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Healing Encouragement Poems

2011-06-23T01:41:00.003-07:00

Encouragement poems are for when your heart is hurting and needs healing. The world may not be ending for anyone else, but it feels like it’s ending for you. This is when you need support and encouragement the most, when you need unconditional love words and healing.

I grew up with a good head on my shoulders. I knew the world was just fine. And I knew I was just fine. I didn’t understand why I was experiencing all these frustrating emotions. I was a young man starting my business. I knew what I needed to do, and I attempted to execute. After repeated failures, I couldn’t shake the fear and frustration that continued to build.

After a few years, I was numb and without hope. I knew that all I needed to do was transform my thoughts and emotions. I knew I just needed to change my mindset. But no matter what I tried or what personal growth work or healing work I did, I just couldn’t shake it. I really didn’t think I was ever going to get out of it. I would look up at the stars at night and where I used to feel joy I felt despair and hopelessness. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t get rid of these feelings. It seemed so maddening to me.

For all of you who are discouraged and in despair with no plausible way out, let me offer what helped me to transform my situation. First, if I can transform my situation, I know you can too. There’s nothing different about me. You do have the power to get out. Life CAN change. You CAN feel differently.

Secondly, the only thing you need to get out is a desire to believe. You don’t even need belief. Not yet. You may not be able to believe in this moment. There were years where I couldn’t believe. But you can at least maintain a desire to believe. The possibility that at some point in the future you might be able to believe. That’s it. That’s all you need. Just a desire. No matter how small it is.

Because the only difference between the most joyous and the most frustrated people is the difference between being open and closed. Being closed means no new information or learning to help you can get in. Being open means it can. That’s the only difference that separates the highest of the high between the lowest of the low.

So learn to open your heart. No matter how much it hurts. And practice keeping it open. That’s exactly what the desire to believe will do. Even if you can’t believe and haven’t been able to for years. And that desire will let you begin taking the steps one by one to begin the path of hope.

Here is a poem I wrote a few years ago when I was in pain. May it provide you with words of encouragement.

Alone in My Pain

Wounded I walk everywhere I go
Trembling and haunted by memories of the past
Overwhelmed entirely by tasks of the present
Trying to be normal, I put on a disguise

But unwilling to let go is my pain
Always present at my mind’s forefront
Running away, I try to forget
Unable to escape, I get dragged down

Every inspiring dream I have
Every challenge I undertake
Withers and fades away under the stress
Frustrated and hindered, until I am helpless

Moping around immune and indifferent
Unable to feel, see, hear, taste, or smell
Enveloped and trapped, no conceivable way out
Buried and burdened under the pressures of life

Incapable of enjoying the beauties of this world
How can others be so happy?
What is it I don’t understand?
Who else could understand this grief, this hurt?

Surely no one out there can feel just like me
No one’s had my difficulties or afflictions
No one’s experienced the feelings of my past
Why am I cursed, unlike everyone else?

As I mope, an old chap passes by
He says, "Son, you look distant and depressed
"Despite your cover, your eyes are glossed over
"And your eyes tell the truth of your heart."

He soon leaves, and I begin to take notice
Some people pass by I look in the eye
Peering past their eyes and into their souls
Surprised every wit, I try it again

I’m startled to find many souls like mine
Then something deep inside moves me to react
As I direct these souls out of their pain
I pause to notice my pain is no more

Encouragement Poems for the Broken Heart

2011-06-23T01:41:00.001-07:00

The greatest pain in the world is that of the broken heart. When you experienced a continuous outpouring of love only to see it disappear and be replaced by a pain just as large. Love is the most powerful force in the world. Every decision we make in our lives is based upon either an attempt to get love or to give love. Everything. Everything that we’re doing, the motivation that gets us up and keeps us going throughout the day is fueled by either getting or giving love in some way.

Love is what fuels us. When you don’t feel you have love in your life, you try to get it. When you feel you are filled with love, you give love freely. OK, so you’re probably reading this because you are hurting. You may be hurting deeply. You may have been severely betrayed or you may just have been dumped. You may have been dating for a few months, but maybe you had been married twenty years. Whatever the case, you could certainly use some love words and encouragement poems right now.

But let me say this first before I get to the poem. The part of the pain that hurts the most is the part that can heal the quickest, if you would like to know how. The deep piercing pain doesn’t have anything to do with your partner, but with you. It almost always lies in some type of love or validation your partner is now no longer fulfilling. If you can locate the space inside you that already has whatever you were looking for her to fulfill within you, then you can be free and whole again.

The duller pain caused by the void of love is just that. That void you can fill in other ways and soon will, especially if you heal the deeper piercing pain that has to do with you. This is where you move from trying to get love back into the space of giving love.

I Wish You Could See

I wish you could see what you mean to me I wish you could see what my heart has given I wish you could see how I'd make you feel I wish you could see the queen you would be

I knew you better than anyone else All your dreams you shared fully with me All your fears you couldn't hide from my view All your secrets you confided only with me

I saw you blossom into a new woman I saw you change right before my eyes Your highs and your lows I helped you get through I saw in you what you couldn't see

I knew your pains because they once were mine I knew your soul better than you knew yourself For I saw in you what you couldn't believe I saw the goddess I knew that you were

I knew how to make you feel special I knew how to avoid your sensitive spots I knew how to help you take risks I knew how to bring out the goddess in you

No one knew how to love you like me No one made you feel safe like I did No one could be the haven for your soul No one withstood your ebbs and your flows

I still loved you when you ran and hid I could see right through the charade you put up I waited and waited and anchored you up I made you laugh like nobody could

I knew your words before you could say them I could make you happy or sad at the drop of a hat I could guide your anger, excitement, and fear I could embrace your quirky emotions

After all that, couldn't you see? Couldn't you see what I'd offer you? Couldn't you see how I made you feel? Couldn't you see who you were around me?

Why'd you give your heart to another When your whole soul you shared with me? Why'd you give your lips to someone Who couldn't see what I saw in you?

How could you surrender to a man Who couldn't blossom your wild energy? How could you feel safe with him Who couldn't see the goddess in you?

My heart is broken for what might have been I thought you could see what I could see I'm sorry I couldn't help you to see The goddess you'd be if in my arms you were

Encouragement Poems

2011-06-23T01:40:00.003-07:00

Anyone who says he doesn’t need encouragement at some time in his life is a liar. Inspiration and support fuel our human psyche. With enough contact and support, you can literally do anything. I love motivational phrases and sayings. I love encouragement poems and anything that inspires me to keep going.

I was like most people and I’ve passed through times in my life when I felt like I couldn’t go on. I couldn’t follow through with what I had set out to do, and I saw no way of getting there. No matter how much I tried. It’s in your darkest and most trying moments when encouragement and support are most needed.

The best encouragement is unconditional love and understanding. The most powerful encouragement is someone who gives you the space to be who you are and what you’re experiencing -- without judgement. When someone lets you be as pissy or frustrated or mad as you need to be without telling you to be different. When someone still sees the divine being and infinite power you have in the midst of your turmoil. That’s the most powerful kind of encouragement there is, and the only kind that works.

Encouragement doesn’t have to tell you everything will be OK, because you already know that it is. Encouragement doesn’t need to tell you to be happy or to buck up. Encouragement doesn’t need to pick you up off the ground. Encouragement is unfettered love and acceptance for where you are at. Encouragement does not give you permission or justification for where you are at. No. Encouragement just doesn’t judge you for where you are at. Encouragement tells you it’s OK where you are at. Encouragement still sees who you are in the midst of your pain.

Encouragement is what gives you hope and lets you see beyond where you are at. Encouragement is the truth. May you find all the encouragement you need in your life. Without further adieu, here is an encouragement poem I wrote some years back when I was in the midst of my turmoil.

The Epic Battle

The battle rages deep into the night
As I struggle against my unknown foe
Lurking is he somewhere in the shadows
Where is he? Who is he? What is it?

I continue in fear thinking of my true love
Who waits as the reward for victory
My shield and sword I wield to protect
With helmet and mask, armor on tight

I hear steps approaching, and I turn
A rustling as I tense, then silence
A faint voice calling as I listen,
A movement in the dark as I squint

A sudden bright light shocks my senses
I flail my sword out of pure reflex
Hearing a loud clang, relief comes over me
I’ve fended off the enemy for now

I walk on to encounter a wall
Turning left and then right I find the same
I retreat back, now enclosed within
My enemy a companion inside with me

The footsteps are close, so I swing
Then from behind, I twirl around
To the right, to the left, behind me and in front
More frightening and deafening the noise becomes

Within these walls I am doomed to die
Helpless I feel, why can’t I see?
Why don’t I know, what can be done?
No way out and no help, no power to choose

In despair I cry out, "What do you want?"
The voice, next to my ear, whispers to me
"Drop your weapon, your shield, your armor and mask"
Knowing death is near, I comply

The sword, the shield, the armor, the helmet
In defeat I surrender, taking in one last breath
As the mask comes off, light floods the room
To my utter surprise I come to see

My hidden enemy was me
The me I always wanted to be
My defense was my insecurities
The darkness my fears, the walls my memories

It was my hand-crafted reality
I built especially for me
While the me I wanted to be
Was trying to break through to my heart

I fought for years, struggling in the dark
I only won when I surrendered
When I let go of what I held dear
I had the power before, I did not know

A long time to learn, to become
But the reward was worth the pain
I conquered my biggest enemy, which was me
So I could be prepared for you

Support and Encouragement Poems

2011-06-23T01:40:00.001-07:00

If you’ve never needed encouragement in your life, you are probably not human. If you’ve never needed the support of friends or family, you probably live on a deserted island. If you’ve never experienced frustration or pain, you probably have never left your room or related with another human being.

I had a good head on my shoulders. I was going to be an engineer. My life was planned out. Then my life turned upside down. I left engineering. I didn’t know how I was going to earn money. My life quickly turned into years of frustration and discouragement. I didn’t know how I could ever get out of my situation. I went from engineer to pizza delivery. And I delivered pizza for thirty months while my friends were becoming lawyers, engineers and business owners.

It was during this time I began writing encouragement poems and love words to give myself an outlet of expression. I also knew at some point in the future that I would get out of where I was at. I knew the frustration wasn’t permanent, even though it felt like it was. I knew I wouldn’t be delivering pizza forever, even though I had no way out for more than two years.

The most important thing to remember when you feel discouraged is to get around people. Don’t close in. Reach out to family and friends. Let yourself be supported. When you can’t lift yourself up, let someone else do it. Find a community, a church, a Meetup group, anything. Stay in contact with people.

If you were like me and you sat at home for eight hours a day for two years straight and delivered pizza part time in the evening, then you would know what I’m talking about. Being alone for long periods of time doesn’t serve you or anyone else.

Above all, keep the hope. Keep stepping forward. Don’t stay stagnant or stationary. Build your momentum, even if you feel like you’re not moving. Rejuvenate often. Don’t wallow in your pity for long periods of time. Focus on breaking your downward spirals. Get therapy if you need it, from someone you trust. But above all, keep the hope. Even if you can’t believe things will be different, just keep the possibility open that things might be different if you keep going. And that’s really all you need.

How To Write A Poem?Some Tips For You

2011-06-23T01:39:00.001-07:00

No infallible advice can be given on how to write a poem, because poets develop their own approaches in time. Nonetheless, here are a few exercises to generate the raw copy.

Suggestions

1. Plan. Ask yourself:

How much time is available? Opening lines can be dashed off in minutes but completion may take days or weeks. Be cautious, and aim perhaps for 5-10 lines in an evening. Don't wait for the muse, but write what you can when you can. Odd phrases and lines are at least something to work from, and more inspiring than a blank page.

When you write letters or tell stories, do you usually start from a newspaper article you've read, an anecdote told or overheard, something witnessed, a general reflection? Start a poem in the way you're most comfortable with.

What sort of poem had you in mind? A story, a comment, a tribute, a protest, an elegy, a character study, a memorial? Skim through contemporary examples to start yourself off.

About the issues involved. Imagine the poem were a newspaper article: what points would you make, with what evidence and resounding arguments? Got it together? Go on then: let yourself go. Something will emerge.

2. Make sure the subject's important to you. Death of a friend or family member, rites of passage, the bitter sweetness of first love, one of life's turning points, old transgressions, a childhood incident, injustices, unacknowledged fears... Use a mask of the second or third person if the content is too personal or painful.

3. Give yourself up to reverie. Go for a walk, lie on the sofa and close your eyes, go to bed, cut out the surrounding world. Jot down the things that come you, in whatever order or confusion. Put the scribblings away for the present, and only open the folder hours or weeks later to see what you've got. You'll be amazed at what's inside you.

4. Free the imagination. Try:

Automatic writing. Say 5 minutes at a stretch, continuously, never stopping. Go through the material when you've collected in ten pages or so, and circle anything interesting.

Get a friend to say words at random. Write down the first response that comes to you. Build a poem around three of the words.

Open a diary or journal (yours or someone else's) and jot down the first incident on three successive pages. Make a poem of these.

Describe, as closely as you can, some recurring dream or nightmare. Reverse the sequence, and then make a poem.

5. Work through metaphors. Take four lines of any contemporary poem. Identify the metaphors. Then use a thesaurus to find alternatives for the metaphors. Then repeat with the alternatives, finding words even further removed from the originals. Think deeply on three or so of the more interesting words, and see if can draft a poem incorporating them.

6. Write a pastiche. Take a stanza of something well known and rewrite it so that a) the idiom is entirely different, b) the lines end with nonsense rhymes, c) the piece is ruined with the smallest possible change, d) the piece looks completely fresh and contemporary.

7. Take the last line of one of your poems (which needn't be good). Carry on from there, ignoring entirely what you drafted before.

8. Repeat some of these exercises on material swopped with a fellow student or poet.

How To Write A Love Poem?

2011-06-22T12:36:00.000-07:00

Step 1: Don’t write a love poem
Love is one of the most common themes of poetry, which makes it one of the most difficult to write about. Nearly everything to be said and written about love has already been said and written, many times over. The greatest masters of lyric and poetry have tackled this theme again and again. But don’t be discouraged. You can still write a good, unique, original love poem. But first you must push the generic idea of the "love poem" out of your head. Forget it entirely. Focus on what it is specifically about love that you want to write. Write about a person, an experience, any knowledge you have gained from your own life, and how this relates to love. Writing directly about capital-L Love is too vague, too general for all but the most skilled of poets. If you come at it from another angle, you’ll find it much easier to capture.

Step 2: Avoid clichés
This cannot be stressed enough. Unless you are dancing the razor-fine line of a satire, clichés should not appear in your poem. Keeping them out is more difficult than you might think. Clichés are what they are because of common usage, therefore they tend to be the first things to jump into our minds when searching for a description. Because we hear them so often, they’re easy to accept because they "sound right." But don’t confuse "right" with "familiar." When editing your poem, go through the lines carefully and make note of anything that seems like you may have heard it used somewhere else before. A good way to check is to copy the suspected cliché and paste it, in quotes, into Google or another search engine. (ex: "as red as a rose" or "eyes like fire") See how many matches appear. If the number is really big, consider re-writing that line.

Step 3: Make it Unique
One of the keys to a successful poem is making it unique. You want your poem to stand out from the others. You want your reader to slow down and consider your poem, not roll their eyes and say, "Oh brother, not another one!" This is also why step one is to avoid focusing on a general theme. Ask yourself, how is this love poem different from the thousands of others out in the world? Draw on personal experience, the individuality of situations, time and place. Sure, millions of others have fallen in love, but how many have done so with a girl in a red jacket at the corner of the playground in rural Wisconsin? Hearts have broken the world over, but how many of them have realized it in the center of that crowded café on 21st and Main, or assuaged their pain standing at that special bench looking over the river at dusk? Everyone shares similar experiences, yet everyone is unique. Make your poem as individual as you are.

Step 4: Use Imagery
One poem is like any other in that it still requires certain poetic elements to make it really shine. Use the senses to describe the look, feel, sound, smell and taste of love. Love connects to all varieties of emotion. With strong, vivid imagery, you can bring any of those emotions to life for the reader.