Tag: poetry

Mental Health

Just recently it was national mental health awareness day. I know that when people think of health they think of physical health, but rarely do people think of mental health. In fact, I feel like mental health is a subject matter a lot of people do not talk about or try to avoid as it feels “forbidden” or “bad” to talk about it. I know a lot of people struggle to talk about problems they have with their mental health because of this “stigma” surrounding it. Firstly, we need to get rid of this stigma around mental health. Secondly, I feel like it is something we should take care of above physical health. Yes, physical health is important, but so is mental health. If we are not mentally well then how do we take care of ourselves physically? That brings me to my first quote of this post by Mel Robbins who says “Your mental health is everything – prioritize it. Make the time like your life that depends on it, because it does.” In other words, it is exactly what I was saying before… mental health is super important and our life literally depends on it!

Like I said before we all at some point struggle with our mental health. Even athletes like Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka have been open about their personal struggles. I normally do not like talking about my personal struggles either, but I have been open and honest with people about it. It is a tricky and difficult topic to navigate because where do we start when we talk about mental health? The truth is that we do not always know when someone else is struggling unless they tell us themselves. It is not like we are trying to be selfish, but for the most part we have to do things for ourselves first and foremost. I think this next quote explains it the best. L. R. Knost says “Taking care of myself doesn’t mean ‘me first’, it means ‘me too.'” It is like we are worried about others and taking care of them (I know that I worry about that myself), but at the end of the day we have to take care of ourselves too. I can make this post super long, but I will stop here. I hope that you all remember to take care of yourselves, including your mental health and enjoy the following visual poem that I wrote about this subject. Take care!!

“Survival” visual poem.

Shaken Faith

I am not a super religious person, but sometimes I feel like I am a spiritual person. I still have faith. Some might say faith is when you believe in God, but it could also be defined as something you do not question. There are some days when we question that faith or when our faith is completely shaken. I think this quote by Marya Hornbacher explains a little bit of what I am talking about. She says “I do have faith. I don’t have faith that a God exists, nor do I have faith that one does not; I have absolute faith that I do not know, cannot know, am only human, am an infinitesimal creature packed onto a cramped planet crowed with seven billion bodies, and as many yearning hearts, and as many questioning minds.” So in other words, it does not matter if we truly believe in God or not because that is besides the point.

Some might say faith cannot be shaken, which can be true too! It is like what Jacob Needleman says. “Faith cannot be shaken, it is the result of being shaken.” So in other words it us ourselves that are being shaken, not our faith, but I could be wrong for the meaning behind that quote. My point is that sometimes there is an experience that shakes our faith to the very core. I am going to make this post on the shorter side so I will conclude by saying that do not let that experience make your faith disappear completely because faith and hope is a very important thing to hold onto. I strongly encourage my readers to do the same and to believe in their faith, religious or not. I will conclude with one last quote (author unknown) that says, “Faith. It’s all about believing. You don’t know how it will happen. But you know it will.” So faith is all about believing and sometimes you do not know why. Hold strong my readers because at the end of the day there is hope! Here is a poem to restore your faith.

When My Faith Was Shaken

It was when I looked love in the eye, but
I could not put my heart in it one hundred
Percent anymore. Love can put me in a rut  
I could never get out of. It has plundered  

Me and left me empty like a house with no  
Foundation. I lost that faith when I walked    
Away from one person I wanted to grow    
Old with for eternity. I thought and talked    

About him as if he was still here with me  
Now. I lost that faith when I was going to  
Lose a friendship I built from scratch. He  
Could never see past the wall I would redo    

And repaint a different color every day.  
The faith I thought I felt within my bones  
And was becoming a part of me like a ray  
Of sunshine became heavy like the stones  

Or rocks we kept in our collection. Love  
Became the tea kettle on the back burner  
And my dreams of beginning a family of    
My own were nonexistent. I was a yearner  

For stability and growth, but I could not  
Do it anymore as seasons were changing  
Frequently. I could not keep up. The knot    
In my stomach and all the feelings ranging    

From happiness to sadness to everything    
In between were not going away anytime    
Soon. I really tried to push myself and fling  
Myself into whatever erased your grime  

And smell off of me. I lost my faith once I  
Pretended to be happy instead of being    
Lonely and insecure in my skin. I would fly  
Close to the sun as my faith was fleeing  

The scene like a criminal. It left me to find  
My way across the broken glass instead  
Of staying through the night as my mind  
Was always going elsewhere. In my head  

My thoughts stopped looking for love and  
Connections I could make with others  
Because the truth is although my hand  
Is open nothing else is. The blanket covers  

Are safer than walking down the street on  
Legs with broken faith and lots of mistrust  
In love. I would rather have people gone    
Rather than staying around to love or lust  

After the girl with the broken and troubled    
Heart. Doubts were shining or glistening.  
My faith should have grown and doubled  
In size, but my faith was only diminishing  

As the days lingered. Sometimes love was
Just enough to get through the roughest  
Of days, but my faith was shaken as flaws  
Were fully exposed and even the toughest  

Of smiles did nothing in a world with liars  
And everyone who also pretended to hide  
Behind their smiles. My faith, more like fire    
Than water was burned into ash and died.

Cult of Inspiration As An Artist

I know that I have talked a lot about my source of inspiration, especially as a writer and human being. I take pleasure in being a poet because there is inspiration all around me every day. I cannot name a specific thing that I find as my source of inspiration. It could be a situation I have been in or just being an observer of what goes on around me. I just love sharing my thoughts and feelings in every piece that I write. Yes, I do consider myself an artist because I create pictures. I think this quote explains it in the best way. “Art has the power to transform, to illuminate, inspire and motivate.” If I can do at least one of those things with my art then my job is complete. Poetry is not necessarily what we say, but a lot of the time it is how we say it. That is what the next quote by Mahmoud Darwish says. He says the following. “The importance of poetry is not measured, finally, by what the poet says but how he says it.” I can go on and on about inspiration, but I will leave my readers with the following. Being an artist, especially a poet is all about sharing memories, sharing feelings and most importantly sharing thoughts. I hope that everyone enjoys the following poem!! I am going to let this poem speak for itself.

Sharing Memories

The world awaits me, waiting for me to notice
The small ripples in the creek, the tallness of
A mountain or when a couple embraces love.
The world’s beauty is captured through a lotus

Flower that opens its petals for the first time in
Spring and blooms in summer. The steady click
Of a camera; the mental memory. Never be sick
Of the mundane things like raindrops or dry skin

While standing in the middle of a desert because
Being a poet means sharing those moments, big
And small like a heartbreak breaking me like twig,
My heart in half as I clean up the mess. The cause

For concern as I try to navigate through the rough
Terrains of the road ahead and the shadows that try
To entice me. I become observant of tears people cry
As they pretend to be okay and continue to be tough

For the rest of the world on standby. But no one sees
Me watching and observing from the hidden corner
Like a faithful bird watcher. A sorrowful mourner
Who lost love, but it remains in new grown trees,

Roots and flowers. A poet and writer with my pen
Who only wants to write the truth, even if it means
I bring sorrow to an empty table. The truth redeems
 Matters of the heart. Everything is released again.

Walking On The Moon – 50th Anniversary

We just recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of when we landed on the moon. I thought I would pay tribute to that anniversary. I feel like the moon can teach us a thing or two. I feel like the moon is a symbol of hope. So if we can fly to the moon and walk on the moon I feel like anything else in life is possible. That leads me to a quote I have come to love a lot. “Once upon a time, someone believed they could fly to the Moon and walk on it. Dreams do come true.” In other words we should believe in our dreams no matter what. I feel like the moon and stars are interconnected in some ways.

I feel like there would be no moon without stars and vice versa. They are the ones to appear when the sky becomes dark at night. We learn to follow the moon and the stars equally. We all look at the moon at some point in our lives and that says so much. Both the moon and stars teach us to count our blessings. There is always someone out there who is looking at the moon too. That leads me into this next quote. “If you’re ever feeling lonely just look at the moon. Someone, somewhere is looking at it too.” So in other words, you are never truly alone out there in the world because someone is also feeling lonely. There are so many other things to be said about the moon and quotes too, but I think I will just leave everything as it is. Enjoy the pieces down below.

Photo by luizclas from Pexels.
Photo by luizclas from Pexels.