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Joan Zaruba Mar 6
I am a candle
burning past hurts
craving new air
reaching to the sky
leaving a mark

I am stronger than my scars
wiser than my mistakes
more capable than my
insecurities

I can only be me
I will only burn


© 2025 Joan Zaruba. All rights reserved.
I wrote this poem at a vision board workshop at Magnus Veterans Foundation after making this art: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uZvqAIXrdZwrW6fPkhN9YSVMl0Pkk_f5/view?usp=sharing
Bald cypress leaves droop
Somber caress from spring wind
Geese honk overhead
Jeff Bresee Feb 23
When you’ve had every chance and all resource in hand.
When you’ve been in good graces and known where you stand.
When you had God in Heaven reach down just to line it all up,
 
and you still found a way to fail. How could that be?
You look back in disbelief, regretfully
and feel like a failure, jinxed by a charm of bad luck.
 
Then you’re forced to ask yourself, “Should I go on?”
You wonder if maybe the timing was wrong,
that if you keep going, this time will it finally work out?
 
Cuz now there’s an omen that’s lurking behind,
waiting to take you down time after time.
It’s hard not to think that way, wondering what it’s all about.
 
But success in a very real sense is defined
as - starting things over again, one more time
than whatever the number of times it is that you’ve gone down.
 
Leave that omen behind in the re-view of life.
Drive off and keep going. Don’t even think twice.
For now, you know better in all things… this time around.
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