Stroke 1

I have been advised that writing my feelings down in poem form might help me overcome all that is going on right now, and so here is poem 1.  It ends on a positive note although I do not feel positive at the moment.

Stroke

Why did you feel you had the right

To barge into my life that night?

We'd never met, although I knew

The barest details about you

Did you suppose a welcome waited?

Is that what you anticipated?

A friendly handshake, maybe tea?

Let me be frank you sicken me.

My life was difficult enough

I've always struggled, had things tough

So why on earth did you decide

To live with me, then try to hide

when scanned, you coward, were you scared?

Then what of me? – so unprepared,

Can you imagine how I feel

since you strode by intent to steal

my love of writing, turn it to

a chore I try hard not to do.

You thief! You're wicked selfish, vile

I hold you in contempt, your guile,

your craftiness do not impress

For in your wake you cause distress

You devastate, tear lives apart

I've heard the pain, the broken hearts

But here I cannot speak for others

Fellow survivors, sisters, brothers

For here my issue is with you

you've changed my life, it's fact, it's true

Now I must cut you down to size

And try my dreams to realise

Or maybe new dreams to create

To fit in with my altered state

To value life, perhaps reclaim

it, goals define and somehow aim

For something more, for something great

My purpose here to reinstate

To fear less, stand firm, be bold

To seize today, before I'm old

You came to rob and yet in time

Maybe my life you'll redefine.

Karen Holmes

29 March 2011