I recently wrote a poem that came out of the transition of a hurtful experience into a greater perspective:
I now remember the forest,
waving with friendly presence,
trees gently nodding my way.
Walking on that trail
of her own choosing,
I was that little girl
too scared to enjoy her freedom,
too discouraged to look up
and see the August sun, green
through canopies of leaves,
too sad to hear birdsong
breathing through the rich
earthy air of a summer day.
Had she known how,
she would have broken
through
this silence of heart
and dared dancing
to the tunes of
carefree
insects humming
through their afternoon.
She did not know that
they hummed for her,
that she had no choice
but to breathe in birdsong
with the air.
She did not know that the forest
kissed the soles of her feet
every step of the way.
Gudrun Onkels
Seattle, Washington, USA