My daughter and I have dinner and she talks about the indignity of being subjected to men’s comments flung at her as she walks down the street.

And this poem arose.

I am rising

©2016 Louise Gallagher

I am rising
rising up
from the ashes
a Phoenix
renewed
casting out
heartache
and heartbreak
and heart wrenching
lessons
of life
tossed
overboard
into the boiling seas
where I could not feel
the heat
of my heart
pounding
flowing endlessly
with creation
rising
rising up
into woman
shaking
shaking off
time’s grim hold
holding
holding me down
so I could not
rise
rise up
to hear
my voice
rising
rising up
from the ashes.

I am rising.

the runaway

©2015 Louise Gallagher

I reach for time
effortlessly running
away
from yesterday
slipping
between my fingers
hoping
to hold on
to more
than just memories
of time
running away.

We are born forever

©2015 Louise Gallagher

We are born
forever
designed without committee
without collaborative hands
staking out the ground
where one of us will stand
forever
while others fall
by the wayside.

There is no wayside.

We are in this
together
all for one
one for all
forever.

We are created
forever
by the Divine
whose voice
is our voice
whose hands
are our hands
whose being
is our being.

There is no other.

We are born
magnificent
no ifs ands or buts
can ever take away
the sum of our parts
that do not add up
to our magnificence
it is all
there is
no other part to us
no shadow
of doubt
clouding up the skies
of our forever
magnificence
dimmed.

There is no dimming of our magnificence.

We are forever
in this moment
where we forget
the beauty of our essence
shimmering
in the light of this moment
awakening
to the truth
we do not need to search
for the path
to enlightenment
we are the path
our own way
our own light.

There is no other way.

There is only us
each and every one
created to last forever
no matter how this journey
runs
out
into the sands
of time
filling in
the footprints we left
in the seas of change
washing away
our memory
of our magnificence
born
forever.

There is only our forever.