pictured words

a simple pairing of pictures and poetry

Tag: mental health

THE VIEW FROM HER EYES

My stunningly beautiful daughter. Photo by Steve Gertz

She sees through eyes that close,
that nobody knows how to fix.
And politics says there aren’t
enough of her to fund a cure. 

At one time, she was functionally blind;
mostly confined to her bed and
stuck inside her unwell head.

And though she tries,
it’s hard to be strong
when you long for the life
you once viewed as fate,
but now fear is too late.
 
She has multiple diagnoses.
Some fell away. Some chose to stay.
They, the predator.  She, the prey.

© Marie Elena Good, 2024

#mentalillness
#schizoaffective
#multiplepersonalitydisorder
#lymedisease
#anaplasmosis
#blepharospasm
#meigesyndrome

DETACHED and EMERGING (2 in Sijo)

Painting by Deanna Marie Metts

DETACHED (sijo)

Member of Mensa Foundation. Former business owner,
Now mindful only that this actual moment in time
Is dreadfully not as real as yesterday’s tomorrows.

© Marie Elena Good 2014

EMERGING (sijo)

Weeding worry stubbornly seized in depths of clay soil perdition.
Bleeding time. Believing her beseeching isn’t reaching the Ear.
Then, breakthroughs and dream-come-trues. Not of fantasy, but of being.

© Marie Elena Good 2024

I wrote Detached in 2014 about my mentally ill daughter. Emerging, written now exactly ten years later. Though she still struggles, the difference is immense. There is so much for which to be thankful!

THE HEART OF AN OLYMPIAN

Photo by ATC Comm Photo on Pexels.com

Dreams held within resist all hindrances,
As though an iron breastplate shelters it.
Equating fear and doubt as hidden sins,
It will not recognize them, nor admit

Susceptibility may lie inside.  
It soundly strikes a metronome-like beat  
That pulses toward the goal that it has eyed,
Where grueling pain and utter joy may meet.

But when a running water hose crimps tight,
The urgent fix outweighs the aim at hand.
The crimp must be relaxed … And this despite
Whatever lofty plan was in demand.

Olympic hearts are human, in the end.
They’ve earned soft hands to hold them as they mend.

© Marie Elena Good, 2021

BRIGHT AS DAY

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It’s the meaning of her name,
and I claim there is something to it,
as in days of old testament.

But multiple impediments seized her

mind

energy

sight

voice.

Her very soul.

The whole of her,
splintered.

The light of her,
wintered.

But her God is not flawed,
nor silenced.
As her spirit returns
and yearns to be,
I see her flame ignite,
and hope shines
Bright as Day.

© Marie Elena Good, 2019