A #SpeakLoudly Poem for National Poetry Day 2010

Tomorrow is National Poetry Day in the UK.

For me, poetry is an important form of creative expression.  My 'adult' poetry is usually written at moments of strong emotion, and I find the act of refining my feelings down and down into their essence to be a cathartic process which helps me to make sense of my life. 

Last week was definitely a week of strong emotion, as I got involved with #SpeakLoudly, and came to terms with my own past.  I wrote the poem below for all the women who contacted me in so many ways after that first post, and trusted me not to betray their confidences.  Please feel free to share it or use it as you wish.  Poetry is something which shouldn't be locked in a box and only let out on special occasions--it's for everyone, every day. And if this one's not for you, then there'll be another somewhere that is--you might even find it hidden inside yourself. Why not have a look?

SINGLE SPIES
They arrived.
One by one.
Falling snowflake-soft into my inbox.
They had been silent so long.
(So had I.)
Their voices
overwhelmed me.
They called me braveheart, lionwoman.
(I only wrote the pain out.
It’s what I do.)
For them,
my ancient anguish
becomes catalyst, comforter.
My rusty voice an emblem
for endurance, survival,
the semantics of hope.
“I want to tell you”
they said. “This happened” (and this and this and this and this).
Among raw words like “guilt” and “shame”,
their broken whispers
fell into my listening silence;
my tears; my healing rage.
In my head
their stories spin and shimmer—
butterfly battalions
seeking the way to sky.