Following Greatness
Strolling with Frost
on the road less travelled
Reassuring Poe
his nightmares will
plague him nevermore
I fell into Whitman's
leaves of grass
and picked myself up
to continue the trod
through Longfellow's
footprints on the sands of time
Johnson and I
hear the echoes of
the change of seasons
My only unwanted companion
being the shadows in my mind
reminding me of just
how black the darkness was
which I survived
Each time when I thought
it was the end
when I fell into nothingness
as a way to save myself from
all the pain which I
remained trapped in
Poet voices would whisper to me
“You've got this!
You are one of us!”
and so, I jumped up
dusted myself off
and continued my unpredictable journey
through the unknown
ahead of me
on Frost's road
and thank God every day
that this was the path I chose
leading me ever closer
as I am following greatness
*This poem incorporates snippets of poems
from: Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”; Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”; Walt
Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “A Psalm of Time” and
Michael Lee Johnson’s “Sundown, Fall”.
One tiny grain of sand
For every tear I’ve shed
Every punch that landed
All the times my heart broke
Each time I was brought to a lower low
The grains continued to fall
Somehow it feels like time slows to a
crawl in misery
And pours out faster in the light of joy
I know I’ll never stop the sand
There’s no chance to flip the hourglass of
life
When the sand runs out
And we finally leave this world
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust
My hourglass will shatter
Releasing my spirit
Paroled from my mortal sentence
Ready to begin life everlasting
Free of the constraints of time
Only peace is possible in this place
Outside the hourglass
I need a snack / Munchies for TV time / I
go in the kitchen / and pull out a skillet / so I can sauté / some chicken /
for a salad. I put olive oil / in the skillet. / The new bottle / pours out
fast / and when I pull back / I spill some on the floor. / “I’ll clean it up
later” / I say to myself. / I grab the chicken / from the fridge. / When I open
the package / juices and meat blood / spurt onto the counter. / “Where’s a
wipe? / I need to clean this!” / I get the bleach wipes / and wipe the counter
down. / I go to put them away / and accidentally / knock them over / Bleach
goes onto the chicken. / I pale and realize / now there will / only be salad. /
I grasp the head of lettuce / and put it on the counter / then get a couple of
tomatoes. / I wash a tomato / and take it over / to the cutting board. / It’s
slippery and / I lose my grip! / I try to grab / for it / and slip in the oil /
on the floor. / I go to stabilize / my balance / and end up smashing / the poor
tomato / with a squish. / I wince, seeds are / between my toes. / I reach for
the lettuce / so I can chop it up / with the last tomato / and have this /
basic salad. My hands, still wet / from washing the tomato / slide on the
surface / and launch the lettuce / into the corner of / the kitchen. / The
corner / which has all manner / of crumbs and dropped things. / I watch it… /
you guessed it… / hit the floor / and roll / through the oil / then stop in the
/ joint of the corner cabinets. / I shake my head / and exhale, / knowing that
this / simple task / was beyond my ability / to execute. / I pick up the
lettuce / and see Oreo cookie crumbs / a dried piece of / shredded cheese / and
many different / colours of cat fur. / I shake my head again / as I look over /
the kitchen floor, / which lost the / Battle of the Salad, / as did I. / People
don’t believe that / diets are hard / but the struggle / is real! / I shrug at
the mess. / “I’ll clean this up later. / Guess I’ll have to / order pizza. /
What a shame!
Standing here now
The woman before you
is nothing like the ‘me’ of then
I cannot see how
I survived all I went through
I knew I’d escape, just didn’t know when
I wish somehow, I could go back in time
and talk to my former self
to chisel wisdom into concrete ears
I wouldn’t try to change my life
or try to amass wealth
but just try to leave some comfort to pass
the years
I still want the life I have now
It’s all I could have wished for
and I’m thankful it’s mine everyday
But there’s a part of me that doesn’t like
how
behind every closed window and locked door
stood an obstacle in my way
Obstacles make us grow and change
That’s not the part I don’t see
or why I’d reach out to the me that’s malleable
I must ask; I find it so strange
as I look over that past ‘me’
Did you know that you’re valuable?
Of course, you don’t
That is why you gave up
and threw your hopes away
You say you’ll try harder, but you won’t
All you say is “how high” when someone
says “jump!”
You wish for no tomorrow because of the
pain felt today
What would I say to her?
That ‘me’ of 1995 with strong will?
I would gently take her hand
and say, “I know things are horrible, sure
and they’ll get even worse, still
but you need to hold fast to your faith
Remember life is a miracle returned to you
This is a blessed second chance
Your decisions will shape the path we
walk”
She will know it’s true
She will walk away without a second glance
and think, “thanks for the talk”
But the words…they’ll take a while to sink
in
A seed planted which needs time to grow
into the hedge maze we now traverse
Each time we get lost within
she will come to know
when dealing with time, there is no
reverse
The maze is changing behind us
giving us only options forward
Pushing us towards the present
Each time we make a fuss
or try to make the struggles beyond hard
the memory of our talk will be heaven-sent
That wall behind us, made of leaves
pushing against our back
guiding us to the now
cares not for sobs and heaves
cuts no slack
Only knows you must move forward but cares
not how
Step after step, year after year
Heartbreak, time and again
Scars that heal, but never stop bleeding
Determination replaces fear
even at times when
she cries she is not getting what she’s
needing
Do I think she will remember the words?
Will she keep moving on our path
or will she go a different way?
She’ll be drawn to what she yearns
But how can you be sure? Picking leaves
off my back…
…because I’m here, now; with you today
Go with the flow, they say
try to let go
Sometimes the pull
is rushing me forward
Cold rollercoaster hands
throw me this way and that
Fear grips until
the inevitable moment
when I am becalmed
Floating as driftwood
without a care in the world
Please stay forever!
Let me just meander aimlessly
in slow peace
Not meant to be
Not for me
Smashing against the rocks
A rude wake-up call
I feign surprise
but suspected all along
I am tossed once more
never knowing when
peace will return
I can’t fight it
We’re all in it
A part of it
The river of life
Desiree
Batiste is the author of the book, "The Shaping of a Diamond", an
inspirational 27-year journey of survival and perseverance told through
poems.She was born in 1979 in Mesa, Arizona. She currently lives in Buckeye,
Arizona with her husband Michael, daughter Kaylee and their four cats: Sketch,
Pixel, Trace and Slim Shady.
Desiree
uses poetry and writing as a cathartic way of healing from her past
experiences. She has more books in the works: a second poetry anthology, a
psychological thriller fiction novel and her autobiography.
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