Writing poetry has helped me in recovering from trauma as well as in dealing with post traumatic stress. Therapeutic writing has the power to heal an injured mind.
I know!




Listen to the voice of a Silenced Child
First mine and then perhaps to yours


by Janie Lancaster
Copyright 2006-2008

Silence Reigns

 

Silent tears call no one

  silent pain alerts no one

 

Crushed broken spirits

 with smiles get no relief

 hidden wounds no band-aids

 

More silent tears

more silent pain

more hidden wounds

silence reigns

 

When no one hears their cries

 and there is no response

 does the child continue to cry

I think not

 

Revealing pain elicits

punishment

 

Silence brings one to safety

 

Or does it


~~~~~~~

I Know You

I see you
your eyes pleading
your wind-driven soul
your pain

I hear you
your heaving sighs
your constricted voice
your silent cries

I know you
how your tears
fall behind your eyes
how your resilient face
hides pain

That look
that smile
those eyes

I know your soul
beneath that outward glow
how it struggles to breathe

to live
to love


I salute you kindred soul


*********

Are You Out There

Quietness

Stillness

where do you go
when I don't feel you
or see you

are you like the dew
or the morning mist
that disappears
and comes back
at another time

I miss you
will you return

are you still out there

********

Quiet

when was the last time
I felt Quiet
saw Quiet

when was the last time
I felt Stillness
saw Stillness

can you melt into Quiet
into Stillness

do they melt into you

 
*******

Who

who wove this tangled spider web
that wraps itself around my vital organs

who created this monster Octopus
with it's cruel arms
that strangle my inside parts
causing so much pain

Mommy was it you

~~~~~~

 

Something Inside

I almost drowned
in my mother's bitterness
like the baby kittens
she pushed beneath the water
in the kitchen sink
as they struggled
under her hand

I almost gave up
when I couldn't dream any more
my dreams trampled on
replaced with nightmares

I almost died when
she wove her tangled spider web
and wrapped me up inside

I had to be a person
I was not meant to be

Something inside
kept me alive
something greater
than my tormentors
or even myself

Something inside
what is it
do you know

~~~~~~~~~

I also wrote novels and stories

In my first published book I invented Cordelia Grimm, the great, great granddaughter of the Brothers Grimm. The Brothers Grimm fairy tales were so much a part of my life growing up. It was like a part of me descended from them.

            I wrote the story of Julie & The Lost Fairy Tale in three days, 4,000 words each day. The story spilled out of me weaving my childhood thoughts and dreams into a fictional story of what I wished for reality to be.

            I wrote Emily/Out of my Mother's Darkness.  This novel began without a name and intertwined my coming of age dilemmas of dealing with physical and emotional abandonment. Even though the story was fictional it was true to my life experience of things I had learned about my past. Reading and rewriting this story helped me to put some of my Humpty Dumpty me back together again.


 

 

Therapeutic & Creative Writing Has Power

 

 

  • To tell without telling
  • To process difficult feelings and emotions
  • To help us understand complicated situations
  • To take layers of complicated life's experiences and put meaning into them
  • To process and resolve trauma

 




Please visit my home page and feel free to email me if you are interested in my future book of essays and poetry... When Silence Reigns.

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Listen to and Interview with Chris Bridges News-JournalOnline in Daytona Beach Florida http://www.nieworld.com/special/julie/author_interview.htm