HUNGER

HUNGER

“You need to eat before you pass out.
Hello?
Missy?
Why aren’t you eating?
What's wrong with you?”

…hurt
hurt, hurt, HURT.

Why should I eat, when they starved me for over a decade?
Eat before I pass out you say?
But I've already passed out,

And NO!
It wasn't because I didn't eat,
That's what they kept voicing,
But it WASN'T because I didn’t eat!
It’s simply because I am not being me,

“Me?
What kind of foolishness are you talking about?”

I’m talking about expressing my need for hunger,
My need,
My desperation,
My hurt,
For hunger.

hunger, hunger, hunger,
For my dark soul,
Deep below,
Deep within,
All alone,

He’s all I ever thirst or hunger for,
For He fills me up with His wisdom and knowledge,
On how to be hungry for me,
Before I pass out in the hands of my roots once again.

He reminds me,
Only I can feed myself now,
Feed me with oneness in my mind, body, heart, and soul,

And for that, I am grateful to know,
To have the Lord be part of my dusty life,
The life He can take back,
In the split of a second,
Amen.

Author Statement
When creating this work, I was honestly experiencing emotional turmoil. Many emotions, feelings, sensations, and thoughts just kept on spiralling. I was so broken at this point to have recognized how much I was starved, and bullied at the dinner table alone. It’s still so faded, yet feels like it was only yesterday this was happening. It was so difficult to go through and is still TOO hard to look back on. I break so hard and don’t want to look back. I have been working towards overcoming these immense negative/hurtful feelings, and try to remind myself that I deserve to eat. I deserve to walk in my own shoes, and make my own decisions. It hasn't been easy at all, but having this awareness and acknowledgement that it didn't stem from me helps tremendously. Also, to know that my past does not dictate who I am. I dictate who I am. TBH, I still FEEL like it's my fault but I KNOW it's not my fault. God bless.

Healing

HEALING
The hero’s journey
Exhausted
Recovering from the
Broken Pieces

Stretched
Thin

Tears of liberation
Healing
is
the path
Towards
the free self

Riding moon beams
Waves crashing
I exhale

The underworld
Pain of change
Loss

I am
Reborn

Collective Poem Process on Healing
Arthur Lockhart
Founder Emeritus
The Gatehouse

Author Statement

This poem was the outcome of a group poetry writing session where everyone attached a word or phrase to the word HEALING. I combined the words into a poem on healing. It was a truly joyful process collaborating with others, and each person was able to create their own unique poem through this creative process of collaboration and sharing.
There will be another such session in October through the Gatehouse. Please visit the Gatehouse website: www.thegatehouse.org to see the date when the session will be taking place.

Hiding

Where did I lose myself?
Talking. Thinking. Trying.
Hiding.
Remembering. Realizing. Struggling.
Hurting.
When did I lose myself?
Burying. Protecting. Finding.
Hating.
How I lost myself…
Avoiding.
Here I am.

Author Statement

For many years, I thought I was ‘stuck’. I spent hours asking different therapists why I couldn’t get ‘unstuck’. After group therapy and reading (books seem to find me!), I realized I am not stuck. I am hiding. I need to heal before it feels safe for me to fully live in a healthy way. So, every day I take a step toward healing and not hiding. I wish that for all of us.

Family Reunion

I got the invite.
I want to SCREAM.

Author Statement

When you are not (yet?) ready to reveal secrets to your whole family….you can write a poem. And wonder what would happen if they knew.

a time.

Once upon
me
was You.

Author Statement

This short poem says so much for me. Words are so powerful and there was power in me arranging them this way. Next step for me is to handwrite this poem.

SARALIVES…ON

SARALIVES…ON
**Trigger Warning**

Never seeing a way out,
Corrupted by the greatest enemy of all;
…the inner me,

"You piece of garbage,
Who do you think you are?
Why would anyone care for your existence?
You low life, you're a failure,

You want to know why people laugh at you?
It's because you're a disgusting piece of garbage,
When you talk, they laugh.
When you cry, they laugh.
When you breathe, they laugh.
If you just open your mouth, they bawl out with laughter.

Just end yourself already,
Go grab the razor blade,
Go grab the bottle of pills,
Go grab the garbage bag,
Go grab the bleach,
Go get that string from your robe,
I wish you were dead already,

No one will hear you except me,
I promise you are safe,
Safe with me,
Remember this, no one cares about you,
So, there really is no point to living,
Kill yourself. End it. Stop it."

STOP! STOP! STOP!
WHY WON'T IT STOP?
I CANNOT GET IT TO STOP!
help me, my mind has taken over, and i cannot control it any longer,
am i really the creator of these thoughts? it cannot be so…

"But it is so, stop trying to blame another soul, you pile of dust"

I JUST WANT PEACE! PEACE! PEACE!

"Yeah? Peace? Who do you think you are?
You won't ever get peace. You deserve to suffer you piece of garbage."

God? Lord? Source? Universe? Are you out there?
Oh…Please be there Lord, stay with me,
I don't think I will ever have eternal peace.
(with a sigh) "Yeah, I'll never have eternal peace..."

I am going to suffer forever,
My soul will suffer forever,
Please Lord, I did NOTHING wrong,
I was just a little kid,
A small, young, innocent little kid,

Who was supposed to receive LOVE, instead receiving a great deal of FEAR,
Though her true essence has always been of LOVE,

She loved those close to her, but they turned against her,
She loved Life, but Life remained a closed door,
She loved her grandma so dearly, but grandma was never known,
She loved her dad, but dad was never there,

That’s when it all started…
The destruction of MY mind, body, heart, and soul,
She doesn’t understand why or how, but that it started,

For the past decade or more,
It's been ME and A GREAT DEAL OF DENIAL...
DENIAL...DENIAL...DENIAL...
And after 21 years of being alive, I have finally been set free by the Truth,
By the Grace of God, My Lord, My Savior,

Let me share with you,
Share that the inner me, that wounded inner child,
Has now become my ally whom I will protect forever,
Because WE know it came from the others, not the self,
Thank You Lord, The Truth is setting me free.
SARA LIVES ON...

Author Statement
I never expected to live on. I thought I would be dead. Never knowing that my upbringing was fucking toxic and abusive. That no one ever cared, and genuinely hated me for being...I still don't know at this point. Then having been diagnosed with mental illnesses just allowed me to believe even more that I was the fuck up. That it was all me. That all those negative thoughts came from me. I was the creator of it. Of those self destructing, evil thoughts. That I now KNOW AND UNDERSTAND STEM FROM THE ABUSERS who are SADLY the very individuals that brought, and 'raised' me into this world. 'FAMILY.'

One Soul

One soul is living
One soul is survivng
We smile together
One of us is crying

They hold our hand
One of us follows
They broke the trust
One of us feels hallow

We trust the lies
One of us hides the truth
We stand together
One stands alone, zero proof

We seek justice
They see a fight
We see them
They seek our light

One soul is living
One soul is surviving
We smile together
One of us is crying

Author Statement

After joining a council of survivors, I took a few moments to represent what it would feel within poetry to express in a way.. what living and surviving may sound like, may read like and may feel like. There is a very definitive difference between living and surviving.

A Single Word

A single Word

Dub poetry
Spoken word
Beat poetry
Slam poetry

Transformative poetry

Poetry pure poetry
Open heart

dissolves the chains
that once were viewed as unbreakable
invites me to see
that it is me
that is unbreakable

poetry has the power
to overturn those imposed sentences
pain, torment, shame,
and
all the other shadows that linger
outside our form

to be heard
to be scene
we are the ones
uncovering shrouds

how do I have to be
in order
for you to be free

when words
become poems

doors open
pathways surface
connections
create a choir
heard round the world

So here we are
Together

Weaving quilts
made of words
So strong that they float

Gentle
Through past
Lighting this very moment

Shining on…
Our future

Author Statement

This poem comes from reading the poems that are finding their way to this site. And, in reading the poems, I find connections with people I have never met, and in those connections lives strength, spirit, the awareness that together we are on a journey of authentic social transformation. What a gift we are all creating together.
With profound gratitude.
Arthur Lockhart
Toronto, Canada

Gall

You took my hand
Led me to your imprisoned bed
Me, giving up my safety, laden
In heaviness, I present my oneness
Which was hidden, guarded
You stroke my face, that ugliness, uncaring piece
A spoonful of unique crimson
My eyes shrouded by silk
The painful release of waters, built up
The key under your tongue, spit
I am cuffed, numb
My legs opened
Your lids flutter, a release
The metal cuts me, inside sickened
I feel weight, disconnected
No kiss, disrespecting body
My breathing, expanse
Cotton in my mouth
A broken wheel in awe
The mothered unwanted son held on
To a crippled sky

Author Statement

I was sexually tortured by my boyfriend and this is my coming to terms with my Pain. I have done a lot of work in therapy but writing poetry is a way to get it out of me and put it away, to never look at it again. It’s a place to render the cutting, the trauma, the formation of a new me, free from one who took from me, where I find my soul again.

The Gatehouse