Author: VJ

Permission to write, paint, and imagine are the gifts I gave myself when chronic illness hit - a fair exchange: being for doing. Relevance is an attitude. Humour essential.

Slave

You may believe, Dear Reader,
that the words are mine to command
that I carefully contrive the message
form and structure succumbing
to my direction, syntax following suit

It has not been my intention to deceive
but, you see, I am mere slave to the whim
words hold the power, strangle my thoughts,
demand expression – they are haunting things,
rooted in urgency, and unwilling to bend

I would love to accept praise, pretend
a wisdom that is not mine, but words…
…well, they are born of some alien seed
growing within, nurtured I know not how,
and I am merely the vessel through which
their staccato voyage unravels

Stubborn as they are, silly things, really –
although I dare not say, for they can be vengeful
and vile, and I prefer the fluid passage
of expression than the painful, tearing,
slashing of words – monstrous as they can be
I  am rendered servant by their insistence

(Image my own)

Mirage

Do not apologize –
the fault lies not with you

Love, while lauded for its cures,
is not always compensation

for a life of turmoil –
I know you loved her

Watched as you let your dreams slide
heart wringing with your own sorrow

There was just something about her
men lined up to grasp… to make her

What? Theirs? Happy?
It was not to be

She barely possessed herself..
Even in death, I reach for her

try to define the ruse,
but her essence is elusive

No, you are not at fault…
for she was never really there.

(Mirage first appeared April, 2021. Image mine)

The River, My Heart

A landmark in my life, the river follows
ages, and eras: seasons measured by her flow

She acknowledges changes, bears the winter
regally, swells with confidence as Spring rains

Will walk beside me in sunnier times, and
hold my secrets as Autumn catches us in her flames

She holds my heart, my faith, always knows
and at the end of the day, oh how she glows.

(Originally posted on One Woman’s Quest II, March 2019. Image my own)

Rebirthing

It came in the peak of summer
that most optimistic time, when
sunshine equates with health
and bodies glow with exertion
fit and in their prime – it came

with all the fury of a winter blast
harsh and cold and unyielding –
wrestling me from my complacency
annihilating vibrancy, self-definition
de-leafed, rendering me raw, exposed.

I clung to the darkness, blanketed
against the harshness of light,
the impossibility of sound, or scent –
was de-shelled, ungrounded, ravaged
by volatile nerves and misfiring impulses

praying for the certainty of death…
but it is spring that follows winter
and in time, restlessness set in –
the dogged whine of hope willing
my mind to stretch, my body to try

spirit, tired of withdrawal, pushed
against the wall of dysfunction,
bolstered by a shifting acceptance
found roots in an unspoken faith
and I felt possibility, like a tiny sprout

reaching for the sunshine,
ventured out of my cocoon –
still alive! Redefining purpose –
still precarious, highly vulnerable
but optimistic for the return of summer.

(Rebirthing first appeared on One Woman’s Quest II March, 2018. Image my own)

Cheer For Spring

Cheer growth –
beneath a heavy cloud cover
Canada goose passes
overhead, while I
wander

Wander –
behind a veil of rainy grey
lens poised to capture life –
swallows swoop and
rise up

Rise up –
over rushing waters, branch high,
blackbirds huddle, demand
my attention –
focus

Focus –
reveals newness: buds breaking through,
colours promising that
chilly winds disperse,
cheer growth

Cheer growth –
behind a veil of rainy grey
blackbirds huddle, demand
chilly winds disperse –
cheer growth.

(Cheer for Spring first appeared here April 2019, and is a Garland cinquain. Image my own)