Poetry

R U OK?

Are you ok?

Well may you ask – sometimes it just depends on the task

Or maybe the task has nothing to do, it may be the day is just a bit blue

Perhaps “just a bit” is a big understatement…life may paint blue as I walk on the pavement

I may be thinking I’m nothing of worth –  if the sun hasn’t shined, my thoughts just may not ‘work’

My burden, I may think, is just mine to bear…but those kindred of spirit can help burdens to bear

Some days I might not know the value of ‘we’ – if you welcome me in, we may help me be free

Ubuntu, I’m told, is the story of me…and the story of you…and the we, we can be

Are you ok?

Why not just ask?

We may find we’re friends, who help each walk through life’s task

Gina Schmidt          R U OK? Day           September 2017

A Heart Pierced

Assumed I, you would not see me

This, for us, not the pain to be

But stabbing, piercing agony

At tries to sever the heart and soul of thee

 

Eating, sleeping, snuggling you

A people’s person; loyal, true

Though you will seek to please, retain

They will puncture you, to stay the same

 

Affection will your offer be

To those who will not ever see

Your insight and your contribution

Dismissed, unseen, is your confusion

 

Loving, you will love complete

But many will not save a seat

A pierce-ed heart with bloody stain

Like mine, you will sometime sustain

 

4/12/2016

A Heart Squeezed

Revisit a potential loss

To manage, will expect of course

With loss confirmed, it’s no surprise

This time ready, more the wise

 

Feeding fast, though sleep eludes

Enthusiasm, but holding wounds

No praising, hugging, teaching for

This one, will even any score

 

Assured of self, from day of birth

At home assured of all her worth

But other’s insecurities – and need for all conformity

Will squeeze, compress my heart with ease

 

To know your value and your worth

While others doubt, you yourself birth

Your own heart knows compression’s squeeze

As stifled, thwarted you’ll not be pleased

 

4/12/2016

A Heart Pricked

My heart was pricked; a short, sharp sting

My first-born, as I looked at him

Would not, in turn, behold my face

My gaze of love, he would not trace

 

It’s true, there was a heartfelt ache

This path of life I would now take

The ache did not, though, linger long

But late in time, return in song

 

The latter song of long lament

Came with fever, a nightmare sent

And seizures; vacant, empty gaze

Salivate, then sleep for days

 

Lamenting long, and spent of days

To fight for teaching, what a maze!

Some would try to empathise

But weary soon of compromise

 

And now the sting, it lingers on

As time now brings you, your fight song

A world not used to other wise

Lamenting sting now your sweet prize

 

4/12/2016

You

What’s in your heart?

Are you afraid to see?

Will it be what they’ve told you?

What you think it will be?

 

What is more frightening,

The truth or the lies?

In truth, is there freedom?

In falsehood, bondage and ties?

 

Around your heart’s surface,

Have you set up a shield?

Detachment, a pretence

For what your inner-heart feels?

 

Your outer-wall surface,

Your shield around self,

Is not intrinsically you,

But sheathing observed on a shelf

 

The inner-most substance

Of your design before time

By internalized truth and love

Is being strengthened, refined

 

21/10/2016

This Journey

If I could draw a picture of

This journey travelled on my own,

What story would it tell you,

Which colours would have shown?

 

The beginning would be darkness

New realities unseen

Goals obscured and jaded

Mist and fog my only scene

 

But with you, my eyes are opened

You each shine light on paths ahead

Darkness fading in the wake

Of information shared

 

I see movement, light and colour

A future hope for me and mine

You each brought hue and shade and pigment

If left alone, no sun would shine

 

Thank you all for being part

Of this journey of my life

And for the pieces of your own path

That brought promise into mine.

 

 

15/1/2015

For SPEVI

 

SPEVI 2015 Time Out

Process, progress, organise

Sift and strain and scrutinize

Think, reflect and ruminate

Pre-occupy and inundate

 

Withdraw, compose, concentrate

Stillness, quiet, separate

Settle, soothe, lull and quell

Listen, hear, perceive as well

 

Befit, apply, appropriate

Attend and differentiate

Select, determine, designate

Prefer, elect and allocate

 

Undertake!

 

SPEVI

14/1/2015

Tidal

Rise and fall

Light and dark

Ebb and flow subsiding

Ripple, rumble

Dip and swell

Constant wax and waning

 

Ever moving

In and Out

Contained within a border

Unnatural force

Imposed upon

Disrupting created order

 

Tempests pass

Reducing swell

Repelling inundation

Return to scene

At one-time viewed

Revising demarcation

 

19/11/2014

The World Just Changed

A changing world,

of yours or mine,

to me it’s all the same

 

Renewed, restored or altered,

dismantled or reset

Normality will never be

as before, by change beset

 

By some memories

I am tainted

By some

I’m coloured in

The outline of my changing path

Contains it all, within

28/10/2014

The Thorns of Freedom

The thorns

Of grief and woe

Of trial and misery

Of shame and doubt

Of darkness, hopelessness, helplessness

 

The pain

Of laceration

Of piercing

Of lancing

Of pressure, puncture, sunder

 

The relief

Of baggage

Of irritation

Of criticism

Of angst, distress, mistrust

 

The freedom

Of peace

Of hope

Of faith

Of the scarred, healed, restored

 

26/10/2014