Fear - Sara Teasdale

Yet shall I struggle in the dark for breath?

Will no one fight the Terror for my sake,

The heavy darkness that no dawn will break?

How can they leave me in that dark alone,

Who loved the joy of light and warmth so much,

And thrilled so with the sense of sound and touch,

-- How can they shut me underneath a stone?

Night - Michael Hofmann

It's all right

Unless you're either lonely or under attack.

That strange effortful

Repositioning of yourself. Laundry, shopping,

Hours, the telephone—unless misinformed—

Only ever ringing for you, if it ever does.

The night—yours to decide,

Among drink, or books, or lying there.

On your back, or curled up.

An embarrassment of poverty.

Anger Lay By Me - Sally Gibb

Deep, dark ocean

Womb vortex of secrets

There lies a black pearl

Reflecting ominously

The pure ivory of its parent oyster

There in reign I lie too

Let me lie disturb not my watery repose

For if i rise

I shall swallow you whole.

Solitude - Ella Wilcox

Rejoice, and men will seek you;

Grieve, and they turn and go;

They want full measure of all your pleasure,

But they do not need your woe.

Be glad, and your friends are many;

Be sad, and you lose them all,—

There are none to decline your nectared wine,

But alone you must drink life’s gall.

Doubt - Helen Jackson

O, had I cast that thing away,

I had not found what most I cherish,

A faith without which I should perish,--

The faith which, like a kernel, lay

Hid in the husks which on that day

My instinct would not throw away!

Hidden Tears - Liliana Kohann

So let your hidden tears fall down,

Your wounded heart heal now

And let your silent voice cry out

I know it's hard to change it but it will come.

You are more than what you have done.

“Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life.

I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise

from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself.”

- Walter Inglis Anderson -