Through Hell – April Ekphrastic Challenge

Nine of Wands – Kerfe Roig

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You’ve been through hell
But outwardly nobody can tell
You look confident and strong
But in your heart you just want to belong
Your mind keeps saying they are all reading you wrong

You’ve picked yourself up more times than you care to count
You’ve survived more that most will ever have to surmount
Yet you see yourself as flawed and weak
As someone who have no right to love and support seek
Instead of seeing how your experiences have made you unique

I know you are ready to give up
That you’ve started to fear each sunup
But I’m here to let you know
You can this darkness to outgrow
That your indomitable spirit shines with a blinding glow

Yourself is the only one you need to forgive
Not anyone who’s been abusive
You’ve been taught to see yourself as wrong
But you are brave and bold and strong
You are worthy of love and to belong

But you have to let your walls down just a little bit
You have to acknowledge how badly you’ve been hurt and hit
You have to let trustworthy people in
Needing others is human, not a sin
Then your new life can truly begin

©RedCat

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Inspired by the symbology of the Nine of Wands. Written as a letter to another me who really would have needed this. And to anyone else out there who needs to to hear that being abused is never the victim’s fault. 

To forgive yourself for something not your fault might seem odd. But I know that most abuse survivors struggle with just that. Holding themselves responsible for what happened. In parts I still do. And that putting the blame where it actually belongs, be it an abusive parent or partner, is both very hard and one of the things that sets you free.

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To see all art and read all poetry for today go to The Wombwell Rainbow.

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Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash

Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash

Kerfe Roig

A resident of New York City, Kerfe Roig enjoys transforming words and images into something new.  Her poetry and art have been featured online by Right Hand Pointing, Silver Birch Press, Yellow Chair Review, The song is…, Pure Haiku, Visual Verse, The Light Ekphrastic, Scribe Base, The Zen Space, and The Wild Word, and published in Ella@100, Incandescent Mind, Pea River Journal, Fiction International: Fool, Noctua Review, The Raw Art Review, and several Nature Inspired anthologies. Follow her explorations on her blogs, https://methodtwomadness.wordpress.com/  (which she does with her friend Nina), and https://kblog.blog/, and see more of her work on her website http://kerferoig.com/

April Ekphrastic Challenge – GloPoWriMo 2021

• 1 April – Dark Orchid
• 2 April – A Dirge for the Drowned
• 3 April – Granddaughters of Red Riding Hood
• 4 April – Raven Dream Flight
• 5 April – It’s Spring Time Again and The Sweetest Wine – A Quadrille
• 6 April – There Once Was A Cat and To All The Good Girls
• 7 April – Mind Finds Soul Fearlessly Shines
• 8 April – Trapped, Imprisoned In Her Own Mind – A Triple Triolet and Ode To My Dream Girl
• 9 April – The Aurora Butterfly – A Sonnet
• 10 April – The Dawn Sky Is Ethereal Blue – A Triolet
• 11 April – Blue Forest Of Remembrance
• 12 April – Incantation to Bau-Gula – A Sonnet
• 13 April – The Stars Are Out Tonight – A Villanelle and Cat Searching High and Low
• 14 April – Shadow People Before My Eyes – A Triple Triolet
• 15 April – Three Times Three Times Three
• 16 April – Autumn feast – A Sonnet
• 17 April – In The Badger Sett
• 18 April – Hellcat
• 19 April – Life Lessons and No Bother! – A Quadrille
• 20 April – Fairy Dust Magic – A Trio Of Ovillejo’s and Crows Calling At Night
• 21 April – Polished Mirror Women – Dedicated to Marisol
• 22 April – Word Salad and A Beltane Song
• 23 April – Floating Around Everywhere and Oh Bother! – A Quadrille in Ovillejo Form
• 24 April – A Thousand Paper Cranes
• 25 April – Change and Restless Body and Mind
• 26 April – Through Hell
• 27 April – Weaving Web and Another Piece Of The Puzzel – A Puente Poem
• 28 April – Sounds In The Wind – A Puente Poem
• 29 April – Fire That Burns Away All Fears – A Sonnet and Blackbirds Dusk Sings
• 30 April – Star Prayer – A Sonnet