Acceptance

A poem about accepting the harrowing and beautiful process of healing

Acceptance by Fransivan MacKenzie

Be patient with yourself.
Be gracious like a sunflower's petal
opening herself to the daylight,
slow and violently so.
Watch how it seizes the day
and also welcomes the dusk,
how with an open palm does it take
what the horizon offers.

Trust the long, painful process
that is writing your name into forever.
It will hurt and it will keep hurting
no matter how tightly your wounds have been stitched.
After all, that's how their lips breathe.
That's how you can be reminded
of how tough your spirit is,
how you are worthy of the name
survivor, fighter, warrior,
no matter what people say.

As long as you're here in this oh-so-broken realm,
you can't be completely unbroken, unscathed, clean.
There is no formula, no quick fix,
no bargaining to be done
to trade all those haunted nights
into an eternal morning.

You can only heal and keep healing
as long as you keep breathing.

You can only stay
and celebrate each day you open your eyes -
a spit upon the grave
of everything that tried to kill you
but failed.

You can't be fixed, but you can get better.
You can't be whole, but you can be together.

Beautiful soul,
may you find abundant peace on the fact
that you will always remain a work in progress.

Reviews

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Another excellent free verse poem that describes the journey from destructive self tendencies to 'reasons to be cheerful'. The language and descriptions you use are very colourful and powerful. The final five lines in this one are simply spot on!

[Fransivan Writes]

Thank you so so very much for all your constructive criticisms! I appreciate all of them. I have visited your page too and you work so wonderfully. Thank you for supporting me!