Survival Poetry Workshop: HOT or COLD Poems in Tovaangar and Tatavia (So-called LA)
The following poems were written on August 26th, 2026, by houseless and formerly houseless folks attending the Survival Poetry workshop.
Poem prompt: Describe a time in your life when you were so cold or so hot you couldn’t breathe (describe details about the feeling in your bones/lungs/skin-and why...because you were houseless/outside/had no money for heat or air conditioner)
Leroy
How you survived-what did you tell yourself
Brought back memories that hard knock three times ... my blood and ... 911 the same time. Then the shouting, “Where’s your niece + are you drunk?” My body was the North pole and a desert all at the same time.
Gelly
Balled up in a fetal position next to my dog to try and stay as warm as I could.
Laying in a caved in tent with the wind blowing across my drenched skin.
Clothes soaked seeming to keep the cold close to my chest
Tears streaming from my eyes adding to my stress
I .CAN. NOT. BREATHE!!
Got caught in a storm
Thought I was ready! I was wrong.
Living outside for as long as I have I
Believed I was prepared.
But No!
With wind whipping madly in all directions
The rain falling of the sky like waterfalls
And the earth soaking me up along with the water
Help, help, help
Please help!
Paisley
HOT
HOW DID YOU SURVIVE?
Endless summer when the sun is gone
It’s sleeping but I’m wide awake choking
On the night air
Thick as molasses.
Skin sticking to everything -
Like my body wants to be a part of the street.
This blanket is suffocating
And my insides boil
Into a low, constant rage ready to overflow.
Any small match strike threatens to trigger inferno.
I must fight my mind with any dark humor
I can find.
I am a lizard searching for relief
Slinking down the pavement
Looking for a place to hang my hammock
And dream of home.
Of swing by the waterside
But the sweat on my tongue stings,
Salt drips from my lips.
In an endless desert
Clinging for oasis.
Maybe open all the windows
Maybe stay inside 7 - Eleven pretending to think about buying
The cold drinks as an excuse to stand in the fridge.
May I switch places with the bags of melting ice
For the night.
Until the day breaks -
But wait,
Oh no,
It’s even hotter.
ANONYMOUS
Surge protectors
Sado masochists
Are lovers
With rubber
Suits & holes
For ...
I tried
To plug
My
Hand into one
To get warn
But my surging
Lover
Rejected me
With an
Electrical current
Our love affair
It started at a bus
Stop
When I was
Sleeping
Used the
Bus shelter
My bed
Was the plastic
My surging
Lover
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