything and nothing—
    it’s in constant contradiction,
    my existence—

    I guess I’m just a paradox
    in a pair of socks and crocs,
    with a five dollar
    Wal-Mart wristwatch.
    But don’t worry—
    I’m a weeble,
    I wobble—

    but I don’t fall down.

    Journey into the Hexverse

    [Through the Page]
    A heartfelt thank-you to everyone who has journeyed through the pages of Rowan Evans’s poetry. From ravens and monsters to raccoons in silk pajamas, this playful, multilingual poem celebrates the connection between poet and reader—and the meaning found in sharing one’s art.

    [Thoughts of You Have Prime Real Estate]
    A playful romantic poem that turns the idea of someone “living rent-free in your head” into an entire neighborhood, where thoughts become homes—and one special thought gets the best property in town.

    [A Person First]
    A poem about the difference between loving a woman and loving the role someone expects her to play—because partnership requires respect, autonomy, and room to remain a person first.

    If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]

  • The Metaphor Machine | A Meta Poetry Experiment by Rowan Evans

    Rowan Evans

    Author’s Note

    The Metaphor Machine is a poem about the machinery behind my own poetry. I wanted to pull back the curtain and show what happens when a single line starts generating connections: moonlight becomes tide, tide becomes ocean, ocean becomes shoreline, shoreline becomes city streets, and suddenly the poem has wandered somewhere entirely different.

    The joke is that I’m explaining the process while actively doing it. The poem breaks its own lines, interrupts its own thoughts, calls attention to its metaphors, and then circles back to reveal that all those seemingly wandering pieces were connected by the same machine.

    Sometimes I don’t choose the metaphor. I just follow where it takes me.

    — Rowan Evans

    An open notebook whose poetic imagery transforms from moonlight and ocean waves into a shoreline and city streets.
    One metaphor becomes another, and the machine keeps running.

    The Metaphor Machine
    Poetry by Rowan Evans

    I’ll write a line in a way
    that’ll make you pause—
    then I’ll take that line
    and break that line,
    to break the thought—

    then I sprinkle in the metaphors,
    and this is really what I get meta for—

    I talk about the moon
    and the silver light,
    the way it shimmers—
    its image trembles
    across the top
    of dark water—
    that’s one I’ve said before.
    And I’ve said it lot,
    but I’m not going to stop.

    This is where the tides comes,
    and there the tide goes—
    because that’s how the tide works.

    And the ocean—

    this is a poem, I wrote…
    you didn’t think
    we were going to skip this one,
    did you?

    And the ocean,
    it’s so polite—
    the way it waves,
    every time it sees my face.
    It’s a familiar place,
    I sit on the shoreline, often—
    not in reality, but in my mind—
    that’s where the thoughts soften.

    Now, for the city streets—
    the heat, and god—
    that humidity, the way it clings.
    You’d think I’d dream of…
    somewhere less…
    humid? But I digress,
    it’s always love that I express
    for the islands I haven’t touched yet.

    If you’re following along—

    I wrote a line
    that made you pause—
    then I took that line
    and I broke that line—

    and that broke the thought.

    Then that’s where the pivot came,
    I told you what I really went meta for.

    It’s the metaphors.

    Moon to tide,
    tied to the ocean—
    a shoreline or two,
    next to the ocean blue—
    then beaches to city streets,
    it’s the same ones I walk in sleep.

    Journey into the Hexverse

    [Welcome to the Hexverse]
    Step into the Hexverse—a poetic world where mythmaking, humor, rage, creativity, and confession collide, and darkness becomes something that can be reshaped into art.

    [High Tide]
    A short reflective poem about leaving, returning, and accepting the forces that pull us back—like the tide guided by the moon.

    [Let Me Pacific]
    A lyrical poem about sitting beside the Pacific Ocean and discovering that an enormous body of water can become a bridge between distant hearts. Through ocean imagery, wordplay, and reflections on California and the Philippines, Let Me Be Pacific explores how love and poetry can cross even the greatest distances.

    [Did You Really Think This Was About Trees?]
    A playful love poem disguised as a forest of terrible tree puns. Beneath the birch, oak, cedar, palms, lumber, and absurdist wordplay is a poem about devotion, loyalty, laughter, and building a life with someone you love.

    If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]

  • Off Leash Thought: A Poem About a Wandering Mind and Creative Chaos | Rowan Evans Poetry

    Rowan Evans

    Author’s Note

    This piece came from noticing something I’ve always lived with rather than consciously examined.

    My mind does not move in straight lines.

    It wanders, it loops, it returns with things I didn’t ask for, and it sometimes disappears long enough that I start to notice the absence more than the presence. I used to frame that as inconsistency or distraction, but over time I’ve come to understand it less as a flaw and more as a kind of behavior—unpredictable, but not unkind.

    The metaphor of a dog off leash wasn’t planned. It just appeared, which feels accurate to how most of my writing actually happens. I don’t usually “decide” on metaphors so much as I notice what my thoughts are already doing and try to follow them closely enough to write it down before they change direction.

    What I like about this piece is that it doesn’t try to correct the mind.

    It doesn’t punish it for wandering, or romanticize it into something effortless and poetic. It just observes it as something alive—sometimes useful, sometimes disruptive, always moving.

    There’s a strange honesty in accepting that not every thought arrives politely, and not every idea shows up when invited. Some of them run ahead. Some of them dig things up that were better left buried. Some of them come back with exactly what I needed without me knowing I needed it.

    And I think part of growing up, creatively and otherwise, is learning not just how to control that process—but how to live alongside it without turning it into an enemy.

    So this piece is, in a way, an act of recognition.

    Not mastery.

    Just recognition.

    — Rowan Evans

    A glowing ethereal dog made of light and ink runs freely through a surreal night cityscape filled with floating pages and abstract thought imagery.
    “Some thoughts were never meant to stay leashed.”

    Off Leash Thought
    Poetry by Rowan Evans

    I like to let my mind
    wander sometimes—
    like a dog off leash.
    It chases thoughts
    like cars,
    and makes a mess
    wherever it goes.

    Sometimes it comes back
    with ideas like sticks.
    Sometimes it’s problems
    I can’t dismiss.

    It returns to me panting,
    proud of whatever it found.
    I always forgive it.
    It’s only doing what it knows.

    Last week it ran off
    and didn’t come back for hours.
    Sometimes it digs holes
    in places I didn’t want to revisit.

    But—

    Most days it behaves.
    Some days it bites.
    Some days I wish I could leash it.
    Most days I’m glad I can’t.

    Sometimes it likes to play fetch,
    I throw away an idea—
    it brings it right back,
    like I have to write that.

    Journey into the Hexverse…

    [Monster Theology]
    What if the monsters under the bed weren’t monsters at all? Monster Theology explores difference, belonging, and the human tendency to fear what we don’t understand through a conversation with the creatures we’ve spent our lives imagining.

    [Danny Phantom Theology]
    What begins as a metaphor borrowed from a childhood cartoon becomes something deeper: a reflection on existing between survival and possibility, exhaustion and hope, the life we have and the life we long for. Danny Phantom Theology explores what it means to keep moving toward a future that feels worth living.

    [Lone Wolf Theology]
    A philosophical pop-culture poem exploring freedom, identity, and self-authorship through the lens of superheroes, antiheroes, mythic archetypes, and personal rebellion. A declaration of autonomy in a world determined to write your story for you.

    [I Write Cathedrals]
    “I Write Cathedrals” explores faith, doubt, belonging, and the search for meaning beyond certainty. Through Gothic spiritual imagery and confessional reflection, the poem examines how writing can become a sacred space for questioning, wonder, and the people who feel displaced by traditional structures of belief.

    [The Needle Doesn’t Point North]
    “The Needle Doesn’t Point North” is a deeply personal free verse poem about displacement, identity, and spending a lifetime feeling emotionally disconnected from the place you were born while being drawn toward distant shores.

    If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]

  • For the World to Remember Me Again | A Poem About Headaches, Disconnection & Finding Focus

    Rowan Evans

    Author’s Note

    This piece began exactly where it sounds like it did:

    With a headache.

    Not a dramatic one. Not a poetic one.

    Just the kind that makes it difficult to focus. The kind where every sound feels a little sharper than it should. The kind where your thoughts stop moving cleanly and start dragging their feet.

    I sat down intending to write about that feeling.

    But somewhere along the way, the poem became less about pain and more about disconnection.

    Because what struck me wasn’t the headache itself.

    It was the strange sensation of feeling slightly removed from the world around me.

    Like reality had taken half a step backward.

    Like I was still present, but not entirely anchored.

    The images of echoes, warped thoughts, blurred edges, and slipping focus all came from trying to describe that experience as honestly as possible.

    What surprised me was where the poem ended.

    I started by writing about a physical sensation.

    I ended by writing about recognition.

    About the desire to feel fully present again.

    To feel connected to yourself, your surroundings, and the moment you’re living in.

    The title comes from that realization.

    Because sometimes discomfort doesn’t make us feel absent.

    It makes us feel forgotten.

    Not by other people, necessarily, but by the world itself.

    As though we’ve drifted just far enough away from ourselves to notice the distance.

    And all we can do is sit quietly and wait for clarity to return.

    For the world to remember us again.

    — Rowan Evans

    A solitary person sitting quietly with a headache as the world around them blurs and fades into soft echoes of light.
    “Some days it isn’t pain that feels overwhelming—it’s the distance between yourself and the world around you.”

    For the World to Remember Me Again
    Poetry by Rowan Evans

    I’ve got a headache,
    can’t see straight—
    vision blurring at the edges.

    It’s the kind of headache—
    where even the silence
    is loud.

    And I sit in it,
    this ringing hush,
    like the world has stepped back
    and left me echoing alone.

    It’s like—
    every sound echoes
    in a cavernous skull.

    Like my thoughts are ricocheting
    off the walls of me,
    coming back warped,
    a little less mine
    each time—

    the rhythm
    loses a little bit
    of its rhyme.

    Every pulse is thunder,
    every heartbeat a warning—
    a storm gathering
    behind my eyes.

    I try to focus,
    but the edges keep slipping—
    like my mind is smudging
    under its own weight.

    So I breathe,
    slow and deliberate,
    hoping the world will settle
    back into focus—

    or at least…

    stop slipping away.

    And I wait,
    quiet as I can,
    for the world
    to remember me again.

    Journey into the Hexverse…

    [Before My Feet Touch the Floor]
    What happens when your dreams feel more real than your waking life? Before My Feet Touch the Floor explores the strange grief of waking up, the lingering memory of dream selves, and the quiet question of which version of us is truly real.

    [Recognizes Home]
    A free-verse poem exploring the difference between love as dependency and love as choice. It challenges the idea that love must be need-based, instead centering the quiet strength of choosing someone while still remaining whole on your own.

    [Monster Theology]
    What if the monsters under the bed weren’t monsters at all? Monster Theology explores difference, belonging, and the human tendency to fear what we don’t understand through a conversation with the creatures we’ve spent our lives imagining.

    [Not Rebuilding You]
    A poem about love as an act of presence rather than rescue. Through construction imagery, Not Rebuilding You explores trust, devotion, emotional safety, and the quiet work of building a foundation strong enough for healing to grow.

    If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]

  • Ink as a Second Mouth | Poetry About Writing, Identity & Becoming

    Rowan Evans

    Author’s Note

    This piece comes from the space where speech and writing don’t quite align.

    There has always been a kind of delay for me—between what I think, what I feel, and what I can actually say out loud. Spoken language has never felt like the most reliable place for truth to land. It slips. It fractures. It gets filtered through hesitation, timing, or silence.

    Writing became something different.

    Not a replacement for speech, but a translation of it.

    A second mouth.

    One that doesn’t hesitate in the same way.

    One that doesn’t need to arrive perfectly formed in real time.

    Over time, I’ve come to understand my writing less as expression and more as continuity—a way of carrying versions of myself forward that might otherwise get lost between changes, growth, or silence. When I talk about shedding “lives like shells,” it isn’t about abandoning who I was, but making space for who I’m becoming.

    Writing is where those versions remain visible.

    Where they don’t disappear just because I’ve outgrown them.

    In that sense, this isn’t just about communication—it’s about survival through articulation. Not in the dramatic sense, but in the quiet one: staying connected to myself through language when voice doesn’t fully bridge the gap.

    And if spoken language is the place where I sometimes fall short of myself, then writing is where I learn how to keep translating who I am anyway.

    — Rowan Evans

    A writer sitting beside scattered handwritten pages and spilled ink in a dimly lit room.
    If spoken language is where I fall short of myself, then writing is how I keep translating who I am anyway.

    Ink as a Second Mouth
    Poetry by Rowan Evans

    There is a delay
    between my mind
    and my mouth
    when I speak—

    that’s why I find
    it easier to talk in ink.

    I turned my pen
    into my mouth,
    so when I write
    it’s the only time—
    the truth spills through.

    When I open my mouth,
    my words won’t come out—

    but in ink, they run
    like the secrets slip
    from loose lips.

    I could write poem after poem,
    leaving piece after piece of me behind—
    scattered across the pages,
    like versions of me scattered
    across different lives.

    But do not mourn
    for what I’ve lost,
    because it’s simply the cost
    of me being me.

    I shed past lives,
    it leaves room for me to grow—

    just a hermit crab
    in human form.

    And I’ll continue
    to shed lives like shells until
    I find the version of myself—

    that can speak
    in more than ink.

    Until then I’ll continue to try,
    because growth comes slow.
    It’s gradual, it never comes clear.

    There are no definable lines—
    only slow becoming.

    If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]

  • Weather in My Chest | A Poem About Emotional Sensitivity and Social Tension

    Rowan Evans

    Author’s Note

    Some people can walk into a room and never notice the atmosphere change.

    I’ve never been one of them.

    I notice tone shifts, silence, tension, body language, eye contact, emotional static—sometimes before a word is even spoken. Rooms have always felt alive to me in that way, almost like weather systems with their own pressure and temperature.

    For a long time, I thought that sensitivity meant something was wrong with me.

    But over time, I realized I wasn’t imagining things. I was just noticing things other people either missed or ignored.

    This piece came from that feeling: walking into spaces and immediately sensing the emotional climate shift around you.

    Not because you’re dangerous. Not because you want attention.

    But because some people carry storms quietly, and other people instinctively react to the pressure.

    The important part is this:

    Not every storm is destructive.

    Sometimes thunder is just thunder. Sometimes lightning never comes.

    — Rowan Evans

    A solitary figure stands quietly in a crowded room as storm clouds and atmospheric tension subtly gather around them.
    Some people don’t bring storms into rooms—they just notice the pressure before everyone else does.

    Weather in My Chest
    Poetry by Rowan Evans

    I enter rooms and I can feel
    the weather shift,
    the emotion gets thick
    like humidity—
    and the temperature
    begins to rise.

    And eyes
    move like clouds
    across the sky
    as they follow me.

    Drifting toward
    the horizon line,
    at the edge of the room.

    I can hear the whispers
    rumble like thunder,
    as the questions
    begin to spin.

    “What are they doing here?”
    “Who invited them?”

    I’ve learned
    to stand still
    in the middle of it,
    let the noise
    break around me
    like rain on concrete.

    “Why are they so quiet?”
    “Are they judging us?”

    They don’t know
    I’m not here
    to bring the storm—

    I just carry weather
    in my chest,
    and rooms react
    how they react.

    I’m not the danger
    they whisper about—

    I’m just the one
    who notices
    the temperature
    before anyone else does.

    They don’t realize
    I’ve felt this
    my whole life—
    rooms shifting,
    eyes gathering,
    like weather
    drawn to heat.

    I feel the pressure
    drop behind me,
    the way people tense
    like they’re waiting—

    for lightning
    that never comes.

    Journey into the Hexverse…

    [Sound as a Vessel]
    “Sound as a Vessel” is a free verse poem about music as emotional architecture, exploring how international artists and soundscapes shaped identity, creativity, memory, and poetic voice.

    [Just Knowing You Has Been Enough]
    “Just Knowing You Has Been Enough” is a deeply vulnerable free verse poem about unspoken love, emotional fear, coded confessions, and the quiet truth of caring for someone without needing perfection in return.

    [The Streets I Walk When I Sleep]
    “The Streets I Walk When I Sleep” is a deeply intimate free verse poem about recurring dreams, emotional connection, longing across distance, and the strange feeling of remembering places and moments that have never happened in waking life.

    [Memories From a Life Yet to Come]
    Some dreams feel less like fantasy and more like memory. “Memories From a Life Yet to Come” is a reflective free verse poem about longing, displacement, emotional alignment, and the strange comfort of recognizing yourself more clearly in dreams than in waking life

    [Separate Timelines]
    “Separate Timelines” is a surreal and deeply introspective free verse poem about emotional distance, time zones, vulnerability, and the fear of losing a connection that already feels meaningful before the words are ever spoken aloud.

    If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]

  • The Streets I Walk When I Sleep | A Poem About Dreams, Love, and Emotional Longing

    Rowan Evans

    Author’s Note

    I didn’t invent the conversation in this poem.

    That’s what makes this piece feel different to me.

    Usually when I write about dreams, I’m translating emotions into imagery after the fact—trying to capture the atmosphere more than the exact details. But this time, I woke up and realized I could still remember almost everything I said.

    Not perfectly. Dreams never survive intact.

    But the emotional core of it stayed with me long after I woke up.

    The strange thing about recurring dreams is how they stop feeling fictional after a while.

    The streets become familiar. The air feels recognizable. The people inside them start feeling emotionally real in a way that’s difficult to explain to someone else without sounding a little unhinged.

    And that’s part of what this piece explores.

    The disconnect between physical reality and emotional reality.

    I know I’ve never walked through Manila in waking life. I know I’ve never stood face to face with her like that. But emotionally?

    Some part of me feels like I already have.

    That’s the part that’s difficult to articulate.

    Especially because the dream wasn’t dramatic. There was no cinematic confession in the rain. No grand climax.

    It was quiet. Warm. Awkward. Honest.

    And maybe that’s why it affected me so much.

    Because the dream version of me said the things the waking version still struggles to say out loud.

    Not in metaphors. Not hidden inside symbolism.

    Just plainly.

    And then, right before I heard the answer—

    I woke up.

    — Rowan Evans

    A solitary figure stands on a rain-soaked city street at night beneath warm lights in a dreamlike urban atmosphere.
    Some places live in the heart long before the body ever arrives there.

    The Streets I Walk When I Sleep
    Poetry by Rowan Evans

    I had a dream last night—

    it’s a line, I’ve written
    a thousand times—

    and I’ll write it
    a thousand times more.

    Because dreams
    don’t feel like things
    that happened
    in my sleep.

    They feel like memories.

    There are times
    I have to remind myself—

    I’ve never been to Tokyo,
    I’ve never walked the streets
    of Manila or Seoul.

    I can’t explain it,
    definitely can’t name it—
    why these connections
    feel so strong.

    Yet, they are the streets
    I walk when I sleep
    and that’s still the same,
    it’s never changed—

    since I was fourteen.

    I’ve just been to
    Manila more lately.

    I had a dream last night…

    It was her and I,
    standing eye to eye—
    and I said everything
    I’ve been too scared to say.

    “I love you,”
    my voice came out
    softer than expected.

    “I always knew,”
    I continued.

    “Since the moment
    something in me changed,
    and you didn’t demand it.
    It just happened.”

    I took her hands
    in mine.

    Sun was gone,
    but you could still feel the heat—
    but the real killer?

    The way the humidity clung,
    making this moment
    sticky sweet.

    “I’ve known
    since the moment I met you
    you were special.”
    I said, my voice near a whisper.

    I felt the way you tensed up.
    You’re not used to this either.

    “It took me six days
    to realize things had changed.
    I wrote that first poem,
    and in my chest, I knew—

    I found home.”

    I felt the tremor in your breath,
    head tilting back
    and we made eye contact.

    Your mouth opened,
    you were about to speak—

    then I woke up.

    Journey in the Hexverse…

    [Memories From a Life Yet to Come]
    Some dreams feel less like fantasy and more like memory. “Memories From a Life Yet to Come” is a reflective free verse poem about longing, displacement, emotional alignment, and the strange comfort of recognizing yourself more clearly in dreams than in waking life

    [Separate Timelines]
    “Separate Timelines” is a surreal and deeply introspective free verse poem about emotional distance, time zones, vulnerability, and the fear of losing a connection that already feels meaningful before the words are ever spoken aloud.

    If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]

  • Memories From a Life Yet to Come | A Poem About Dreams, Longing, and Emotional Alignment

    Rowan Evans

    Author’s Note

    Some dreams feel less like fantasy and more like memory.

    Not literal memory—something stranger than that.

    A feeling. A pull. A version of yourself that already exists somewhere ahead of you, waiting to be caught up to.

    I’ve written a lot about displacement, longing, and feeling emotionally out of sync with the place I was born into. But this piece isn’t rooted in resentment. It’s quieter than that.

    This poem came from the feeling of seeing glimpses of alignment before you’ve fully arrived there yet.

    The strange comfort of closing your eyes and feeling more connected to yourself in dreams than you do while awake.

    Not because sleep is escape— but because sometimes dreams reveal the shape of what your heart has been reaching toward all along.

    — Rowan Evans

    A solitary figure stands at the edge of the ocean at twilight, looking toward distant city lights across the water as waves roll onto the shore.
    Some places feel familiar long before we ever arrive there.

    Memories From a Life Yet to Come
    Poetry by Rowan Evans

    I close my eyes—
    hear the crashing waves,
    taste the salt on my lips,
    feel the wind in my hair.

    I feel like I’m floating—
    even lying in bed.

    When I close my eyes—
    I travel in my head.

    It’s like I remember things
    I haven’t lived yet.
    Memories from a life
    yet to come.

    I see the life
    I want to lead,
    while I live the life
    I want to leave.

    Not because I hate it.

    I’m just misaligned.
    A little off-center,
    a little out of sync.

    It’s like I follow the waves,
    because I was never meant
    for this shore.

    Awake is the nightmare,
    asleep is when I open my eyes,
    and I can see the streets—

    where my life
    will finally align.

    If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]

  • Finish What You Started – A Poem About Transformation, Shadows, and Rebirth

    Rowan Evans

    Author’s Note

    Some versions of yourself do not disappear quietly.

    Even after you’ve changed, even after you’ve tried to move forward, there are still old names, old mistakes, old selves that follow behind you like shadows.

    This piece came from thinking about transformation—not as a clean rebirth, but as something heavier.

    Something witnessed.

    The ravens in this poem aren’t meant to be enemies. They’re observers. Keepers of memory. Symbols of the parts of ourselves we can’t fully erase, no matter how badly we want to leave them behind.

    And the fire isn’t destruction alone.

    It’s momentum.

    Because sometimes growth doesn’t happen when you escape the past.

    Sometimes it happens when you finally walk through it.

    — Rowan Evans

    Figure walking through burning temple ruins beneath watching ravens
    The only way out is through.

    Finish What You Started
    Poetry by Rowan Evans

    Strike the match
    and light the flame—

    watch the past
    decay and end.

    I walk through temples
    while the ravens watch me.

    I feel their eyes upon me,
    following—

    every movement
    traced.

    They tally every sin I’ve carried,
    every name I’ve buried,
    every version of myself
    I tried to outgrow.

    They know the weight
    I drag behind me,
    the shadows I pretend
    I’ve already outrun.

    The flame behind me grows,
    licking at the stone,
    urging me forward—

    a reminder
    that the only way out
    is through.

    The ravens
    do not warn me back.

    They only tilt their heads,
    as if to say—

    go on…

    finish
    what you started.

    Journey into the Hexverse…

    Previous:
    [The Shadow and the Spark]
    A psychologically charged free verse poem using Mortal Kombat imagery to explore anxiety, depression, identity, and the realization that survival matters more than victory.

    [East Knows My Name]
    A deeply introspective poem about emotional displacement, cultural disconnect, and feeling spiritually drawn toward a place far from where you were born.

    [Out of Sync]
    A reflective free verse poem about emotional displacement, shifting sleep cycles, and feeling spiritually drawn toward another side of the world.

    Upcoming:
    [Altars and Roses]
    A gothic free verse poem about poetic identity, recurring symbolism, devotion, and the quiet humanity beneath dramatic imagery.

    If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]