Shawn L. Bird

Original poetry, commentary, and fiction. All copyrights reserved.

Poem: you May 7, 2013

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 10:24 am
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You stand against the

wall, arms crossed, sardonic smile

immune to laughter.

.

You’ve seen darkness that

they can only imagine,

and you are hardened

.

from the admiration

of flirting gazes because

your heart is cold,

.

Frozen by bad maternity

and noncommittal

paternity.

.

Their bad judgements burn

within your heart until

destroying misery

.

means destroying

everything you should love,

innocent or guilty,

.

and then it means

flash firing your future,

scarring your life upon ours,

.

like a victim of

Hiroshima’s bombs whose life

vanishes in an

.

instant, leaving only

a silhouette, burnt white

on blackened walls.

.

.

I’m still processing the recent murder/suicide of a former student.   The idea of an image being frozen in memory by tragedy called to mind the silhouettes created in Hiroshima when people’s shadoes were left, though their bodies were vaporized.  While at first glance a free verse, the poem has some form: each triplet stanza follows the haiku syllable count (17 syllables per stanza) to reiterate this idea.

 

Trust time May 3, 2013

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 10:31 am
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It gets better.

Whatever pressure

is crushing you,

whatever frustrations

are tearing you apart,

will end.

Permanent solutions

to temporary problems

are a waste

of who you could be.

Don’t take drastic actions

when patience could prevail

and provide purpose

for the brilliant future

you deserve.

Whatever burdens you,

buries you,

bullies you,

will end.

Call for help

It’s here.

Hold hope in your hands.

Give your future a chance.

Trust time to release you

from pain,

not death.

.

.

In an exercise of hope, I wrote this in present tense, though it is a letter to a brilliant young man who once sat in my class room, and sadly did not trust time: so much potential, crushed by despair, frustration and anger.  I am mourning the loss of his shadowed light in our world.  It only needed time for it to shine brilliantly, but he did not wait to see.

 

 

future hope December 5, 2011

Filed under: Commentary,Pondering — Shawn L. Bird @ 5:11 pm
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All of his hope for his future was absolutely exploding into nothing. I think that just completely destroys somebody in a moment.   ~Richard Armitage

(from http://www.tv.com/people/richard-armitage/trivia/)

Armitage is referring in this quote to a character who must kill his beloved, so the observation is a bit of an understatement!  Taking the remarks out of that specific context, however, there is a bit of a message here.

When we do not have hope, we are destroyed.  In desperate situations–times of war, for example–those without hope have no strength to carry on.  They give up and are lost.   In contrast, those who hope that better days are coming, fight strength to live another day.

Proverbs 29:18 suggests that “Without vision, the people perish.”  Vision can be equated with hope in this situation.  You have to be able to imagine a better future, and if you can begin to actually formulate plans to improve the future, so much the better.  Vision is hope.

I know someone who is going through a bitter divorce at the moment.  Bitterness, agony, rejection and depression are sucking hope out of life, and there is no positive vision.  Unable to hear that he holds in his own hands the ability to create his own happiness, helplessness has overwhelmed him.

The second part of Proverbs 29:18 adds, “but he that keeps the law is happy.”  I’m not sure how vision fits with keeping the law.  How does do they relate to each other?  The idea of obedience bringing happiness fits with theocratic governance, of course, but vision and obedience seem somewhat at odds.   Those who take the vision and make it power have the joy of living in a spirit of grace, whether or not they’re happy with the law.

 

 

 

 

 

Pessimism in action January 31, 2011

Filed under: Commentary — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:48 am
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Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. – Helen Keller.

Noticed this quote on a board at Curves the other day. It made me consider different angles to that, and I came up with a quote of my own:

Pessimism is the despair that leads to failure. – Shawn Bird

If you have a negative outlook, if you don’t believe that there is something good coming in your future, nothing good happens for you. You become mired in your own misery and hopelessness. If you can find hope, and believe that even if things are bad now, that there will be a brighter day coming, then you have the vision to get through the hardship.

What happens when your brain chemistry isn’t letting you get there? If you can’t find the joy and hope, you may need a little help. Your brain is probably not producing enough ‘happiness hormones’ for you to have a positive outlook. Bring on the anti-depressants!You can change that and open up a world of possibility. See your doctor. There is no need to be miserable!  Some people think anti-depressants are for the weak, but depression is all about chemistry, it’s not about will or strength of character.   You wouldn’t think you were weak if you needed nitroglycerin for your heart or anti-rejection drugs for your transplant, so why on earth should you feel bad if you need drugs to adjust your neurochemistry? 

Work with your doctor.  Take the drugs.  Don’t wallow in despair and misery.  Find the optimism that will give you the faith and hope in a positive future that will allow you to achieve all you can achieve in life.