Archives: Poetry Submissions

New Dawnings

God, turn back the clock of suffering
And take us to a time of innocent childhood vitality
Where in the caring arms of your love
We may play upon a sunlit lawn
Until exhausted
We fall thoughtlessly through rhythmic waves
To a sweet, luxuriant sleep.
And when we awaken to the beckoning rays of light
Let our hearts open up with joy
To the beauty of the things around us
Seeing only thy work
So that we may be free from the monsters of distress
Which permeate the fragile tissue of our minds.

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The Two of me – Life with ME / CFS

Can I allow you to see my emotional struggle and vulnerability?
Can I make my life be positive when I physically suffer and in pain?
Can I leave a legacy that means something to others?
This is a collaboration between two artists, a Denver photographer, Deborah Grigsby and a Italian painter with ME / CFS, Francesca Owens. The photo shoot took place in a Denver cemetery.

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Fibro Blues

I just want to talk
But I can’t even walk

Without the meds
My feet don’t tread.

Put a pain patch on my hip.
But won’t put one on my lip.

I got the Fibro Blues.

Hands so numbed freezing cold
Everything is hard to hold.

My ears are red & feel so hot.
What is it that I’ve got?

Body hurts in every bone.
Should have had some cortisone.

I got the Fibro Blues

Bursitis, tendonitis
And costocondritis

Did I say migraine?
Who loaded this freight train

Insomnia, sleep apnea
It’s fibromyalgia!

I got the Fibro blues.

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Rebel!

I am a health rebel —
What does the earth ask of me
Today?
Breathing in — Alignment,
Breathing out — Allegiance,
That is all.

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An Ode to You and ME

Once upon an eerie morn,
I woke up with the claws of scorn;
One placed atop my aching head,
The other holding me in bed,

And months ahead to my surprise
Did fill with tears my swollen eyes.
Then I did learn what does prevail;
The illness that has made me pale.

For now my ears they buzz as bees,
That swarm among the plants and trees.
And muscles grasp and clasp and twitch.
The skin upon my arms does itch.

Though in my yard no apple grows,
But yet, the scent does brush my nose.
And where my glasses I do place,
When I return there is no trace.

There is a reason I presume,
Why I have walked into this room;
And so go back and hope to find
The reason that I left behind.

I used to run down any hall…
But now I hold onto the wall.
Sometimes I cannot walk at all;
Sometimes, I simply have to c-r-a-w-l.

For friends who have a winded pipe,
Of many words, the draining type,
I now must set a timer bell
To shorten tales they wish to tell.

And I explain in my defense
My friends, you must not take offence.
I yawn not at your strifes and woes;
The illness makes me nod and doze.

And what maintains a love affair?
It must be something in the air.
Or is it just the swings of mood
That tango with your solitude.
Perhaps the scent of menthol rub;
Or sweetened words I often flub;
When on occasion in my head
The script is there but then instead
The words do fumble and abort;
When salt is sand and wall is wart;
When win is wine and nod is nude
And speed is slow and mad’s the mood!!

The universe will soon reveal
The secret that it does conceal;
The reason for this pain and strife;
A new found purpose in my life?

Though now my thoughts are out of sorts
I still expel some fine retorts!
Just kindly tell me if you please…
WHERE have I put my bloomin keys??!

Colleen Downey c 1998
Ammended 2019

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Matter more then matter

Matter more then matter

Here I am

Being me

The best way I can be

Limits make me free

Of thinking me to be, this limited body

No woman or no man

It is the soul I am

And I the soul am free,

to be who I can be

No limits limit me

The virtues, not the deeds

Way more then eyes meet

I matter more then matter

Illusions slowly shatter

And make me see the me

the me I’m meant to be

the me beyond M.E.

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Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME / CFS) Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS), Fibromyalgia Leading Research. Delivering Hope.Open Medicine Foundation®

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