Finding strength in sharing feelings in verse

Finding strength in sharing feelings in verse

Do you find poetry a helpful way to express your feelings? Are you one of the many people who find writing verse to be a comforting coping and healing tool? Our first competition on www.lifestoriesdiary.com invites original poems or prose, exploring this theme. Hurry and submit your entry – four lines or forty, length does not matter! (Scroll to the end of this post for details).

To inspire you, and Karyn and Shannon share their poems:

New Beginnings

by Karyn Braveheart, February 2002

I don’t know where to begin

I never know where to start

So l take my pen and paper

And gently follow my heart

There are no rules to go by

There is no price to pay

For putting a pen to paper

Let’s you say what you need to say.

 

I don’t know where lm going

I can’t tell what lies ahead

So l take my pen and paper

And write about it instead

When choices overwhelm me

Not knowing which road to take

I put my pen to paper

And trust in each choice l make.

 

I don’t know about the ending

Or when that’s going to be

So l take my pen and paper

And write about what l see

Sometimes l see a rainbow

Sometimes l see a storm

But by putting a pen to paper

It keeps me safe and warm.

 

I don’t know how it began

But l finally made a start

And took my pen and paper

To inscribe what’s in my heart

It seemed to flow so easily

From a quiet voice inside

The expression of pen and paper

A gift that’s become my guide.

Karyn writes poetry for many occasions, but most of all to: “to express the struggles of my eating disorder and mental illness, some deeper than the ocean and some just day to day steps of this ongoing journey. As l have grown so has my poetry.”

Breaking the Spell

– A Disorder Defeated

Shannon Calvert, March 2017

 Oh, dear child you were never a fool.

I was the one so terribly cruel.

My power so quiet and painfully sure

To silence, to hurt, to leave you no cure.

Oh, sweet child you were never so weak

My poison flowed through and left your life bleak.

A darkness fell heavy, life became bare,

I had won, you were mine, together we dared

To turn away love, to darken the light,

To tear away hope, to give up the fight

I have starved you & held you in a world of deceit

So close to the end, now is it I at your feet?

Oh, dear child I thought you a fool

Made you my victim, a slave to my world.

I have been your desired, your deadly friend

Now you fight to recover, prepare to defend!

You choose to betray me, you start to doubt

Convinced of your worth, you’ve seen a way out!

So brave & determined, I’m no longer your muse

We have gone to war, I am battered & bruised.

Now you have your revenge, you have left me alone

I was your disorder, the queen of your throne

But your heart is your victor, a powerful beat

You have won and destroyed me

You have shown me defeat

Shannon wants to, and is determined, “to stand tall, free and worthy, no longer disguised.”

How to participate

Submit your entries here. Closing date is April 20, 2017 and the prizewinner will be announced on April 27, 2017.

For your poem or narrative to be considered for posting and for the prize, be sure when submitting your entry, note you give consent for your poem or prose to be published on lifestoriesdiary.com and state how you want your name to appear (e.g., first name, full name, pseudonym).

The prizewinner will receive a signed copy of my memoir, A Girl Called Tim. This book contains no poetry; however, it was the heartwarming readers’ response to this literary work that inspired this entire wonderful narrative, healing journey that brings me in touch with you today.

Hurry and send in your poem! One verse or six!

Yours creatively,

June