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The shadow self, the parts I disavow,
The aspects of myself I can't allow
To surface in the light, the hidden traits,
That fester in the darkness, sealed by gates.
The anger, envy, jealousy, and greed,
The insecurities that plant a poisonous seed,
The fear of abandonment, the need to cling,
The wounds that never truly learn to sing.
I cannot run, I cannot hide away
From this reflection staring back today,
I must embrace the darkness, understand
The reasons why it holds me in its hand.
To integrate the shadow, piece by piece,
To find compassion, grant myself release,
From the self-condemnation, the endless blame,
And recognize the human in the frame.
To understand the origins of my pain,
The childhood traumas that still leave their stain,
The patterns learned, the coping mechanisms used,
The wounds inflicted, the defenses infused.
To see the child within, afraid and small,
Desperate for love, and fearing any fall,
To offer comfort, understanding, grace,
And heal the broken places, time and space.
This journey inward, difficult and long,
Demands vulnerability, a strength that's strong,
To face the ugliness, the raw, unfiltered truth,
And find the beauty hidden in my youth.
For in the shadow, strength can be found,
Resilience forged on consecrated ground,
A deeper understanding of the soul,
A path to wholeness, making me whole.
By integrating the shadow, I can see
The darkness not as enemy, but me,
A part of myself, deserving of embrace,
A source of wisdom, finding its own place.
This period in life so long over due..

Sitting in the discomfort until I’m black and blue
Hriday Shah Sep 17
Thank you for everything,
Even though I didn’t receive anything,
I loved the time we spent
For what it was meant.

Even though your distance hurts me
I will be the first one to say
You taught me how to find the way
When my heart was mercilessly slayed

I forgive you; I still love you,
But, for what is worth,
You were my new birth,
A birth to new life,
One where I became invincible for life.

Your heartbreak made me strong,
Made me realize where I went wrong,
Now I know what do,
When someone leaves me like you.

Thank you for what time we spent
The sleepless wide awake
I know you thought about me once
But I remember you with every pulse
Your sweat memories,
Are stored like documentaries;
Your joyful laughter,
Is what I am still after.

However, distanced we are,
Just remember I am not far,
If u need a friend in the middle of the night,
Call me and I will be as ready as a knight.

I know we can’t amend the past,
I know you treat me like I am your past,
You don’t even see me anymore,
Then what do the late-night talks for?

Girl all you gave me was hatred,
But this was my heart’s prize,
Or I shall say price,
For loving you for the years I waited.

But in the end I thank you,
For everything you lead me too,
I am out of your sorrow,
And waiting for a stronger tomorrow.
Urvashi Sep 9
Why forgive,
yet never forgiven?
Guilty—but my mistakes
Burn like oranges in my scent,


No reversal fate to heal
In yin and yang entangled ,
Only  closing eye
and stillness—
all sea turned dry
evangeline Aug 28
The white quarter socks with pink flowers in the bottom corner of my dresser (grey now)
The brown rope hammock at the Botanical Gardens
College dorms
April
Blue light glasses
UPS Trucks (and whatever they’re carrying)
Dark flannels
Pink and navy and gold (and cinderblock walls)
Magic mushrooms
The bridge halfway down at Max Patch (the beginning of the end)
Electric bills (in summer time heat)
Harry Potter
Halloween
Scoreboards (and their keepers)
Psychics in Manhattan  
Cheap water bottles
Linguists
Architects
Couch ***
Vans (the sneakers)
Personality tests
Long, natural nails
Duffle bags
Biscuits at sunrise

Living Sadness in a world that doesn’t stop moving,
Just because you’re sad

Forgiveness on the tip of the tongue

The strange intimacy of unspoken truths
Of sacred silence
Of quiet, forbidden longing  

The mad unfurling of a blueish love-
A love somewhere between earth and sky
Friend and Foe
Flame and ash and all that burns

Folding a corner
Turning a page
Finishing a book
Keeping it on the shelf
Forever,  
Even if just for the memory

These are the things,
The things that make me think of you.
Naebaegreen Aug 17
When it comes to you,
I don’t know how to feel—
‘cause you’re my father,
and I love you,
but ****, you put me through hell.

I know they say
you’re supposed to heal
my first heartbreak,
but ****, you broke my heart yourself.

You hurt me,
then he hurt me,
so I had to fix me by myself.

I know you try—
and you’re trying really hard—
but that won’t fix
all the lonely nights,
crying in the dark,
all the unspoken words
from arguments that went too far.

Sometimes all I can think about
is those nights in the dark
and how you were my dad,
but yet you still broke my heart.

And for that, I thank you
for showing me all the things
as a parent that I never want to do.

And as I write this,
my heart bleeds for you
‘cause I don’t know
what path I wanna take with you.

And there’s no ending,
because our story really isn’t through—
but I hope that if you hear this,
you know, I love you.
sometimes the deepest heartbreak comes from the one who was supposed to protect you
Jon Sawyer Aug 17
The foundation of Forgiveness,
    is Love.

Without Love,
    Forgiveness cannot manifest.

Forgiveness releases another traveler's burden.
2025-08-17
Nat Lipstadt Aug 12
4:21am
Tue
Aug 12

<*>

restless is the thinking brain,
rapid repeated beating
from an overheating sun
in a room of full-on dark,

difficult to weep,
harder to silent breathe,
one listens to his arrhythmic heart,
sending out messages incessantly & incomplete

every single sin ever committed
comes in with cheery face,
a greeting of, still here!
in this ,
our temporary final resting place

finish us off by completion,
makes us full of restitution,
by seeing to our undoing,
revolving, unending, the finally of sufficiently

those old curses
we can only face
by turning our faces away,
drop in, like best friends, come to sunrise visit

though dawn is yet eons of minutes far away,
though relief can never be fully attained,
though "though' is the first ****** word of excusal,
though betrayal is always next, the secondarily, refusal,

there is never a dot of period,
only a comma of pause, because,
there is no ending in completion
only in forgiving by your harshest critic,

yourself, yourself, our selving,
this unsolvable function of forgiveness upon this,
this, the two-days of Tuesday,
to day
two partings of one day ~ the night and the day

f:
In various contexts, "f" can represent several different things. Most commonly, it refers to the letter in the English alphabet, representing the voiceless labiodental fricative sound /f/. In mathematics, "f" often denotes a function, especially when used as f(x), which represents the output of a function for a given input x. Additionally, "f" can stand for force in physics or frequency in other scientific fields. It can also be a written abbreviation for various words starting with "f". Furthermore, in musical notation, "f" (or "forte") indicates a loud dynamic.
girlinflames Aug 18
You still want me.
I still want you—
I think.

I’m listening to the voices inside me,
Caught between longing
And hope.

You’re not a bad person.
I’m not a bad person.
We can be good
Together.

Again
girlinflames Sep 2
Forgiveness—
that’s what we need.

To erase the past
and rewrite our story.

When I picture myself at fifty,
looking back,
I’d be happy to see the story
of a young woman
who was once erased
in her marriage—
but in the end,
they grew
and were happy.

I’d be glad to see
a garden
that once had no hope
yet somehow
we made it bloom.

Not just me—
us.
girlinflames Aug 31
From: Me
To: My Inner Child

Hello, my dear.
How are you?
I hope you’re well—
because I am not.

You’ve always been here,
speaking to me,
showing me signs
I refused to see.

Now I see.
Now I want to keep you close again.

I’m in tears—
it’s been so long
since we last spoke.

I think I grew up
and left you behind,
abandoned
the way everyone else did.

I’m sorry.
Will you forgive me?

I’ve done so many wrong things
to you
and to myself—
things I’d never
do to a child
if I were truly responsible.

So tonight—
if you’re willing—
let’s spend time together.

Do you remember
first grade,
when every afternoon
you’d run to the ballet studio
just to watch the girls
in their pink tights,
gentle and graceful,
warming up for class—
and you’d stand at the door,
dreaming of being one of them?

I remember.

Our mother said
we could never be ballerinas—
our feet weren’t right,
our toenails always ingrown.

So what could we do?
Dance in secret,
alone in the bedroom,
with Barbie
and the Twelve Dancing Princesses.

So tonight—
will you dance with me?

Let’s be ballerinas for one night.
Let’s be what we always dreamed to be.

Will you take my hand
for this dance?

With love,
Me.
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