They built a myth around my pain
And thought I’d rust beneath the rain,
Assuming silence meant defeat,
A quiet retreat from complete retreat.
They judged the cage, but missed the key:
The shadow never mastered me.
Let them believe the fault was mine;
I am rebuilding by design.
?The asylum where they thought I’d break
Became the strength I had to take.
They could not stand an hour inside,
Yet here I stand with open eyes.
No longer begging them to stay
Or letting words dictate my day,
I pull my spirit from the dark
And reignite the missing spark.
?Let "all’s well" mean the peace I choose,
Not what I sacrificed to lose.
The potential wasn't thrown away;
It gathered power for today.
I am the anchor, sure and grounded,
Unshaken where their claims resounded.
?I leave their judgment at the door
To find the self I was before—
Not to go back to who was torn,
But to protect the one reborn.
?Healing doesn't mean pretending the hurt never happened; it means reclaiming your authority over your own narrative. You carry the strength to define your worth, regardless of who failed to see it.
JUSTICE RECLAIMED
Pontification
of injustice uprooted:
Justice echoing:-
She's done sitting back
and taking his abuse:
the physical,
the verbal,
the mental
the psychological;
Today is the day it all stops, period.
Oh, you better believe it....
She's done putting up
with all his gaslighting.
It's not all her in head.
She's been done wrong.
She's done being caged in
by fear of standing up
for herself.
She's done
with this-too-shall-pass dismissals.
She's done keeping quiet
so she creates no ripples.
She's done believing
her voice holds no weight.
She's done!
She's done!
She's done!
Stick a fork in her, she's through.
Yep, enough is enough!
He will be held accountable.
She's taking back
her POWER,
at last.
Man is predestined
to destroy his world
Consciously damning
‘free choice’ unfurled
An apex predator
upon himself
No rhyme or reason
or logic dealt
Self-destruction
his stock in trade
His nature foreign
to all else made
Killing his brothers
killing his sons
Shakespeare prescient
of what’s to come
Time irreverent
he never learns
What sets him free
his folly spurns
The clock is running
the hour late
His words now toxic
and filled with hate
And when it’s over
but one thing changed
A new world order
—with life reclaimed
(Bryn Mawr College: June, 2023)
The power of one word
a sentence to shame
Whose meaning suborted
and magic reclaimed
Only one syllable
quiets the storm
Where poets can dream
—in beauty reborn
(The New Room: June 9, 2023)
Reaching for the universe
fate extends a hand
Shortcut to Andromeda
route at its command
The speed of light exceeded
all flashes turn inside
To burn and bend eternal
where life no longer dies
Each star laid out before me
whose orbits spin and weave
Their presence all revealing
what black holes can’t retrieve
Inside there are no limits
or borders to constrain
The words forever calling
in voices—time reclaimed
(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)
trees
upon
forest floor lie
underneath decaying
from yesteryear changing seasons
long past gleaned comforter of summers green
solace in soundlessness hollow,
nature's
home
6/22/2021
Wildfires of fall bring us whirlwinds of flame.
Black-scape throughout, life’s survival or death?
Spring blooms of dogwood. Renewal sustained.
Santana stampedes, she’s wicked, untamed,
through canyons of ages. We hold our breath.
Wildfires of fall bring us whirlwinds of flame.
Now Dante’s hellhound of Hades renamed!
Desiccation abounds where there were fresh
spring blooms of dogwood. Renewal sustained.
What brought this on us, is someone to blame?
Nature or mishap? A crazed soul's arrest?
Wildfires of fall bring us whirlwinds of flame.
Now charred, disfigured but memory maintains
the clear hills of May, June sparrows, content.
Spring blooms of dogwood, renewal sustained.
Flora in peril, all creatures the same!
Twixt ashes or mudslides? These losses attest!
Wildfires of fall bring us whirlwinds of flame.
Spring blooms of dogwood, renewal sustained.
That Sets the Spirit Free
David J Walker
Though unnamed
The final hour
Has been framed
The same for thee
Reclaimed
For me
When we will watch
The world from
That far of place
A time and space
We not yet may see
Until the clock strikes
The hour
That sets the spirit free
I didn’t know it at the time,
but my misspent youth was planned
The training ground for what I’d write,
then hard to understand
The many schools, the teachers chides,
expulsions my reward
Postgraduate work for future truth,
all voices untoward
The risks were high, survival mined,
Shangi-La, a vagrant’s room
My pen disclaimed, all actions shamed,
flat broke one afternoon
From the diner’s window I heard the song
that turned my life around
As Gregg Allman sang ‘Melissa,’
my true destiny was found
And today I harbor no regrets,
there’s no one left to blame
As I write the words for me hard one
—my sinful past reclaimed
(Strafford Pennsylvania: July, 2019)
‘Thank You, Gregg—I Miss You’
Crossing Montana for the first time…
everything was changed
My heart no longer my own
—my spirit there reclaimed
(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2017)
Escape in a Poem,
freedom unchained
Words come alive,
distant sirens renamed
Brevity conquers,
all urge to refrain
As magic unfolds
—the present reclaimed
(Villanova Pennsylvania: January, 2017)
Alone with my thoughts,
together in this moment
The light cast off its shadow
—all prophecy reclaimed
(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2016)
Upon the forest floor lie
trees of yesteryear forced by
changing seasons long past gleaned
comforter of summers greened.
Nature doesn't bow to restraints
devours walls with an embrace.
Grace solace with no complaints,
stretched tight among time and space.
5/28/2018
My soul ancient,
but my spirit new
The past a contrivance,
the future untrue
My thoughts reborn,
all feelings renamed
To christen this moment,
—its present reclaimed
(Villanova Pennsylvania: May, 2017)
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