Elaina, a RISE Healthy Housing and Support Services Supported Housing resident, shared a poem she wrote in hopes that it inspires others as much as it did her while writing it.
Stepping Lightly
She steps as lightly as a willow branch
Blowing in a gentle breeze
Wisps of long sun-drenched hair
Barely hiding the pain in her ocean blue eyesShe has seen so much trauma
She has felt so much angst
Physically and emotionally tattered
Live, just disappearing footsteps in the sandFor a moment, she fondly recalls her youth
Oh, to bring back those glorious days
She would gladly pay any price
No fee would be too greatThe path ahead looks foreboding
But she is not afraid
For fear is a pointless emotion
Very much like her own painAlthough she has an awareness
She tends to lose herself in awake dreams
Her mind is a locked, puzzled mystery
To which no human can ever hold a keyTo actually live again would be divine
Yet, she now merely exists for the moment
The frothy, swirling tide rolls slowly in…
She’s just disappearing footsteps in the sandThat’s all any of us truly are
As we wait to be washed away
So, I say, make your imprint deep
Stepping lightly will only leave you forgotten
Elaina has been writing poetry since she was 14. She took advanced literature classes in high school where she learned how to write poems.
Some of her poems were published in a local paper in Vermont where she grew up. In 2013, some of her poems were published in an anthology called Hear Me, See Me: Incarcerated Women Write.
The love of writing poetry has stayed with Elaina throughout her life and she has used it as a coping skill for many years.