07 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in poetry Tags: anger, empty, heart broken, letting go, need, sorrow, space, want
Releasing Crow
01 Jun 2014 2 Comments
in poetry Tags: breath, compassion, drinking gourd, healing, hope, life, light, love, Maya Angelou, ocean, Ode, rising, river, sorrow, stars, strength, tree, voice, water
Maya,
I will always miss you.
A great tree is who You were,
Roots surging past jagged stones,
Steady, sure, sifting
Through the gravel in my bones,
Waking each cell,
Feeling each bruise,
Absorbing life’s
Battered branches sprouting with light,
And giving me strength,
And breath to breathe,
A beacon in a dark land,
Hope, when all seemed broken,
A free bird soaring,
Picking up the pieces of my heart
Where your cage fell apart,
Following the drinking gourd.
In your trail of living water
I live
In your promised land,
And though you didn’t know me
Your voice was familiar to me,
Comforting, warm like honey,
A resilient old negro spiritual,
Surging, throbbing beyond southern soil,
A thriving river soft like tear drops,
Yet strong,
Running deep where cuts lashed with sorrow
Tangled in veins, and skin, and memory.
Your words healed me with your passion,
Woke me with self-compassion.
You are the rising spirit on the backs of history,
You are the dark ocean moving,
Threading a journey into tomorrow.
Bright diamond,
In the star studded sky,
Lead the way to water,
And I will follow.
Karen K. L. Espaniola,
June 1, 2014
15 Feb 2014 3 Comments
in poetry Tags: darkness, light, love, motherhood, pain, photograph, shade, shine, son, sorrow, tree
I gave you everything I could,
Gave up all that I was,
A composting tree dropping leaves
To become bare bark peeling
in every season,
in every storm,
Knowing that one day you would be better,
Stronger, brighter, smarter than I could ever be,
Your small voice asking me about the stars, and the moon, and the universe,
Hoping I would know all the answers,
Waiting for my words of gold,
My thoughts that were heaven sent,
Because you believed in me
The way I believe in you now,
The way I want you to fight now,
Fight for your right to sprout leaves,
To grow strong in the blue sky,
Branches waving in defiance over all that would keep you down,
Defy the shade that would hide you in its shadow,
Defy the world that would crumple you from the inside out,
Test your mind, your spirit, your body,
And try to place you underground.
And if I could say it all again,
I would look in your small face and tell you
That You ARE the Universe,
and the Universe is in you,
That you have the power
To make time and space your own creation,
And thrive, despite the darkness
Shine, despite the pain
And reach out, despite the heat.
For there is not one word, one phrase, one action
That could ever make me love you any less.
KKLE February 15, 2014
28 Dec 2013 Leave a comment
in poetry Tags: celebrate, death, life, rememberance, sorrow, strength, tanka, thankful, tree
You were like a tree,
Limbs silhouetted with love,
And all who knew you
Clung tightly to your branches
Reveling in your strong roots.
25 Aug 2013 4 Comments
in love, poetry Tags: cake, chocolate, heartbreak, sorrow
It doesn’t matter anymore,
What color I am,
Or what I eat,
Or what I wear,
Or who cares.
You won’t talk to me anymore,
So I’m not wearing a bra,
And I’m going to eat cake,
Chocolate, vanilla, and lemon,
And not comb my hair
So that yesterday’s heartbreak
Will get tangled in today’s sorrow.
16 Aug 2013 1 Comment
in love, poetry Tags: heartbreak, letting go, purple poetry, social stigma, sorrow
Take this heart,
This burgeoning ache,
This swollen phobia
Of social stigma,
A morsel of sorrow,
A fragment of body,
Broken bread to be eaten,
Slowly, steadily,
like oil spreading
Its rainbow dulled by dust,
Still throbbing and beating
And breathing in frayed sunlight,
Ready for your scalpel
Of words,
Dissecting, devouring,
Consuming, releasing me
Piece by piece,
in waves.
Karen K L Espaniola, Aug. 16, 2013
08 Jun 2013 2 Comments
in poetry Tags: change, depression, journey, lehua, solitude, sorrow, transition
I met a young woman in flight today,
Her long lashes wet with sorrow,
and eyes heavy with the world’s pain,
she bowed her head
to a parade of clouds dancing
‘long a rocky cliff-side,
below the sky,
wild and careless,
and “unaware” she said,
“unaware of me.”
Grey sleeves damp
and stretched in summer’s heat,
Brass ear rings shaped like moons
Shimmering in a pool of endless loneliness,
She asked, “Why me, God, why me?”
Her eyes seeking mine,
A stranger searching to be seen,
A sinking raindrop in an endless sea.
“Only you know,” I said,
“Only you know your truth,
So set it free.”
© Karen K.L. Espaniola, June 8, 2013
26 May 2013 1 Comment
in love, poetry Tags: loss, love, nature, sorrow
Letting go is not an easy thing to do,
to let your voice be carried away in waves,
and allow the rain to fall in empty fields.
Let me return to the forest to find an embankment deep,
a humus of soil and rotting leaves of winter
to wait for snow,
where glances of sun through rough tree bark
will find me by the frozen creek,
and warm me once again
in my solitude.
KKLE May 26, 2013
(c) Karen K.L. Espaniola 2013, All Rights Reserved
hinarising 