#recovery poems on Hello Poetry

Sabrina Shapiro Feb 26

Bald cypress leaves droop
Somber caress from spring wind
Geese honk overhead

#haiku #nature #trees #animals #healing #recovery

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.

#change #faith #recovery

Michael Jones Feb 12

The Day The Truth Grew Up

I wake up to the sound
        of empty halls
        ’cause your not here
The phone’s not ringing like it used to.

I know that you’re not coming home.

I found myself
        sitting on your empty bed.
I swear I heard your voice inside my head.

...

Then I felt the darkness come
        and cover my heart…

                                        the day the truth grew up.

I see the things I’ve done
        with a different point of view
        because of you.
And I’m not saying that I’m thankful.
                                        In fact...
        I’m mad as hell
        because you’re not coming home.

I was managing a halfway-house years ago. Three guys that went through the recovery facility snuck out of the house on a Monday morning a little after midnight. They were drinking and had a horrible accident, rolled their van and two did not survive. The one that came in the same day as I did 6 months prior was put on life support with a broken neck. He survived and is paralyzed from the neck down.

These three guys were very dear to me, as we grew together in this new way of life, and I can’t begin to express the storm of emotions I encountered. But I realized that is what this is for me, selfishly. A storm.

From a blog I used to write the day after the accident:

THERE WILL ALWAYS BE BRIGHTER DAYS AFTER THE RAIN WASHES THE PAIN AWAY
02/26/14

Today I woke up and talked with a few clients at the facility before going to work. I genuinely listened to what each person had to say. I saw my fiance and when I looked her in the eyes, I cherished that light in her eyes I fell in love with, My father called me and I didn’t get off the phone until both of us had run out of things to say. I felt more alive today than I have in I don’t know how long.

This has been a tragic shake in my personal world, but it has also been a great eye opener for me. For today, that does not have to be my outcome. I will cling to each moment I am granted as best I can. I am mourning for the families of my brothers. May angels lead them in.

#loss #tragedy #recovery #hope