Acceptance Poems
Thank you for being here
by Tim Hager
You need to be broken, cracked open, to discover deeper layers to your being. The good news is that you can never completely break, for what you truly are cannot die. So as you break, all that dies are protective layers, illusions, and walls you have inherited from your surroundings and sustained because you didn’t know any better.
So let yourself break, and let the pain that arises be the fire that burns away all your doubts. Step back and allow these intense and scary emotions to run through your veins. These feelings are not your enemies, and deep down, you know this. They are but contracted love - your own repressed, malnourished, scared inner child crying out to be heard. As you become their embrace, they will unfold and bloom into powerful allies, like trees of such might and beauty that sustain your destiny’s unfolding.
Don’t be scared of your pain, and if you are, don’t add to it with more disdain. Acceptance is ever-present, and even your perfect inability to accept how you feel is already accepted, or else it wouldn’t be happening. Now you are free, not because you’re in control of yourself, but because you’ve let go of your anxious grasp on life. You’ve rediscovered your very own childlike freedom that is so deeply rooted in unknowing, in letting go and embracing what life sets before you. You never needed to become anyone, never needed to earn acceptance. Life has already said “yes” to you, for it has been unconditionally nourishing you until this very point. You are nature’s gift to itself, you breathe its air and eat its fruits, you stand in awe at its beauty and unknowingly carry out your divine duty, just by being you - a role no one else could fill.
Allow yourself to break now, to become a total mess. Drop your theatrical composure, with which you might have fooled other personas, but never could find any meaningful closure. Let the fear of being nobody fill your heart and brutally tear it apart, for every layer that falls away is a courageous step into the light of a new day.
And if you ever wonder what this pain is all about, it is not merely a source of frustration, but the very source of your being, the infinite power of creation. It is truly God’s fertile breath, the source of all life and the antidote to death. Scary it may be, but full of life for eternity. The dark, empty bottom of your being is where paradise reveals. Beyond space and time, beyond all definitions and names, the only thing that remains is the naked sense of “I”, the place where you and God stand eye to eye - one more step, now you’ve melted in his might.
......
104. Saturnine's Valedictory
by Kea Campbell
There's an addictive solace that whispers from between the cracks in this trench.
The floor stopped caving beneath me, and since then, I've been wandering the stretch.
The walls hug me cold and comfortable, or maybe they're simply my oldest, loyal friends.
I have lived, learned, and loved, and I have left, lost, and lamented.
I have contemplated the aches of history woven into each contracture's blemish.
I have mastered all the steps and I have memorized this condemning demised premise.
Enemies have worn friendly faces, played dress-up, and spoken with invalidity.
Friends have lifted me up and I've been sitting on the product of their solidity.
......
Inner Universe
by Doreen Lundie
A thousand whispers
Echo in my mind
The what ifs and the maybes
That have kept me here, confined.
An inner universe forgotten.
An undiscovered life
To find the courage of acceptance
To heal the child inside
Letting go of my dark past
by Nad Sof
Letting go of the past is excruciating,
the pain that once ravaged me.
Why is it so hard?
Because, within that anguish,
I found a fleeting comfort,
though it was but a façade—
hollow declarations of love
from those who never truly cared.
I yearned for someone to hold me,
to whisper, “I love you,”
......
Fracture
by Liam Erb
I broke my mirror
Grains of glass lay on the ground
The shards poke my feet and stick in my hands
It’s definitely been more than seven years of bad luck
Putting shards back in the frame just is not the same
The holes in my reflection are annoying
Sometimes, I wonder why I’m trying so hard to fix my mirror
Glue at least gets the shimmering pieces back up
......
104. Saturnine's Valedictory
by Kea Campbell
There's an addictive solace that whispers from between the cracks in this trench.
The floor stopped caving beneath me, and since then, I've been wandering the stretch.
The walls hug me cold and comfortable, or maybe they're simply my oldest, loyal friends.
I have lived, learned, and loved, and I have left, lost, and lamented.
I have contemplated the aches of history woven into each contracture's blemish.
I have mastered all the steps and I have memorized this condemning demised premise.
Enemies have worn friendly faces, played dress-up, and spoken with invalidity.
Friends have lifted me up and I've been sitting on the product of their solidity.
......
Blues and Greens
by C Duggan
The sun falls,
And night begins,
Blue irises enthrall,
The eyes of my kin.
I never shared that ocean,
I was always miles behind,
always reachin',
never could unwind.
My eyes of grass,
On a summer's day,
......
"A thread that stitches shadows."
by Dylan Wu Rong
Through the thick mist,
I look down upon the grassy lands,
It is remorseful when I see-
the broken silver needle, on the stone slab.
Who left it behind, or did someone present it?
was it a gift or a memoir for the soul around it?
But maybe it was neither,
maybe- it was the stone that crafted it,
as a closer look sights me the rough cuts,
the many failed thin rods, stacked to the side.
......
A Desert Bloom
by Muhamad Parid
In arid lands, a rose so rare,
You bloomed, a wonder beyond compare.
Your beauty shines, a priceless treasure bright,
A jewel that illuminates my darkest night.
To love you's a fight I'm doomed to lose,
A hopeless quest, my heart forever bruised.
Your heart's a guiding light, shining afar,
In someone else's garden, where love's a shining star.
......
Letting go of my dark past
by Nad Sof
Letting go of the past is excruciating,
the pain that once ravaged me.
Why is it so hard?
Because, within that anguish,
I found a fleeting comfort,
though it was but a façade—
hollow declarations of love
from those who never truly cared.
I yearned for someone to hold me,
to whisper, “I love you,”
......
