"Beyond your breath your whisper is knowing, brave and courageous. You opened up your soul, authenticity and the truth. You showed your strength and beauty and you are no longer alone."
(Author- Stefan (group facilitator at The Gatehouse)
Author Statement
I felt self-empowered and happy that I could share my thoughts.
Exploitation is a smoking gun,
Stealing choices from our young.
It shoots at futures, leaving them dead.
Like bullets, grooming rattles through heads.
Exploitation is a blade thrusting deep,
Murdering families as grief steals sleep.
It uses tactics like pressure and threats,
Pushing gifts & drugs to create “work debts”.
Exploitation is a social media disease,
Using platforms to “recruit” with ease.
It fakes aspects of life to trick and coerce,
Making alternatives seem weak or worse.
Exploitation is lurking by shops and schools,
Dangling temptation to follow new “rules”.
It offers to help with what kids might want,
Sucking them in with status or front.
Exploitation is at first a friendly disguise,
As kids look in with innocent eyes.
It picks at any child’s perceived weakness,
Offering fake futures away from life’s “bleakness”.
Exploitation is a destroyer of homes,
Forcing kids “Out There” to “Carry” and roam.
It plugs inside children – just like drug wraps,
Abandoned to fend-off rival attacks.
Exploitation is bribery then assault,
Hurting and beating to get a “result”.
It brands and degrades to destroy any bravery,
Entrenching children in modern slavery.
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.
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.
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.
Beloved friend, fellow survivor,
I thought I heard you say,
“My innocence is forever lost.”
Look again, look deeply, I say.
Beyond existence and non-existence.
Beyond birth and beyond death,
Thus is your nature.
Look again, look deeply, I say.
Taking refuge in Great Compassion,
Transform pain into joy,
Awaken gladness in your heart.
Look again, look deeply, I say.
Close your eyes and look inward,
Into the depths of consciousness.
There you find a sweet child.
Say to her, “Darling, I am here for you.”
Open you heart to this child,
Allow great compassion to arise,
Offer the incense of tranquility.
Say to her, “Darling, I see your suffering.”
Say to her with tenderness,
“Sweet child, little me,
A cloud never dies.
Innocence is your nature.”
The insight is strong,
Be brave and be bold.
And thus the wisdom lotus blossoms,
In the thick, stagnant mud.
Darling, I am here for you.
Beloved, I see you.
Fellow survivor, nothing is lost.
We are blessed innocence.
Look out the wind-blown window
Through the evergreen tree gone bare
Sun unseen lights the grey sky
Of air so cold even time is slowed
Until a bitter, vengeful gust
Threatens to take down the tree
The snow-covered roof of the house -
All which is on the horizon;
Try to sink deeper under the covers
And feel secure in knowing this
Is the most peaceful moment of the day
Author Statement
“Teenager” was published Verse Afire, in May 2014, and appeared in The Friendly Voice, in April 2018.
I am who I am, and you are who you are.
Respect. Trust. Love.
Near and far.
Our time together is up to the stars.
It’s all up in the air but in one form or another, I am always here.
I’ll think what I think, and so will you.
I repeat this for me, and for you.
This is just a little reminder to always be true,
To your new and ever changing friend, the one that looks back at you…
We have to listen
We have to act
Protect our children
That's all we ask 🙏
MLG Survivor
RIP MK 🙏
