Go outside, feel the ground beneath your feet, breathe
Cry out to the Earth , Mother is her name and you are here in her cradle
Push your fingers into the dirt , reclaim your energy
Forget about the world and its sins, its horrors , the passing of time
Things we can't control
Some of our pain is meaningless, so let it go
Safe in her arms
quit getting lost in those stars, they don't see you they never look down
Feel the ground beneath your feet, just breathe
I did not lose myself.
I stopped giving myself away.
I did not step back
to disappear
or to abandon you.
I stepped back
to return to the fire
I kept dimming
so you could stay comfortable.
I learned the quiet cost
of making myself smaller—
how easily warmth
becomes ash
when it is always offered away.
This distance
is not rejection.
It is breath.
It is oxygen.
It is flame remembering
how to burn.
And I will not dim again.
None of that was love.
Not the control.
Not the silence.
Not the way you shrank to survive.
None of that was your responsibility.
You were not the fixer.
Not the shield.
Not the explanation for someone else’s damage.
And none of that—
not one bruise on your spirit—
was your fault.
You’re unlearning that now.
Slowly.
Like pulling splinters from memory.
Like teaching your body
that raised voices
are not weather you have to endure.
You are naming the harm.
You are naming the pain.
And the naming
is a kind of rebellion.
You are stepping into a different kind of truth—
one where your mental health matters.
Where your boundaries matter.
Where your safety
is not negotiable.
This is not selfish.
This is survival
turning into self-respect.
This is you
choosing yourself
without apology.
The Greenbrier's Tenacity
I am the root that refuses the drought. I am the vine that denies the clean edge of the saw. You curse my thorns and call me wilderness, but I am simply the will to live, unbound.
My stems are leather, supple and sharp. They climb without asking, weaving through the neat, clean rows, a dense, insistent, complicated love. I am the silent truth in the heart of the manicured yard: What is essential finds a way to endure.
My leaves are heart-shaped, glossy, and deep green, a constant, quiet declaration of presence. I do not wait for the season's approval; I am here, always, holding the space.
The root is the law: thick, stubborn, and vast. It is an anchor against the shifting soil, holding the memory of every rain and every hunger. You may cut me back to the bare earth, but the life force is only driven deeper.
When you finally surrender to my persistence, you will find the small, dark, blue-black cluster of berries. They are the food of the deep winter, a gift of unhurried survival.
I am the Greenbrier, the tough, thorny truth. I teach you that to cling is to conquer, and that the deepest strength is found in the refusal to rest.
Not Anne, But Gabrielle
by Gabrielle Munslow
If you want me to take you to another time,
take my hand.
Don’t furrow your brow.
Slick with storylines,
my tongue twists
like an adder.
Poetry spills—
some good, some bad,
but always real.
I write of suffering.
I write of death.
I write of want.
No pretty, prophetic prose.
But I can still
slip a ditty off my toes.
I am Anne with an E.
No bird.
No net ensnares me.
Still, I rest,
and language thrills my bones.
Time stills—
or quickens.
Language isn’t luxury;
it’s necessity.
Down rabbit holes I go,
deep and twisted.
I braid my breath into roots.
I speak to the dirt,
and it answers.
Once a girl.
Now a woman,
retelling her youth.
I
am not Anne with an E.
I am Gabrielle—
with poems for sale.
?
© 2025 Gabrielle Munslow. All rights reserved.
This poem may not be reproduced, distributed, or performed without the author’s permission.
To be a good father You already have to be a good man But apparently he couldn't be either guess it was just easier For him to be just like his father
Him being a black father Made it harder The stereotypes That followed him around That policed He probably internally agreed He felt it must've been better for him to leave Or Maybe he just doesn't love his kids enough to stay It must've been his generational way
His children understood As best as they could That his father was ed up They just thought he would give them a better childhood
They weren't mad just disappointed They felt neglected Felt unprotected By someone who was supposed to love them They felt stupid They felt empty, like they shouldn't have existed
As they grew up They saw all the other present fathers The pain Of it all began to hit harder They began to wonder If they even mattered
As the years continued on That pain grew stronger Their fathers absence Constantly haunted them Their self hatred grew deeper No amount of therapy made it easier They would always feel inferior
They would never forgive They would never forget
in this realm of fierce predators
name of the game: domination
out of place here seem love laced souls
blissful in staid meditation
consciousness caged, heart contracted
as delusion of grandeur boasts
fanning fires of feral instinct
humans wander earth like lost ghosts
love’s the flame that glows in darkness
pausing the cause of tempests wild
know it as the light of the soul
sense it in the smile of a child
No one has the power to make you feel worthless
- so show them just that.
You’ve held that blade,
carving doubt into your skin,
like graffiti scrawled over your spirit,
letting others rule your heart
while you sat at rock bottom,
a prisoner to their judgments.
But the moment you rise,
you reclaim your power,
guarding it fiercely like a flame
that ignites from within.
Don’t shy away;
be the storm, the light,
the person you deserve to be -
raw, unfiltered,
unapologetic.
“Drop mind use heart truth’s then known ~
We’re love and light all home grown”
~ quote by poet
This form though dust is an urn
To grow in love soul dwells here
Mind thinks heart loves can they merge
We know death looms thus fear spikes
Fate taunts we feel angst and dread
We strive but fail to find joy
One day we choose to kill lust
We rest thought flow to find peace
Time ticks thorns prick life tests us
We cease to seek wisps of smoke
This path seems harsh but light dawns
We see God’s face in plain sight
This life is seen as a dream
We now know that we are light
There is no death soul lives on
Our heart bliss drenched sings love songs
Made in God’s image, we are living light,
deep truth scriptures affirm time and again
but since ego has clouded inner sight,
lustful desires have not been to rest lain,
so we dwell in darkness, crouching in fright,
bound head to foot to a delusion-chain.
Silence shows the way how to cease to sway,
that we may see our true Self, clear as day.
As mind-body grows, our soul knows,
truth of being, so gently flows
but then fears and desires bemuse,
so inner light no longer glows.
Succumbing to lower mind’s ruse,
we strive and toil, both win and lose
but seeing how fickle heart sways,
such antics no longer amuse.
Choosing one day, to mend our ways,
we see how silence, dark fear slays
and so we shift focus inside,
finally free, at end of days.
Innocence has no cause to hide,
so in the void, we wingless glide,
reclaiming the light of our soul,
suffused with bliss, on life’s joy ride.
We grow up, the day we feel whole,
as living light, scriptures extol,
breath by breath, imbibing God’s grace,
fulfilling thus, our ordained role.
Choosing to exit, the rat race,
live, love, laugh, at an easy pace,
alive, aglow, in stillness slow,
holding God’s love, in close embrace.
Be it this or that, it does not matter
To our tranquil heart, pulsating with bliss
For we have gone beyond thought form chatter
In time dissolved peace, where nothing’s amiss
We would, if we could, transfer this rapture
But it’s something ego cannot capture
So we invite all to meld with the void
No longer by ego cravings decoyed
As we’ve grown, our joy has shrunk
and into despair soul’s sunk,
with head and heart in conflict,
constantly by conscience pricked.
Entrapped by desire and fear,
to us it is now quite clear,
that mere objects cannot yield,
pure bliss that makes us feel healed.
The way we then choose to start,
is to align head and heart
with the rhythm of love sublime,
finding our joy index climb.
Doing as love does direct,
ceasing grasping, we connect
with all souls we chance to meet,
leaving them feeling upbeat.
Becoming a child again,
we break free from ego’s chain,
invoking bliss magnetism
to ignite mind-body prism.
We are with existence one,
simply by coming undone,
reclaiming our inner light,
pulsating by day and night.
02-April-2023
___________
Write A Jueju-Qijue Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Emile Pinet
HMS, Rhymezone, PS Grammar
Some see a scrubby, stunted wood;
the pure heart sees a pond.
A vision cast into the could -
the gift to look beyond…
And though the plan has not converged
quite fully in my head,
I simply can’t resist the urge
to rend, uproot, and shred.
Reclaiming bits of Eden, I
clear out the brambled vines.
Creation and destruction, by
this, briefly are aligned.
What is this strange place, we find ourself in
Conscience deadened, embrace frigid, God hidden
Trapped in the open, we are yet free within
Love suggestion, compassion but we do not as bidden
Head and heart misaligned, earth entity suffers
Lower mind reigns, this gift of life in vain
Amiable but cautious, doubting ego flounders
Bound in chains, soul darkened by stains
Piquant our dilemma, from heights we crash
Relentless and remorseless is ego desire onslaught
Radiant soul tires under vicious whiplash
Deluded consciousness contracts, with fear fraught
Know oh hermit, soulful presence of innocence is luminescence
Gods grace bountiful awaits us in our heart
Light magnificent, nectar omnipotent, purity quintessence
Bliss ignition renewal, each moment restarts
27-July-2021
Alpha Lines Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Joseph May
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