The Grief I Feel is of Another KindThe grief I feel is of another kind
Sweeter than holy water
A deeper breath than moorland air to find
The black of midnight, not—
Of monstrous seas, but—
Of restful night, donated cloak
From a kindly gentleman to wear
Wrapped in coolest starlight, safe
Astride a destrier — galloping to water
Molted feather — fortuitously found
New flight, gentle wind...
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Categories:
recovery from, death of a friend,
Form: Free verse
Row by Row the Nettles GrowRow by row the nettles grow
And circles do surround
Hairy stems the prison wires
And jagged leaves their barbs.
Cry out, forsaken sinner
Your voice shall not be heard
We listen to the wind song
And hark its piercing sound.
Your poison nettle vapours
Cling to my moistened lungs
And acrid nettle juices
Drip from my swollen mouth.
Alone, now in death—
Eden’s angel looms
Sword...
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Categories:
recovery from, christian, death, death of
Form: Free verse
Still the Dust Singsafter ‘The waste Land’, by T.S. Eliot
I met a woman on a glitching screen,
her face a whisk of pixels and prayer.
She spoke of shattered systems and survived code,
“The cloud remembers everything,” she said, "but forgets what matters.”
A rat hurried through my feed at dawn,
past memes and headlines, each a kind...
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Categories:
recovery from, april, endurance, loss, recovery
Form: Lyric
What Might Make You SmileFor those healing in silence.
Maybe it’s the sunlight,
dotting playfully through the blinds—
a quiet reminder
that the world still holds light.
Maybe it’s the steam rising
from morning Earl Grey,
a scone with melted butter
—a moment of normal
in a day that’s anything but.
Perhaps it’s the slow turn of a page,
the way strangers drift past
your window—
Perhaps it’s in imagining
their thoughts,
their...
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Categories:
recovery from, beauty, day, life, meaningful,
Form: Free verse
STRONGER THAN YOU THINKOh, my, unexpected foe, “when you read my poems
you wrongly judged me, and in a demeaning tone
shouted, “Do you ever write poems that are not sad?”
Dear disguised friend, you had me defending what
I wrote bringing me back to past sadness I had long
overcome causing me to second guess my triumphs.
When I told you about...
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Categories:
recovery from, abuse, anti bullying, child
Form: Free verse
Where Life GoesWhen winter arrives
Icicles manifest around my heart
The Earth is barren
Roses wilter and decompose
Absorbed within grey dirt
Where oh where does life go?
Does it migrate with the doves?
Does it freeze up in the lakes?
Is it buried within the lonely graveyard?
Carried in the cold breeze
With the dying leaves
In the deepest darkest nights
When the moon restarts its cycle
And you...
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Categories:
grief, recovery from,
Form: Free verse
The unbroken glassCaution around that window, my friend!
What of it now?
It lets you see outside and reflects in.
What of it, then?
Some things once seen must be exhumed.
Why the fuss?
It musn't break for it is strong.
Strength will not cherish it.
It musn't break for it will cut.
Blood trickles as tears.
It musn't break for it shows truth.
Truth outside will...
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Categories:
recovery from, anger, break up, devotion,
Form: Free verse
Another DawnThen whistling strands went silent
And cries bled out the ground
Hushed over earthen weeping
And golden fields were drowned.
In tears of quiet, silence
Sounds out the nothing drum
Beats thrums of peaceful sleepers
A voiceless, ashen hum.
Tears of quiet dried to rust
Lit up by morning glow
Picked off, a surface crust
The under-flesh to show
Un-scabbed earth with...
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Categories:
recovery from, growth, mental health, recovery
Form: Rhyme
Breathless, I can't BreatheBreathe in, Breathe out.
Breathe in, Breathe out.
Help Me! I can't breathe!
I can't catch my breath! I'm gonna die!
Luckily a friend close by,
gently caught my arm and said:
Calm Down! Calm Down! You're panicking!
It's not the in, It's the out!
You're brimming breathless!
You've forgotten to breathe out,
desperately clutching on, to what you have.
You're holding on, too...
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Categories:
body, recovery from, scary,
Form: Free verse
as we metamorphoseInside a chrysalis, a pupa clad in logs,
was a home in which to spell and dwell,
for my transformation.
I slept undressed, surrendered to my fate,
as my grubby caterpillar form,
dissolved under the doona down covers,
with me cocooned inside,
a shell within a shell.
Too brittle to face the elements,
without any camouflage,
I sought refuge in...
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Categories:
change, recovery from,
Form: Free verse
Rescued from the StormStanding on a crag
Frozen against the storm
Wrap another layer on
Rain biting through me
Throwing coins to the waves
Trading hope for affection
Thunder without lightning
Blind on wet rocks
You pull up alongside me
Drawing back the clouds
Peeling off the wet layers
Baring my skin to the Sun
Taking me below decks
Holding me while I shiver
Safe and warm in your embrace
Melting into...
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Categories:
love, recovery from,
Form: Free verse
Respite in the MoonshineCandle glow at midnight,
The hatch is locked
A scrambling splutter
As I reach for the key of circles, bolts and lines.
But just as before. The circle ends 4 corners behind
And I'm scrambling again for another key
I plead the glow;
It flickers as I-
Well, I,
I cherish my existence once more
As another circle starts to grow...
My foot taps to the...
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Categories:
break up, recovery from,
Form: Free verse
Chase Your DreamsIt's time Your Chase Your dreams
like that job with no bag in your hand
Or Like You was chasing that man
For a relationship
And all he was doing wit you was playing
Never Claiming you were his just a chick
To be honest you wasn't even his side dish
Lacking love and only wanting your attention
But never...
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Categories:
recovery from, care, change, dedication, desire,
Form: Free verse
A Sigh of Relief
Tension starts to fade,
A soft breath escapes at last,
Calm begins to bloom.
©bfa050125
...
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Categories:
life, recovery from,
Form: Haiku
To Have Me or Have Not**"To Have Me or Have Not"**
A thought just crossed my mind—a problem that has never been resolved. A bitter taste, a bitter cold; I don’t feel any remorse. It’s a path I’ve taken, a road I’ve traveled, with a toll that wasn’t paid. Unsettled thoughts remain, accompanied by cries of unspent tears. I left, but...
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Categories:
recovery from, absence, age, anger, angst,
Form: Free verse
Specific Types of Recovery From Poems
Definition | What is Recovery From in Poetry?