Bridle the Beast, From the Archives

Art Source: Finartamerica.com

It’s the piece that stays with you 

The one that won’t leave

The annoying brat that 

Tugs at your sleeve

The haunting memory 

That painful episode

The awkward rendezvous

That makes your head explode.

That which stays with you 

Is the thing to examine

To gain some insight 

To shift what will happen

So instead of the torment

You are blessed with release

Make peace with your past

Bridle the beast

From that moment on 

Your days you may find 

More peaceful and freer

As the tension unwinds

You may be astounded 

By the expanse it creates

The gray of despair 

Now colored with grace. 

Tricia Schwaba, 2011

My Safe Pocket

art source: safespace.com

I sit in my safe pocket of this ailing planet

Want to gain insight, take nothing for granted

I shiver at the notion that I may appear 

To be grasping at straws that aren’t really there.

This insistent urge prompts me to sustain

This practice that leaves me naked, in pain

The notion that for some I may seem trite

Is one I wrestle with in the middle of night.

Yet go on, I do, at the risk of revealing

How distant I am from the exquisite healing.

My scars are many and I pretend not to see

My forgiving reflection as it stares back at me.

Those times I was cruel, thought myself above

The truth clear now, too far from self love

God takes my heart and breaks it wide open

It’s contents spill out stiff and frozen

My pains and regrets so tender and raw.

With warmth of love & acceptance, they thaw.

Tricia Schwaba May 2020

Contemplating My Worthiness

I knock on the door of prosperity. She is there, a gracious divine being, opening the double doors wide, welcoming me to her beautiful home. I lean in and catch a glimpse. It is not large and ostentatious, but understated, warm and colorful. I am stiff with hesitation, pausing on the threshold, contemplating my worthiness. She silently validates and her easiness draws me in, as I attempt to shake off the last of my resistance. 

Tricia Schwaba 2020